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Writing Ray - Endings why you so tricky?

 Saturday 15 March 2014

Good evening my lovelies, since I've not posted for a wee amount of time I thought I'd write something for you now. I finally finished the big reveal scene from my book today which I swear has taken me two weeks to get out (this past week has been rather emosh and stressy at work). Now I have that scene down I can start to bring the various plot threads I have together and get everything to a satisfactory end before I jump back to the beginning and write until everything meets up again.

But I have to figure out how I want to end the story, before I've actually written how it starts, I mean of course I can go back and rewrite it later once I've got everything straight in my head but I want to try and get it as right as I can on this first draft to save serious brain mashing further down the road.

Where to take it though? Do I go for a more action-y high energy climax or a more emotional ending with enough menace to carry over into the second book (there definitely will need to be one as this shit ain't getting resolved in one book)? There are several things I know need to happen but there are other bits that could happen that might have drastically different consequences for my characters.

There is also the question of do I go for a dramatic character death? If so who is on the list for the chop? Should it be a noble death or downright unfair? These are the questions I am faced with right now. Hilariously when I mentioned that someone might die to my ever-trusty Twinnie and Beta Jess, she thought of the exact same character which says something about my evil authorly intent that she's picked up from what she's read of my story so far :P

So I have some serious outlining to do and possibly about 15K of writing to get done before April starts so I can crack on with the beginning during CampNano.

Ack Endings are gonna be tricky as hell.

Word Count as of earlier - 38,567 :O

Nighty-night chaps
Ray

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Writing Ray - Hint of a Prologue and Camp Nano!

 Thursday 6 March 2014

Howdy there chaps!
Hope y'all are having an excellent Thursday (I strangely find them much preferable to Tuesdays, I hate Tuesdays with a vehemence known only to Sam Winchester :P)

For today's post in the Writing Ray series, I thought I'd give you lovelies a wee hint of the Prologue from my book/novel/story whatever the hell I call it. It's the only thing I have from the first third of the story so far so it may be a while until anyone other than the Privileged One *winks* gets to read anything else from it.

But never fear because hopefully I shall be remedying this lack of beginning during April when I attempt Camp Nano which is the off-season version of Nanowrimo which is in November (Ye olde readers of this blog will perhaps recall the fatal Nano attempt of 2010). Camp Nano is different in that you get to set your own word count so it's less pressurised if that's what you need.
I'm aiming to write 25,000 words on my Current novel and more specifically write the first 25K of the story since all my scenes so far have been for later on in the book.
So come closer to April I shall post a bit more about that maybe....

Anyways now for the exciting bit (or so I hope it will be for y'all). Here for your enjoyment and if constructive, your writing critique. Here is a chunk of the Prologue from my novel which has been vair tentatively titled Fire Will Tell (it'll probably change unless I get attached).

The Citadel was under siege and the King with fire in his hair stood looking out over his city with fear in his heart. In his arms lay his newborn daughter, a mere wisp of copper visible on the crown of her head. All this ruin for one little Princess.
King Keelan sighed; it had been futile to hope that the darkest day of his reign would not be today. Barely a year under his rule and his brother's lust for power had overwhelmed his sense. Isaiah was going to sacrifice everything for a chance to be King.
A door flew open behind him. The dishevelled Baron Deryn had arrived, bloodied sword in hand. Keelan's boyhood friend was pale and shaking.
"Majesty there are Amberford soldiers making their way to this wing!" he panted. "I had to cut my way through a squad to get here ahead of them. We must leave immediately!"
"Deryn, do you know why Isaiah has declared his intention to take the throne? Why now in particular?" Keelan turned away from the disheartening sight out the window to face the younger man, cradling his daughter close against his chest.
"She is the reason," he held out the swaddled infant. "My daughter. Isaiah believes that because my wife bore a girl under a red star, the Gods have deemed my line unfit to rule. He is rending this city apart because he has been swayed by the fanatical ravings of the Duke of Amberford."
Deryn stared at his King "Kelvan is mad with grief for his wife. He would sacrifice his own newborn son if the Gods would return Elenora to him. I fear for the boy's safety while his father is in such wrathful humours." Retrieving a handkerchief from his pocket, Deryn began cleaning off his blade.
Nodding sadly Keelan approached his friend. "This I know, and it is why I must ask too much of you. Kelvan's rage has spurred my brother into treason and I fear that he may sacrifice the Princess to strengthen his cause. You must take her now and keep her safe. The passages between the walls lead down and out in the Temple Quarter, follow the signs of the star and it will bring you to the Mother's Temple."
Confusion flickered on the Baron's face as the King handed him his only child. "Are you not coming with me through the tunnels Keelan?" Opening his jerkin he carefully tucked the child inside before buttoning it back up. His swordbelt would stop her from slipping down.
"I cannot flee, if Isaiah wants my crown he will have to wrest it from my dead hands. I can also prevent anyone from following you. Now go Deryn, keep my daughter safe. A day will come when she will be a guiding star for the realm. She will be their hope. Gods blessings go with you both."
Keelan held out his arm, Deryn reached to clasp forearms with his oldest friend for what was to be the last time they met in this life. Clear blue eyes met sombre brown ones. Though only three years separated them in age, at that moment Deryn could see decades of wisdom shining from the youthful King.
"May the Gods forgive me, I will do everything in my power to protect her Majesty," saluting he turned and made for the open panel in the wall behind the King's desk.
Readying his own sword Keelan cast a look towards the main door as the heavy footfalls of soldiers in armour approached. His fate was soon to be decided, that of his heir was not out of his hands.
He called out one last time to his friend, "Deryn? If you see Emelyne, tell her I love her always and that I have entrusted our Star to you."
The Baron nodded grimly and closed the secret door behind. Now it was just several miles of narrow passages between him and safety. He needed a plan to avoid getting killed once he got out of the Citadel.

