Content Readers

Well...it has been six days since my last post and I conned...ahem...invited three content readers to read through Amelia Rider and give feedback.

All three read the same version over the last six days. As they all shared the same notebook, I've learned it is a very quick read.

Two have completely finished and the third read most of it in a day and took the last few chapters home with her. She is under strict orders to shred and burn them when she is done. (I never let copies of my babies out of my sight - except for grandparents. They are the only people that I will ever just give a flawed copy to for keeps. I know what you are thinking, some gift, right? Whatever. If they ask, I give.)

Anyway back to my content readers. They read, they gave feedback, and now I will comb through it again and will con...ahem...invite a few more readers to read through it and help me massage the story.

If you are local and interested in helping me, please let me know. I could really use more feedback. Thanks!

Mourning Period

Truthfully I had forgotten this period of the writing process that I am in right now. I am talking about the time just after I've read and edited a first draft and before I work through it again a few weeks or months later.

I spend a large section of my time working my way, word by word, to the end of my story. Once I get there I experience a short feeling a wild elation, where all my happiness bursts out and I see the beauty in the world all around me. But, after the mad rush of creativity - after the many weeks spent building a world and a variety of people to inhabit that place - there is a bit of a letdown at the end.

I am currently in mourning. It's sad to think that I won't write any more scenes for Amelia, that I won't encounter Finley and his arrogant charm again, or that I won't visit any more sites in Italy with Edward.

Don't worry I don't plan to throw on a black dress and veil but I thought I might journal this time period so that hopefully next time I finish a novel, I will remember this stage and I will be more prepared for it when I arrive at it.

Edited Draft

Over the last 8 days I have taken
Amelia Rider, the first unedited draft
to
Amelia Rider, the first edited draft.

This means that I finally got to read through my story for the first time and I edited it along the way.

My total word count now stands at 73,535 words.

I added a net total of 3,491 words and 6 extra pages.

My first take on reading through it:

Not bad, if I do say so myself.

Amelia Rider is a modern adaptation of The Mysteries of Udolpho, sans the mysteries. There are many reasons why I stripped the story of the mystery story lines but those reasons are not important here. Suffice to say that I did it and Amelia Rider took on a new life of her own, while running a parallel course to Emily St. Aubert of The Mysteries of Udolpho.

That being said, after I stripped the story of the mysteries I was left with a story that was happier and brighter than it ought to have been. The Mysteries of Udolpho (if you can get past the fainting and hysterics of the women) is inherently a dark and complicated tale and I wanted to keep that feel.

I also wanted to do right by Montoni's character, recast in my story as Victor. We are told that Montoni had always planned to keep Emily St. Aubert captive but his interaction with her was...confusing. I said before in another post that he was sort of asexual toward her and it made no sense. He had already gotten her to sign over her properties. He had already degraded her character and place in life at the castle. Why would he keep her around forever? To shine his shoes? I don't think so. If he had already broken so many boundaries of decency with her and he was planning to hold onto her forever then what was his motivation to show any further restraint? What did he get out the deal? Ann Radcliffe left this deliberately untouched...and she did write it in the late eighteenth century so I can't blame her for not spelling it out.

But, in my version, I wanted to address Montoni's desires and how he views the heroine. And because I decided to write the adaptation as more of a realistic view, showing the real dangers that the heroine is in rather than having her faint over her real and imagined fears, it allowed me to add a lot of darkness back into the story through her interaction with Victor and Finley, two deliciously evil characters that are both combinations of all the bad guys in the original story.

So the point of all this explanation is that this is a very dark story with adult topics. It has the most dark scenes by far of any story I've ever written. And even through editing I kept most of the original content, only softening a few phrases that I felt were a little too explicit for my hand to have typed. However, in short, I wouldn't let my teenage daughter read this.

So I guess it's a good thing I don't have one.

Next step is to print it out and see if anyone else can read through the story and form an opinion.

Maybe I will take a page from Victor and hold someone captive in my fortress until they have gotten through the draft and given me their opinion. What's that, you say? I'm not supposed to learn from the evil character in the story? Oh shoot. Alright, plan b. I will try to find a content reader the hard way.

First Draft - Amelia Rider

And Scene!

By my count the process so far has taken
43 days.

I wrote a total of
70, 044 words

in the space of
183 single space pages.

I just finished the first draft and will begin the editing process soon.

