Finished, on to edits

I finished writing REPUBLIC last Friday! Woot! It came out to a final 65,000 words, although that may go down or up a little depending on what revisions are needed. And revisions most certainly ARE needed. I already see several areas that need tightening up, and other concepts that need to be fleshed out. But it shouldn't be a word over 70,000 by the end of it all (or less than 60,000).

Now I'm starting the slow, steady process of rereading the book and taking extensive editing notes. I didn't let myself open or read the manuscript at all over the weekend. This should be a good enough distance for me to start reading the book again from the beginning, as if I were a reader picking the book up.

Onward!

The climax

60,000 words in, and I've begun the first of two climax chapters. Then there will be one resolution chapter. And then there will be . . . The End. Whew! I've been at The End several times before with other manuscripts and it never gets old. Few things feel as good as typing "The End" for a manuscript.

Anyway, today's chapter kicks off REPUBLIC's climax. Day (my boy criminal) is in serious, serious trouble. And June (my girl detective agent) finds that her path with Day is suddenly crossed in a way she never expected it to be. Chaos, tears, and agony ensue. A rolling good time. ;)

The book will definitely cap at around 68,000 words. Hoping to finish by the weekend!

REPUBLIC is nearly done

It's been a while since I posted word counts on REPUBLIC, hasn't it?

Well, after a fairly whirlwind 4 months, I'm nearing the end of REPUBLIC, my futuristic steampunk YA. As of today, it sits at 57,000 words (out of probably 70,000). I've hit the final 12,000 words. This means I've exited the Middle of the novel and stepped right into the beginning of the END.

Exciting, but also extremely stressful. I haven't quite figured out how I'll pull off the ending even though I know exactly what I want to have happen. There are a few logistical things that need to be sorted out before it all works. Plus, one of my earlier scenes (a scene about 1,000 words long) needs to be rewritten to fit a better idea I recently had. So there's still a little shuffling work to do.

Still, REPUBLIC is on track to be the fastest novel I've written, as well as the most fun. I know what parts need rewrites, but overall I think it's a fairly clean manuscript and won't require a lot of major overhaul. I can only hope that my agent will like it too. :)

Btw, here's a quick one-liner explaining REPUBLIC's premise--for the curious!

A 15-year old boy criminal vs. a 15-year old girl detective agent, set in a dark future where the United States has split into two warring nations.

Had to vent about this somewhere

I've been holding my breath while following this story, hoping that she would be found alive.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/14/missing.yale.student/index.html

I can't imagine the sorrow and shock Annie's family and fiance must be going through right now. No one deserves to die like this, especially not someone so bright with her entire life ahead of her. I was so sad to read this today.

There are those who don't believe in the death penalty. But in the face of crimes like this one, or like those of the Drew Peterson case, or those against young children....how can one not want a death penalty in the U.S. for the convicted criminals of these cases? If the victims weren't shown mercy, why should their murderers?

Writing from 2 difficult perspectives

I'm about 10,000 words into my current WIP, which is starting to pick up speed in terms of the plot. The thing is, I've started to run into some complexities in how I'm using the voices of my two main protagonists.

Well, technically one of these protagonists is the antagonist. He can be merciless, rude, and quite illegal. But behind that he also has one very key weakness. I've just finished the scene where the other main character has discovered this weakness, and is preparing to use it to her advantage.

But how do you write properly from the point of view of someone who's supposed to be brilliant? It's proving to be quite a daunting challenge. I'm certainly not brilliant. I worry that my two characters (both of whom are witty and intelligent in their own ways) are going to come out sounding slow and stupid (i.e. like me!), missing obvious solutions and creating unnecessary problems for themselves.

One solution to this that seems to be working a little is to get the opinions of several other people. They don't have to be world-class geniuses--all they need to have is an instant opinion about whether or not one of my character's thoughts or ideas is stupid. If I start hearing the same reaction from 2 or more people, I'll know that I have a problem. Another way of asking other people for help is to ask them, "If you were [main protagonist], what would you do or think in this situation?" If I get several responses that are the same, then there's a good chance that that might be the most obvious solution. Even if it isn't, I can at least have a good starting point, and try to expand from there.

It's nice to see what the average reader might assume or presume in a fictional situation. This is one way to make sure I don't stumble into something obvious that will make my readers think I'm an idiot.

(Btw, if you DO have a genius friend....by all means, pick his brains!!)

Progress

Did some substantial plotting on the Secret Book today. It's still not entirely there yet, but I'm pretty happy with what I came up with--every event that happens is connected to the previous actions of the 2 main characters. I'm trying to come up with a decent ending, though. The characters have really dug themselves into a hole about 2/3 of the way through the book.....

Light bulb

I was doing some day-job related work today, not really thinking about anything in particular, when I was struck--blindsided, really--by a very, very cool story idea. At least, I think it's pretty cool. I like it so much that I actually grin when I think about it, and then I feel kind of stupid for grinning.

I'm plotting it out now.

I feel different about this one. I've never had an idea come together so fast and so unexpectedly, and it is such a high. I'm so thrilled and terrified by it, in fact, that I think I'm going to keep this idea to myself and not show it to anyone (ANYONE!) until it's finished. I'm not entirely sure if my agent will like it, as it's quite different from what my first novel is (both in style and in genre, although it's still YA). However, I think it's much more suspenseful, with much more internal and immediate conflict. More commercial. And I can't wait to start writing it.