Lifting a torch from a bracket on the dusty wall Deryn began to run, his other arm acting as a shield against knocks to the sleeping infant now in his care. Soft tufts of copper hair peeked out from inside her swaddling clothes. This was all too much responsibility for one man to bear.

*Keeps eyes closed* There... half of the Prologue... argh.
What you guys think? Anything? Nothing? *flies away*

Laters
Ray

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What *did* I read in February?

 Saturday 1 March 2014

You know it's possibly the first time I've got the end of a month and really cannot recall if I read any books. I spend so much of the time that I would normally spend reading, on writing my book right now that it's murdering my reading totals.

On the face of it this February has not been my worst *ever* reading month, I'm pretty sure that there has been a month where I only read 5 books - I'm right it was November 2012. In the past 28 days I have read 6 books and as won't be surprising to most people who know me, half of those were re-reads :P

I re-read the first two books of Marissa Meyer's fantabulous Lunar Chronicles; Cinder and Scarlet before I devoured Cress in a few hours. I already am a big fan of Fairy Tale retellings and the fact that this series is just that but with a SCI-FI TWIST makes it even more awesome. I love all of Marissa's characters, except the Lunar queen obvs (what a cow) and Cress is so adorable with Thorn that I feel like some kind of bloody Admiral with all the ships I have got sailing (Damn Marissa you got some 'splaining do the Wolf/Scarlet front).

After my sojourn to New Beijing I took a much needed trip back to see how Juliette and Warner were getting on in Ignite Me. *pours bucket of icy water over self*

DAMN IT ALL TAHEREH ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?! Cos you bloody well succeeded. Your whole series had me sitting there grinning like a fool and squealing with delight. I have never in ALL MY LIFE had a complete reversal of feelings towards a character as I had with Warner. That sexy, adorable bastard. The intensity of his scenes with Juliette were enough to set me and the house alight and it was all I could do to sit there reading with a straight face (Tumblr is good training for that shit). The Shatter Me series is going to become a staple re-read for me every year methinks and until Tahereh writes something new I'll be pining away for her lusciously beautiful writing.

I also read Unite Me, which was the gawjuss bind-up of Destroy Me and Fracture Me by the aforementioned Goddess. As you might expect my fav of the two by a country mile was Destroy Me because WARNER POV! *flails* I could easily read the entire series through his eyes and rather hope Tahereh might do more novellas in his POV *bats eyelashes* PRETTY PLEASE? Is it really wrong of me that the main upside to Fracture Me was that I get to see Kenji? Julienji is now a particular BroTP for me.

Finally I re-read Fangirl by the current Queen of Contemp Rainbow Rowell. I read the e-book last year while I was supposed to be doing my final prep for my Spanish speaking test and since I passed I have no regrets about doing it. I recently bought the amazingly designed paperback and HOLY BALLS THE ARTWORK GUYS! Seriously this is why I love having physical copies of books because there is just no comparison to having the awesome colour illustrations of Cath, Levi and the gang inside the front and back covers while you're merrily reading away.

So to sum up my February reading went as follows
Cinder by Marissa Meyer *RE-READ* 4.5 Stars
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer *RE-READ* 4.5 Stars
Cress by Marissa Meyer 4.5 Stars
Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi 5 Stars
Unite Me by Tahereh Mafi 4.5 Stars (Most of that for Destroy Me)
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell *RE-READ* 4.5 Stars

Overall a pretty good month, both in terms of reading and writing. If you don't follow my twitter then you may not have seen that I passed 32K on my 2014 Writing Project *confetti* I'll be doing another post for my "Writing Ray" blog series in which I may vair well give you a look at the Prologue to the as-yet unnamed book. Due to my weird writing style in which I'm doing from about half-way until the end first and then going back to write to the middle, the only unspoilery bit I have that I can show y'all is the Prologue.

Hope everyone is having a Good Saturday
Til I post again
Ray

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