Dan Wells on Story Structure, part 5 of 5

Here it is Part 5 of the 5 part series on Story Structure by Dan Wells. I hope it was helpfull.

Dan Wells on Story Structure, part 4 of 5

Here is Part 4 of 5 in the Dan Wells series on Story Structure. Listen closely to the segmant on Try/Fail Cycle. I thought this was worth remembering.

Dan Wells on Story Structure, part 3 of 5

Sorry I am so far behind on posting  Dan Wells videos on Story Structure. It is the season for writer distraction, you know. What with shopping and traffic.

Dan Wells on Story Structure, part 2 of 5

Here is Part 2 of Dan Wells class on Story Structure. I will post Part 3 tonight and Parts 4 and 5 tomorrow. Hope they are as helpfull to you as they are for me.

Dan Wells on Story Structure, part 1 of 5

I just found this video on another blog and thought I would share it. There are 5 parts so I will post one a night.

As for my revision process that started yesterday...I am currently reading my novel. In every chapter, page, paragraph and sentence I see REVISION. But that is good. At least I'm seeing things that need to be fixed/deleted. I would rather have this then being so in love with every word I wrote that I couldn't delete, remove or rewrite any of it. I will continue reading my novel, taking notes along the way, and next week I will start to work on Chapter 1. Here I am going to spend the most time. When I first started this novel I wrote in the 1rst person then switched over to 3 person. Now I have to change the beginning. I am hoping it doesn't become a big ordeal.

As for the vlog - I had a problem downloading the video. Spent half the day on Sunday. I will try again later in the week.

Revising NaNoWriMo novel

As I said in my previous blog entry I have completed NaNoWriMo 2012 and now have a “novel in the rough”. I say rough because it needs a lot of work (revising). I have decided at the insistence of my lovely wife to use the NaNoWriMo principle to my revising and put a 30 day deadline on completing the first revised draft. So starting Monday, December 10, 2012 I start and must be finished on January 7, 2013. I have enlisted the aid of my daughter and wife to read my rough draft and give me feedback on structure, story line, plot, character development, ect. Not on grammar and punctuation. That can come later. I trust their instinct and judgment when it comes to this. Also, as well as posting on this blog once or twice a week on the progress I am making on the first revision I will be posting a video blog as well. My blogs will be Tuesdays/Thursdays and my Vlog , as I am told it is called, will be posted on Sunday night or Monday. I will play this by ear and see how it goes. So here is my first introductory blog about my NaNoWriMo revision process; because you know it is Thursday.

Now that I am a NaNoWriMo Winner - Now What

NaNoWriMo 2012 is over. It officially ended November 30 at midnight. What a relief. 30 days of grinding out 50,000 words to create a novel. Not just 50,000 meaningless words, but 50,000 words that had substance and formed some kind of story that needed to be told, by you. Now, it’s not pretty…there are a lot of mistakes. Remember, this was 50,000 words in 30 days and I drove to Minnesota with my wife and son for the Thanksgiving Holiday. That’s right – drove. So I lost a lot of writing time that week. By the way, my daughter did NaNoWriMo also this year so she lost a lot of writing time that week entertaining us. What I am trying to say is there is a lot of cleaning or shall I say revising to do; grammar, punctuation, sentence structure and deleting. I read an article that says the first thing to do in the revision process is to: 1. Write your one-sentence elevator pitch. 2. Write your one-paragraph book jacket blurp, then 3. Print out and reread your book When I looked at the first 3 things to do I was overcome with fear. This on the surface seems harder to me than writing 50,000 words from scratch. I have to be honest, I haven’t tried yet. But I will tomorrow. It may not be that hard at all and I may be overreacting. If anyone has done this and has any helpful tips please pass them on. I am all ears. Or rather all eyes. I will let you know tomorrow how it goes with the first 2 steps.

NaNoWriMo 2012 Winner

It is over and I did it. I completed NaNoWriMo 2012. Here is a picture of my novel in the first revision print and my Certification. Now I hear that revision is the most difficult part of the process. Well, I am going to find out real soon. I am going to take it 1 step at a time. The way I see it is I have one year to get it polished before NaNoWriMo 2013 and I have to start on the sequel. This has been one heck of a journey and I have enjoyed every minute.