It has been a hectic month, full of drama, adventure, passion and glory, and that ISN’T in the story!
So where do I start? I guess the start would be good. I was a day behind from the get go because of a funeral, but that was OK. I managed to slowly claw my way back and finish before lunchtime on 30th of June. Probably the closest finish I have ever had, but a finish is a finish.
Planning
This was done a month beforehand when I decided to let strangers and friends pick the story for me. They chose, out of the possible three options, the Science Fiction one. So a week before SoCNoC officially started, I was busy pulling together all the threads of the story I had sketched out and drew up my plan.
While I love planning a story, I also love following the plan, and I have to admit I didn’t realise that there was a flaw in my plan. I hate flaw plans (hahaha). Seriously I still have to work this one out, but I have an idea, which was duly noted in my “Edit later notebook”.
My writing actually took off this challenge and hovered about 6 inches above my plan. While it was close enough, it was also different enough to keep me writing, and if I came to a hitch, I would go to bed at night and ask the question – where exactly do you want me to go? Kelvaras or Vyvica would tell me, without fail, exactly what they wanted to see happen, and sure enough, it fit within my plan.
The ending was different, more dramatic, but it fits perfectly.
Writing
I managed to write at least every day, even though there was a long weekend in there. Because I set a realistic writing goal of 2000 words a day, I actually managed to get ahead of my goal by about day 12. Words flowed, sentences made sense, paragraphs formed scenes. Fantastic work. I did realise though that some of my action scenes were sadly lacking. ONe chase scene lasted two sentences. A chase scene that doesn’t make! I went back in and created an entire new scene which was filled with action, adventure, near misses and realistic timing. And it worked. It also brought the characters together, so adds more to the emotional conflict that is going on as well.
Characters
I am so looking forward to having my head back to myself. For too long Vyvica has been in there screaming at me to take notice of her. Kelvaras was absent until the story, and then I had them bickering in my head. So looking forward to peace!
Kelvaras certainly had some surprises of his own, suddenly calling himself an underling (which I had to tell him was not happening), then calling the bad guy “Father.” Now that worked nicely! And fits the ending so well too – how could I have not seen that before!
Vyvica was a handful from the beginning. She was argumentative, vindicative, untrusting, she questioned everything I did for her, and I threw her in the deep end. She swam. I am extremely happy with her as a character. Hard as nails, but heart of gold, just has problems showing it.
The other characters in the book have really turned themselves into nice people too, except for the bad guy. He needs work. And I don’t want him to be evil, he is just out for something and that needs to be clarified.
Title
I haven’t come up with anything yet. I will have to rework it and see what happens.
Editing / Rewrite
I want to add more to this story, at least another 25k, which I think I will plan and work on before I actually edit this story. Only because it needs to keep readers on the edge of there seats. It does that at the beginning, there are moments in the middle, then a fantastic ending, but the middle could be stronger. More conflict, more plot details I think. But at least I recognise that.
Overall
Considering this is my first science fiction story, I am actually very happy with it. I like the characters and the plot, although that almighty plothole (hehehe) definitely needs to be fixed. But nothing a wee bit more thought can’t hurt!
