applepie

I've had some interesting thoughts on writing lately. I'm working two stories that are very different, and it is opening my eyes to things that I find important. But first, an update on stories:)

For those of you who have been following King, Queens, and Pawns... I've been working through edits to see what I need to do with the story. I can't just ramble on aimlessly, and I've many more chapters than I should for where I am in the story line. Some of it has to do with the way I think of my stories. I view them almost like a movie in my head. Each chapter is where one scene ends and another begins. Sometimes there are only moments between the scenes, and other times hours and days pass. I'm trying to consolidate those sections that are in proximity to one another in time. I'm trying to smooth the flow of the story, and I'm also working to remove some kinks that I've written myself into. It isn't a romance novel, but at the moment it reads like one to me. I'm just waiting for Allaick and Arabella to hop in the sack together, and that isn't where I'm going at all. It is a love story, and it will be on a couple of fronts, but it will not be a true romance novel. No chapter long sex scenes and such. I think it is very possible to still have romantic tension and development without resorting to writing a formula romance. Not that I don't enjoy them myself every now and then, but it isn't what I want to write. While it is a love story, there is also another underlying theme that I wish to bring out as well. I know where I'm going, but I have to go through and correct some of the more careless things I've written first. Most of the tweaking is a change in a sentence here, or adding definition to the change in view points. I did have it pointed out that while my writing skips through the view points of the many different character, I give no warning to the reader. If you do not read or think as I do, I guess it could become problematic. So, one thing and another, that is where I'm at on that story. I'm almost finished, and I hope to begin writing on it again soon.

The other story is The Immortal Ferryman. I gave just a snippet of that story here. It is still in the planning and frameworking stages. I'm doing considerable research since it will be very focused around crimes and crime scenes. I don't know about anyone else, but I hate nothing more than reading a story where the author has completly made up procedures and such. So, I'm doing my homework, and while it is still a futuristic, paranormal, crime fiction there will be very legitimate bits of information. There is also a bit of mythology mixed in, so I'll be curious to see what everyone thinks.

Now to my pearly bits of wisdom... well, maybe not wisdom, but it is at least what I'm learning from my own experience:D Fantasy and paranormal type stories are an interesting thing to write. I tend to think that people are drawn to fantasy because they feel that they can just make up any thing they would like and put it in a book. That is possible, but you must have the skill of someone like Tolken to truly BUILD a world for the reader. Then there are those people who follow some of the rules that we are familiar with in the world, but they just fabricate anything that they don't have knowledge over or don't feel is important. Then there are those people like me. I'm putting research into not one, but both stories. Kings, Queens, and Pawns not as much, but the bit of binary stars and some of the other information on space is ver correct. The Immortal Ferryman is a whole different thing. I'm researching many different things, and it is more like a fantastical story built around the framework of real information. The character isn't real, but the way things are handled at the crime scenes will be very accurate. An interesting thing I've discovered, I'm assuming that everyone knows of the TV show CSI. Well there is no such thing as a CSI, or crime scene investigator, like what is found in the show. The real system is much more simple or complex depending on location. Some cities have outside labs, but others have detectives assigned to processing the scene. To portray the scene accuratly has become very important, and I'm intending to discover what system of organization is followed in the setting city. Those details are what make a story stand out from the others, and they are what will hopefully make the story seem more real to the reader.

I'm off for now. I know this was long, but I had to toss those rambling thought out there.

Much Love,
Meg