Thursday, October 20, 2011

Changes

If you've noticed, I've changed the header of this blog. I'm not sure if I'm set on it yet. What do you think? I just thought I better say something, since I don't want anyone to be disoriented coming here and think they've landed someplace else =).

The picture, I think, fits in with the book I'm currently writing. I AM THE SECRET is a Sleeping Beauty sequel. Her life basically shadows the life of Sleeping Beauty's, but I won't tell you how they fit in together. You'll just have to wait and read it when it's published (crosses fingers). But the beginning deals with the fact that, Shannon (my MC), is feeling trapped in her life, living in a cottage in a forest. Like the header says, she is all alone there (other than her caretaker, a really old woman) and can never leave or see anyone. She longs to find out what the world outside is like and at the beginning of the story quickly decides to run away and chance her caretaker's wrath. Little does she know that leaving will cause a chain-reaction of events that puts her life in danger, as well as the ones she (soon meets) loves. There is also another element to this story (or more) that differ from the original telling of Sleeping Beauty. But again, no spoilers!

I'm on the second draft, and hope to have this baby finished by spring and ready to send to agents. (Darn holidays and birthdays keep getting in the way! =)

Here's a thought, something that's been on my mind--have you noticed that books that have a more literary feeling have less than stellar plots, and stories with killer plots are very stark in their prose? You could even bunch in comedy/witty tales with the literary. It seems to me that writers often pay attention to a certain aspect of the craft and fail to recognize the rest. This is something I hope to remember as I revise.

How about you? Do you have an area in your writing that you want to improve on? What do you do to solve that issue?

5 comments:

Heather said...

I love it, it's beautiful! And the story sounds great too. I'm currently working on improving my character development by writing short stories from different characters POV.

Heather Day Gilbert said...

That's a very interesting theory about the spare prose and the killer plots...

It's funny--I used to write poetry, full of rich details. Now, when I write novels, I focus on the characters and plot (in that order!). I find that I still hit SOME of those rich details, but not nearly as many as I'd like. So that's something I've been working on w/my critique group. I don't want to over-detail things, but don't want to be so sparing that you don't know what the people look like.

However, I think good books DO tend to focus less on how people look and more on what motivates them. For instance, we know Bella Swan is pale with dark hair, but I don't know if she has freckles/moles, etc. I think this makes it easier for our imagination to fill in the blanks (and the movies, if we get so lucky w/our books someday!)

Good post!

Kathryn Packer Roberts said...

That's funny. Two Heathers. I thought it was the same person. Thank goodness for profile pics =). Thanks for your comments ladies. And I agree, writing short stories can help. I just wrote one and submitted it to NPR's short story contest. I learned a lot just by doing that alone. It was a great experience.

And to Heather #2, yes, I think you can go overboard with descriptions, definitely, but sometimes I like a few really great chosen words here and there on top of the basic, straight forwardness.

Shallee said...

I think the header is gorgeous. :)

I've noticed that about literary/plot-driven books too. I love when I find a book that can do both, but it doesn't happen as often as I'd like. It's something I'm trying to be purposeful about in my current WIP-- having both.

David P. King said...

That is a stunning header! Makes me want to pick it up and crack through some pages, if that were your cover, that is.

Best of luck to your polishing! :)