You may notice that I estimated the project would come in somewhere between 80,000 and 120,000 words. My 70,000 words is just shy of my lowest projection. Once I entered the third section I realized I had a Jane Eyre conundrum on my hands and I did some reordering of the outline.

Let me explain:

If you ever read Jane Eyre most likely you remember the red room, the school, and Mr. Rochester with ease. But then someone mentions St. John Rivers and most people complain and say, "I just wanted to get back to Mr. Rochester!"

Now, for my own part, I love the Rivers section of Jane Eyre. I think the whole section is necessary and pitch perfect.

I had planned the end of Amelia Rider to include a Rivers type section but once I had written it up to the start of that section I realized that I had a fine line to walk between pitch perfect and achingly dreary and so I combined several scenes together in order to not spend more time on her recovery that was required by the story. So instead of showing the whole process of her rebirth I show a few scenes and allude to others.

This change altered the number of chapters I had to write to reach my delicious conclusion so the total number of words came in less than what I had originally planned. Will it work? I have no idea. But I am anxious to read all the way through my story for the first time to see if it's any good.

I added about 15,000 words in just five days this week (two of which I did hardly any writing at all). This incredible progress would not have been possible without the unprecedented support of my husband as I went on my tremendous adventure with Amelia. He took the last two days off work to attend to our children so I could focus on my project. To top it off he brought me a bouquet of flowers tonight just because. I should add the fact that part Italians don't come off particularly well in this story (which is only partly Mrs. Radcliffe's fault) and I feel doubly blessed to be married to this part Italian man who lets me enjoy my hobby.

After all this support, I'm beginning to think he expects me to dedicate something to him.

So consider it done. When I've edited my story and am ready to put in on the shelf with the others, I will add a little dedication page to my loving and supportive husband.

It's been a great ride and I appreciate it!

Week Five Update

38 days
+ Countless Hours
+ Incredible Imagination (at least I think so)
+ A Very Understanding Husband
+ Great Source Material
+ the Brilliant Duke Special
+ The Internet =

55,665 Words
(or 144 single-space pages)

I'm roughly 2/3 of the way done and if you are looking at my musical summary on my blog I am almost to "Goodbye". I am just at the start of the twenty-ninth chapter and I am about to torture my heroine to within an inch of her life before I let her and Donovan escape.

I cannot wait.

End of Month Update

One Month: 41,541 words (107 single-space pages)

I started posting my word progress because I thought it would be interesting to keep track of how fast I wrote. This was spurred by the suggestion of Elizabeth, a fellow practicing writer, that I try nanowrimo. I scoffed at the idea of writing a whole novel in one month. I'm pretty sure I tossed out the word insane. However, nanowrimo considers 50,000 words to be an average novel length. So even though I will probably hit about 100,000 words for my adaptation, 41,000 words is not too far off of a normal project length. I may have to swallow my words on this one. Insane may equal doable. Nanowrimo is typically done in November so if anyone wants to test their own writing mettle now would be the time to start.

Today, I thought I would also talk about why I write. I never sat down and said, "I would like to be a writer." In fact, I avoided writing in general. But writing papers for school and creative writing for fun are completely different beasts. However, that lesson is not the point. Back to the point.

I write because I am compelled to write. What is the difference between desperately wanting to be a writer and being compelled to write, you ask?

Let me illustrate the point.

Imagine that you are sitting across from a small child and that small child has somehow gotten a giant ketchup blob on their nose. You could sit there all day hoping the ketchup blob will disappear on its own or take care of itself, if you will. But how often does that happen?

More often than not you would just grab a napkin and clear off the ketchup blob rather than waiting for the small child to notice, or worse, for that ketchup blob to end up somewhere other than the nose.

This errant ketchup blob describes my relationship with writing. It is far easier for me to submit to writing than to ignore the stories in my head. I don't sit around scrambling for something to write but rather I write to clear my head of all the chaos; characters running here and there, simple plot points twisting into full story lines. If I don't write then the chaos becomes too loud for me to sleep at night. And I really, really like sleep.

So, like the runner who must run or the eater who must try every goodie in sight, I write because I must. Enjoying the process is just a nice side effect.

I am compelled to write and I have very little say in the matter. I simply respond to the call by focusing the ideas and putting them down. However, don't think I am complaining. I am very grateful that I feel compelled to write for it is a wonderful way to indulge in a creative world.

Off to the next 50,000 words or so!