Point of View Problems

You know that time when you wonder if you've really chosen the right point of view for your masterpiece? Yeah, I hit that. Last night, my critique group pointed out that I have a decided lack of internalization from my protagonist, which makes it hard to feel really connected with him or the world. I suppose that's one of the risks you run when you decide to write in third person; all I know is that I'm deathly afraid of info dumping or getting far too into a character's head and getting rambly.

So I write in third person and struggle through the omniscient/limited fight. I'm working on finding a way to add more character thoughts without seeming too forced, but I'm also wondering if I shouldn't have written this book in first person. I really, really hate writing in first person (probably because I don't read it much) but it would likely help to immediately get in the character's head. And I've always been curious to try writing an alternating point of view story.

Has anyone else struggled with point of view like this? Which PoV do you like writing in the most and why?


P.S. If anyone has any job openings they know about, would you please let me know?

Random Rambles

Last night was the first meeting of my new in-person critique group. I'm so excited! Everyone involved (even those who couldn't make it to the meeting last night for various reasons) is fantastic and I'm really looking forward to getting into the groove of actually turning stuff in again. That's yet another plus of critique groups: accountability. I don't know about you, but I feel guilty and terrible if I don't have something to give to the group just because I was lazy that week. Busy, on vacation and sick are acceptable excuses for the most part, but can definitely be abused, which makes me feel guiltier. So I have to write at the very least twenty pages a month, hopefully more. That'll be so much better than what I've been doing recently! Woohoo! Who wants to join me in a happy dance?

And on the "oh, no, I have no time; what am I going to do?!" side of things: National Novel Writing Month is fast approaching. For the last few years, I've had at least an inkling of what I want to write. Last year, I even had characters and a vague plot and some pretty intense world building before I went in, and I won for the first time in three years. This year, I have nothing. Nada. Not even a specific character I really want to work with. There's still almost a full month left, but I'm starting to get nervous. Can I really work on three different books at the same time? Which one will have to suffer to get a NaNo out? And I can't just not do NaNo, when I've attempted every year since my sophomore year of high school (that's six years, for those who are curious; and I've won thrice). I guess it's time for some major brainstorming! Maybe I'll try a new genre this year or something. Anyone else trying NaNo this year? I could use someone to word war with.

Conference Roundup

This year's Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer's (RMFW) conference was so much fun! I somehow found the guts to not only pitch but to sit at a table full of agents and editors one night, gather a fantastic group of people together for a critique group (if any of you guys are reading this, you're awesome!), and just put myself out there more than I normally do. Not to mention I learned so much from the fantastic workshops all weekend long; everything from how to write a good pitch, to how to use archetypes in a story, to different communication styles believable characters can use, to bartitsu--a Victorian fighting style that ought to be used more in steampunk.

It was fabulous to see so many faces I recognized from last year! And absolutely wonderful to meet so many amazing new people. We all need more writer friends, right? Or is that just me?

As soon as I catch up on the sleep I lost this weekend, I hope to post some of the more interesting or important things I learned this weekend. For now, though, I think I'm going to go attempt to figure out which characters want to be my secondary viewpoints for the new piece that I decided ought to have alternating points of view this morning, take a nap, and hope that I'm more coherent when I return!

RMFW Conference

Two more days before the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer's conference. This will be my second year in attendance and I'm totally looking forward to it! This post is lucky to exist, as I'm taking a break from finishing up the critiques for the critique session on Friday to write it. 

Why am I so excited for this conference? It's really the only one I can afford to get to at the moment, for one. But the opportunities a conference includes are absolutely fantastic. This time, for example, I signed up for a critique session with Jennifer Unter (and I'm psyched that the lovely Jess of Falling Leaflets is in my group! Yay!), have a pitch session with an agent (I won't know who until I check in), and I've promised myself to sit at an agent or editor table during dinner one night to rub elbows. All this on top of the fantastic workshops and panels and lectures and the ability to just mingle with like-minded crazies. I say that with the utmost respect. I'm of the firm opinion that all writers have to be a bit of good crazy, after all. At least, they are if they're serious about their craft. 

