26 June 2007

Having a hard time with B3

This third Boomer Sisters book has been harder to write than the first two. I'm sure part of it is that I haven't done any traveling (for work) this month. With the first two, I had long plane trips when I could do some writing (I do a lot of writing at 30,000 feet).

Part of it is that I'm typing it directly in a word processer, instead of spiral notebooks like the first two. That makes it harder to sneak away during lunchtime to do some writing. I'm pretty much limited to the time I have at home in the mornings.

But I think a big part of it is that there is no peril in this book. No underwater adventures, no creepy mind-control books, no flying bicycles... And that lack of peril means it lacks a certain amount of tension. And that makes it harder to write.

I am also starting to suspect this book isn't as good as the second one was. It's too soon to tell, but I think the second one might be better than this will be. That's not necessarily bad, but it's a strange thought.

But the 4th one will be full of tension and peril (it's about pirates). And I think I'm going to write it in a spiral notebook...

(the good news is - I got a new idea for the ending of B3 - and it's very cool!)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Dan - Just an observation here ... June isn't even over yet and you already have 41 blog posts. Compared with your previous monthly average of 26.2 posts, it's a lot. Are you one of those people who gets more done the busier you are? Or are you just in serious writing mode?
--Kim

Dan said...

Yeah, being busy tends to increase the amount of stuff I do for some reason (maybe it makes me finish things so I can move on to the next?)...

Michelle said...

Oh, ditto on getting more done when things are really crazy.

Maybe you're on to something there. Maybe it isn't necessarily peril that you need to add, but maybe you could throw in more conflict if you feel that's lacking. Even just simple problems needing to be solved. There's a saying with adult fiction about when the plot sags, being in a man w/ a gun. Of course, not literally, but the quote was originally by a suspense author I believe. But you get the idea.

Congrats on discovering a cool new ending! Suggestion . . . look into a quickpad (I think mine was about $75, but you can probably find them cheaper on ebay) or an alphasmart. They're as portable as a notebook and they can upload straight to your computer. That was how I got through Nano, before I was ready to spend money on my laptop.

Dan said...

Good ideas, Michelle - thanks! I'll look into the quickpad thing (and we're going to buy a laptop soon), but I'll probably stick with paper for B4. There's just something so cool and stimulating about an actual spiral notebook.

I do admit it's sort of a pain to have to go back and type it all after writing it out by hand... but that really forces me to go over the whole thing word by word.

And I think you're right about tension - I'll have to add some more "man with a gun walks in" bits...

Anonymous said...

Hey Dan,
You might be interested in checking out Kate's writing blog. She wrote about this technique where she laid her book out on the floor and colorcoded different aspects of the plot and looked for visual gaps or color clusters. I can't really explain it well, but if you google her you'll find her site.