My Writing Gets A Crash

So, I'm running hot with my words, knocking down a page nearly everyday when out of the blue- the laptop crashes! Life, huh? It's happened a lot actually. We've had so many problems with our computer. But, darn it, right when I was in the middle of my draft. Sheesh.

I was currently in chapter 6 and I was having so much fun. But now that the laptop has been sent for repairs, my beloved chapter is in danger of getting erased or deleted. Thankfully, my other five chapters have been backed up on my pen drive and my g-mail account. But I hadn't backed up Ch 6 yet.

So then I had two options- Wait until the laptop is fixed, then continue (and in the meanwhile do nothing but sit on your lazy butt). Or I can continue Ch 6 using my dad's laptop from where I remembered I  had left off.

I would be uttering a darn lie if I said that the option 1 didn't appeal to me. It would indeed take a while for the laptop to get fixed. And God knows there's a procrastinator in every writer (and everybody else, I guess). But I really didn't want to break my pace. I took one day off already with the excuse of the laptop crash.

But I also really didn't feel like doing half of a chapter with the danger of the other half getting erased. It just didn't seem like it was worth it.

So I created option 3 and have decided to go with it: Start and complete next chapter. If laptop is fixed by then (and it should) complete (or redo) Ch. 6.

Still a shame, really. I was excited about Ch. 6. Oh well.

22,000 and running hot!

I recently made two simple goals to spur me on in my writing.

1 Write one page five days a week.
2. Complete one chapter every two weeks.

It doesn't sound that hard. But I think it's working. Just last week I finished ch. 5 of my first draft with some feeling of satisfaction. I'm on chapter 6 now and I've been knocking around 400 words a day. I'm sure by the end of next week I'll be done this chapter too.

And for anyone interested. I have a total of 22,000 words. 22, 890 words to be exact.


So I just posted this to assure my audience (or whoever is reading this) that I don't just talk about writing.

 I write too.

Demons, Prisons and Imaginary Friends: Children's Horror Indeed!

Guess who's back? Yup, my exams went kaput! Freedom is mine! Please excuse me while I laugh maniacally.(Ten minutes later) Right, I'm done. So now that my exams are over, it's time to kick back and boot up my novel and my blog. It has been a long time. 

So anyways, a long time ago on the forum of the online writer's group, Critique Circle, someone asked about Children's and YA horror. Now I'm not much of a fan of horror movies and stuff like that (too much gore for my liking). And the only horror stories I've read were Goosebumps which I had begun to come off since I started getting older. But hello, what's this? Someone posted about a series called Demonata and said that it was a gore-filled and bloodthirsty childrens' book. Now gore-filled and bloodthirsty don't really go with children's book so my curiosity was piqued.

I searched up Demonata and found the site of its author, the one and only Darren Shan. I devoured the material on the site (which was a lot by the way) and I found myself in a world of fiction which I never knew: Children's horror!  I was excited and it wasn't soon until I uncovered two more names from the hall of horror: Alexander Gordon Smith and Barry Hutchison. I looked up their respective books (Furnace and Invisible Fiends). God, I was now starving for a taste of a horror book! 

And then, on a recent visit to Chandigarh, I found them. A whole line of Demonata books in a book shop! Since the first three were missing I bought the fourth one, Bec, and read it hungrily. My hunger only grew. I credit Bec as being the first book which actually sent a chill down my spine. It was completely awesome! (And the way Orna died, creepy and not just because it was messy!)

 This is an entire world of new I am eager to explore. In fact, it would be interesting to try and write something along the lines of children's horror. It sounds fun and creepy.

So Demonata (vicious, mindless demons), Furnace (an underground prison for juvenile murderers full of the most terrifying creatures) and Invisible Fiends (not-so-imaginary friends coming back to take revenge on the those who forgot them)- weird mix, huh? 

Children's Horror, indeed.

P.S Darren Shan has some great writing tips which are different from any others I sign. They're much more practical and so far the best tips I've ever found on the internet. 

Cheers

EXAMS! Oh dear God! Emergency Blog Shutdown!

So a new terror is set to unleash itself upon me and my fellow schoolmates in the coming month. A nameless horror which has been slowly awakening, slowly stretching out its long, dark, shadowy arms, ready to rise and ensnare the minds of young innocents again. A evil beast which we must stand together and face! Friends, gather your pencils! Pens at the ready! Textbooks in hand! The Exams are here!

Well I don't know about you but for me, yes, they are indeed here. Barely ten days away and I ain't done a smidgen of studying. So I regret to say that next month there will be no post as I will be busy fighting for my sanity. Once the exams have been defeated once more, I will gather all my thoughts together and get back into the old routine. For believe me, it's not only this blog which has been lagging behind, it's my novel too. I am deeply ashamed to say I've been getting lazy.