Needless to say, the Saturday post will again be missing this week, as I will be eyeball-deep in overwhelmingly fantastic information in a hotel across town. Maybe I ought to choose a different day to update! 

Two days ago, the registration packet for the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer's annual conference came in the mail. I got inordinately excited. A collection of wonderful workshops, chances to rub elbows with agents and editors, a pitch session, and, hopefully, a chance to see all the lovely ladies in my critique group again. What isn't to like? Well, besides the price tag, but I can easily justify that. And the fact that it's not until September. Though, of course, that just gives me more time to finish polishing before I pitch.

This past week on the writing front has been all Savior, all the time. Mercedes Lackey says that she loves writing revisions, but I much prefer first-drafts. I like getting all the stuff out there, and being able to play and not have to worry about the continuity or whether or not this plot twist is necessary or whether this sentence is much too long. I've been mucking through revisions for what feels like forever now. I know it means I'll have a nice, polished product at the end, but at some point, it just gets tedious. Good thing realizing that I can have a pitch appointment in five months seems to have given me a kick in the butt! I'm almost done with the major revisions and can move onto tweaking.

I would normally put an excerpt from this week in this space, but seeing as I'm currently reworking the middle section of the book, I feel that a snippet might give rather more away than I'd like to put out there at the moment. So, instead, I'll leave you with an excerpt from the beginning of the book. The first two paragraphs, to be exact.

Seven-thirty Ikol Avenue was a small, one-story house straight out of a children’s book: white picket fence, blue tiled roof, red and white checked curtains in the window, a beautifully sculpted, tulip-shaped knocker, and a spattering of blood on the doorstep. 

Trick Mathis hesitated at the gate, his back ramrod straight. His normally pale skin was a sickly shade of yellow, his delicate nostrils flared at the expected scent of blood. He tried to swallow in a dry throat. When that failed, he pulled the black uniform collar over his mouth and nose and pinned it in place  with the bridge of his oval-shaped spectacles. 

Oljiru kovy.

Names, Critique Groups and Kells

This week I discovered that I'm a lot more detail-oriented that I realized. I wanted to write a short set after Savior, but realized that the names I had originally chosen for my twin characters did not fit at all. For one thing, they both started with the letter K, and I already had one person with a K name in the family, so having three was a bit overwhelming. And, secondly, neither of the names fit in with the other Elvish names I used. Keenai and Kalin just don't really fit with Araeli, Kelaen, Caera and Lekotae. So I spent much longer than I should have creating a family tree that will never see the light of day, just to see if these kids could be named after their great-grandparents or anything. I finally settled on naming only one of them with an Elvish name, since only one of their adoptive parents is an elf. The names I wound up with, thanks to discussion with a friend and a tweaked name generator result: Arillae and Enden. I'm much, much more satisfied with these. Yay names! Yay crazy ways to find them!

In related news, I've reworked the majority of the first chapter of Savior. All that's left there is to figure out a form of transportation that melds technology and majyk. I've got a vague idea of what I want to do, but I'm waiting to see what my critique group says before making anything solid. What I've got so far could be read as a bit...silly. And silly isn't really what I'm going for.

On the note of critique groups: I'm thinking about joining another one when I get back to Colorado. One that meets in person, as opposed to the online one I participate in at the moment. I just think I'd like the face-to-face interaction, in addition to email. And goodness knows that my manuscript still needs a lot of work. It's getting there, though. I just want as much input as I can get.

For the "not-writing-but-still-artsy" update of the week, I finally got around to watching The Secret of Kells. It's an absolutely stunning film, if you haven't seen it and are at all interesting in Irish mythology. The artwork is gorgeous, the characters well-developed for such a short span of time (it's only a little over an hour long), and the dialogue perfectly parsed. For me, though, it was even more wonderful, because I've spent months studying Irish history just before the time period this film was set, and to see most of my research represented in this film, in addition to the Irish mythology (which I've also been studying), is just amazing to me. I love it when things interconnect like that, don't you?

Oljiru kovy.