meiloslyther

I walked right out the fire

Goal 1) Revise BM&A3

My Goal: Finish one lesson every two weeks (roughly)
Where I planned to be: Lesson 8, 2.5 parts complete
Where I am: Lesson 8, 1.5 parts complete
On Target or Behind: Behind

How’s It Going:
Last week was rough. But we will persevere.

For those paying attention, you may be wondering what happened to Lesson 7. If you’ve been here long enough, you may remember my reoccurring issues with Lesson 7. I decided it wasn’t worth it for this one to even attempt it, so I’m just skipping it.

I read the news today, oh boy

Today I learned that the amazing, wonderful author and my writing mentor, Holly Lisle, passed away back in August.

Holly is the reason my books are published. Every class of hers I’ve taken (almost all of them), every scrap of wisdom and experience she provided on her site and the forums, and even a one-on-one video call with her to discuss some ideas I had–all of it has led me to where I am today. To say I wouldn’t be a published author without her is such a massive understatement, it’s almost funny.

She will be sorely missed, but will live on through us, the many students and fellow authors she touched throughout her life.

Finding nothing but questions and devils

Goal 1) Revise BM&A3

My Goal: Finish one lesson every two weeks (roughly)
Where I planned to be: Lesson 6, complete
Where I am: Lesson 6, complete
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Ah, the good ol’ character sharpener lesson. Once again, I prove to be very tight with my cast and don’t tend to let just anyone waltz onto my stage without a good reason. I do have two—count ’em, TWO—unnamed characters that can probably either be recast with another existing character or written out, but that’s the easy part. What will be a little bit harder is making sure the introduction of each of my new characters is what it needs to be.

But figuring out how to do that comes later. Onward.

Gave up who I am for who you wanted me to be

Goal 1) Revise BM&A3

My Goal: Finish one lesson every two weeks (roughly)
Where I planned to be: Lesson 5, complete
Where I am: Lesson 5, complete
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Welp, this lesson has definitely highlighted some issues that I didn’t know were there, so there’s that. Trying not to think too much into how to fix them because that’s not where I’m at yet in this process, but I don’t think it’ll be difficult for most of them. I’ve even had a few ideas on how to improve parts that are already pretty good too.

On to the next!

Explorations in narrative density

Goal 1) Revise BM&A3

My Goal: Finish one lesson every two weeks (roughly)
Where I planned to be: Lesson 5, 32 scenes in
Where I am: Lesson 5, 33 scenes in
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
It occurred to me a while ago to deconstruct some of the episodes of cartoons I watch (I’m addicted to Adult Swim, sue me) to explore plotting and narrative density. Why a TV show and not a book? Because I’m literally already ripping a book apart, number one, and it’s exhausting. Two, I’ve seen these episodes several times and I’m familiar with them, but even if I wasn’t, I could easily refresh my memory in less than thirty minutes. And three, I enjoy them on their own, so poking them with a stick is also entertaining to me.

How am I doing this, then? First, I’m taking everything I’ve learned from Holly Lisle’s classes to separate the episode into scenes, represented by a single sentence of thirty words or less. Then I’ll map those sentences to Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! method.

…I have no idea what I’m gonna do after that or what exactly I’ll accomplish by doing it, but I guess I’ll find out.