But not to worry, the rigors of exams shall steel my mind once again, squeezing any procrastination out of there. I will be rolling again.

So farewell, I must lay out the battle plans and think for which battle to prepare for first (the first one is Maths unfortunately so yeah)...

This Blog Is Only Monthly

Sorry. Guess I set the bar a bit too high. I promise to post twice a month and two months slip by with only one post. Time just slipped. Or maybe I'm just a procrastinating idiot. Whichever it is (definitely the latter) I'm changing this to a monthly blog. Minimum one post a month. Please take notice of the minimum. I might pop up the random extra post or two. Might.

So watch out for this month's post. I'm being fair with myself and not counting this one as a proper post.

 (Or should I?)

 No,no I won't.

 (But maybe..)

No, I'm not counting this post as a proper one.

(But if I just-)

I said I'm not!

Please excuse me while I go beat up the voice in my head.

Your Character's Roadmap

Ah, plotting. Basically, a plot is a the chronological order of events in your novel. So it is an outline of your novel and therefore is essential to writing a novel. Or is it?

On the writing tips section of fantasy writer Daniel Arenson's site, he states that there are three types of outlines:
1. The Detailed Outline
2. The Brief Outline
3. No Outline (hmm, that doesn't seem like a type of outline?)

For a meticulous writer who cannot bear to leave any part of his dear story in shadow, the Detailed Outline is the key. Mr. Arenson himself says that this type off outlining works great for him. According to him, it makes the first draft like filling in a puzzle. You can write scenes out of order and skip the boring ones for later.

And there are those who turn up their nose at the mention of the word outline. They will have nothing but a basic idea of what they want their novel to be and then just start the first scene and romp on. They trust their minds to lead them through one adventure after another and anticipate the great surprises, twists and new ideas they'll meet along the way. And it wouldn't have been that fun if they already knew most of the story, would it?  Stephen King, one of the most revered paranormal writers, is such a writer.

Most writers, however, choose the second outline. The middle line. The one that is not extreme in anyway. This outline may be from one single page to four or six pages long. It just gives the bare major events, the big picture, leaving out most of the details. Holly Lisle is one such example. And, though I am still very new to world of writing, I can confidently count myself as one too.

But when I first made my resolve to write a novel and I also had a vague idea of what the novel would be about the first major obstacle I ran into was plotting. I had no idea what to do and how to do it. I would think about the awesome plots of my favorite books like Harry Potter and despair and hopelessness would grip me.

How could I expect myself to create something even half as good as that?

So I searched on the internet. I googled stuff like 'how to write a novel' and 'how to plot'. And I must say I found a whole cargo load of tips and information, not just plotting but everything from characters to revisions to writing action scenes to pacing. Always checkout writers' websites. They usually post a lot of free bits and tips.

But what really saved me- what I was really blessed to find- was the Snowflake Method. I'm sure some of you have heard about it. It is a famous plotting method devised by America's Mad Professor of Fiction Writing Randy Ingermanson, the Snowflake Guy (you can tell the character of a man from his nickname).
It was the method that actually kicked off my writing and I am a complete fan of it. For those of you who don't know it, you can check it out at his site Advanced Fiction Writing (.com).

But for ever writer, the method is different and unique. No two are the same. Even I don't follow the Snowflake method line to line. I usually skip step 7, 8 and 9 and make changes in some of the other step to suit myself. You'll find dozens of plotting techniques online. Some might work in some places only. Most won't work at all. It's all your decision. And if you do find a method that works even halfway (which is lucky) you'll probably add some stuff of your own to it.

The best advice I can give is this: just grab a pencil (or the keyboard) and get your ideas down on paper (word document). Find your way from there. You can't finish what you've never started.

Enough about me. What about you? How do you plot?

Let The Head Be Held High

Yes sir. Another writer's blog is gracing Blogger. Let me begin by saying that this blog will be bi-monthly starting from next month. And it is also my first blog ever. 

Through it I want to share the excitement, triumphs, tribulations and of course, the disappointments and rejections of the writer's journey. Like you, I am struggling on the road to being published. I am facing the strife of writing word after darn word, of developing plots which just won't go right and characters who are too stubborn to listen to their creator. Indeed, the writer must be one of the bravest and most enduring individuals on the planet. He must always hold his head high.

And that brings me to the title of my blog. I got that from the late Rabindranath Tagore, the world-renown writer, songwriter, playwright, poet, philosopher and educator from his famous poem Where The Mind Is Without Fear. A  stirring poem indeed. So it seems just to end this post with his touching words-

WHERE the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake 

May the writer's head always be held high!