Chapter 10
I finished Chapter 10 this morning. It was a Bran chapter, the first of several in a row I will write, and oh boy... is he in a mess now. Chapter 10 was a very fun chapter to write, as it allowed me to discuss some of the back history of the series and why Bran should even care at all about his situation. Plus, this is the first chapter where I felt like I had a firm grasp on the dialogue for the two characters in the chapter, and that is a comforting feeling for someone who has a hard time with that aspect of storytelling.
I've already outlined most of Chapter 11. And Chapter 12 is fully outlined and won't take long to write. I plan on having these two chapters finished within a week. Then I'll be at the halfway point and every chapter I finish thereafter will feel great as there will be less in front of me than what came before.
The word count as it stands right now is:
Prologue: 3045
Chapter 1: 4075
Chapter 2: 2973
Chapter 3: 3241
Chapter 4: 4144
Chapter 5: 4547
Chapter 6: 2793
Chapter 7: 3598
Chapter 8: 4939
Chapter 9: 4257
Interlude: 2372
Chapter 10: 3346
Chapter 11 will be of a similar size to that of 10, perhaps a bit smaller. Chapter 12 should be a bit more than Chapter 10. We'll see. By now, all aspects of the Celtic mythology I am bringing into this story are rearing their nasty little heads and hopefully all of the mythology, British history, and Arthurian legend will intrigue people by this point in the book. Those first 10 chapters were the massive set up not only for this book but for those to come after it; I only hope I've done a good job of building that foundation.
Plus I plan on writing a few posts here that don't relate to my book but about the industry and some of the things I get to do on the side. I've had a few people write me wishing I'd spend more time writing about what it's like being a webmaster for Terry Brooks or getting to know some of these writers I get to meet. Might be fun to talk about that too for a while.
Anyway, I plan on reading your work Aidan sometime this weekend. I'll definitely get to it once The Signed Page has settled down a bit. Lots going on and so little time to do it! But as many of you notice, I keep writing despite life intruding; I think that is an important lesson for all of us to take on. Write when you can, even if it is for only 15 minutes. It never hurts to placate that beast inside your head called The Story!
I've already outlined most of Chapter 11. And Chapter 12 is fully outlined and won't take long to write. I plan on having these two chapters finished within a week. Then I'll be at the halfway point and every chapter I finish thereafter will feel great as there will be less in front of me than what came before.
The word count as it stands right now is:
Prologue: 3045
Chapter 1: 4075
Chapter 2: 2973
Chapter 3: 3241
Chapter 4: 4144
Chapter 5: 4547
Chapter 6: 2793
Chapter 7: 3598
Chapter 8: 4939
Chapter 9: 4257
Interlude: 2372
Chapter 10: 3346
Chapter 11 will be of a similar size to that of 10, perhaps a bit smaller. Chapter 12 should be a bit more than Chapter 10. We'll see. By now, all aspects of the Celtic mythology I am bringing into this story are rearing their nasty little heads and hopefully all of the mythology, British history, and Arthurian legend will intrigue people by this point in the book. Those first 10 chapters were the massive set up not only for this book but for those to come after it; I only hope I've done a good job of building that foundation.
Plus I plan on writing a few posts here that don't relate to my book but about the industry and some of the things I get to do on the side. I've had a few people write me wishing I'd spend more time writing about what it's like being a webmaster for Terry Brooks or getting to know some of these writers I get to meet. Might be fun to talk about that too for a while.
Anyway, I plan on reading your work Aidan sometime this weekend. I'll definitely get to it once The Signed Page has settled down a bit. Lots going on and so little time to do it! But as many of you notice, I keep writing despite life intruding; I think that is an important lesson for all of us to take on. Write when you can, even if it is for only 15 minutes. It never hurts to placate that beast inside your head called The Story!
Labels: The Dagda King
posted by Shawn C. Speakman | 10:10 AM
2 Comments:
Dialogue is something that I think every writer struggles with a bit. It's hard to make it sound natural while still making sure it's perfect. A lot of the time human speech isn't perfectly crafted, but an author's main instinct is to hone every word in their novel. It's a catch-22, for sure.
Dialogue is also such an important and effective way to move a story forward that it needs to be the strongest part of a novel, in my opinion, and that puts even more pressure on the writer. When working on dialogue scenes in Through Bended Grass I try to lay out the general direction I want the scene to take and then just slip into a stream-of-concsiousness conversation with myself as I write the dialogue.
Hell, this is something I could talk about for a while, maybe it's worth a post over on the blog.
Can't wait to hear what you think of the excerpt, Shawn. The initial reaction over at Mightier than the Sword has been good, but I'm always eager to hear as much constructive criticism as possible!
Good luck with everything,
~Aidan
Mightier than the Sword
Aidan: I've started doing closer to how you do it. I think about the chapter in advance to know what lines of knowledge have to be in the chapter to move the story forward, and then I just start writing the chapter and seeing where the conversation takes me. Sometimes I am a bit surprised, but it definitely feels more natural writing dialogue now than it did with Fell Hammer.
If there is one thing Pat Rothfuss taught me after he read the first 1/3 of my book, it was that dialogue is your most powerful ally in disseminating a story.
Post a Comment
<< Home