inverarity | AQATSA update: Oh crap I can't stop writing and it's full of suck!

So, the good news is I've been on something of a roll for the past few days (like, I keep writing even after I'd meant to do something else, like sleep). Since I've been falling behind on my writing goals lately, this is a good thing and I've been going with it.

So, Alexandra Quick and the Stars Above is up to 148K words now. I'm on Chapter 24.

The bad news is it's going all over the place, the scenes I originally planned to write aren't the ones I am writing, and I feel like trying to maneuver characters and events into place to make everything fit together coherently and logically is this big awkward dance and I've lost my beat. It ranges from meta-issues like whether it makes sense for Event A to occur before Event B and how Event C can look less contrived, to micro-issues like who's standing or sitting where in a room during a conversation. I feel like I guess some writers must when they're trying to write a sex scene and remembering where that foot was supposed to be. (Okay, bad example -- there are no sex scenes in AQATSA. Really.) I'm trying not to go back and tear out and rewrite because I know it's better to keep going and finish the first draft but I hate thinking I'm writing crap I'll have to delete.

There is a lot of dialog this time. Some of it I think is kind of clever, but some of it is probably eyeroll-inducing. (It's full of suck! Delete!) Also, Alexandra is probably skirting the edge (if she hasn't already tripped right past it) between being a believable tween who's reacting to events with sometimes less than adult maturity, and being so annoying that everyone is rooting for her to get slapped, hard.

I think my main struggle with Alexandra right now is that on the one hand, her defining personality traits (and a lot of what people love about her, and what I love about her) include stubbornness, recklessness, and a little bit of I-can-get-away-with-anything. On the other hand, a character who keeps acting stubborn and reckless is not always endearing, and I've also made it clear that part of the story is Alexandra growing up, getting smarter, and not being such a bitch. She's fourteen/fifteen in this book, which is pretty much the Peak Stupid Years for teenagers, so some bitchiness is inevitable; I just hate to think she's going to become so annoying she'll turn people off.

Also, as of 24 chapters and 148K words, I'm still not sure how many chapters are left to go, but chronologically, I'm only halfway through Alexandra's school year. So keeping book four trim does not look like a realistic goal at this point.

The wordle thing is getting kind of repetitive, since they're not all that different (although of course some new names are popping up, or their proportional sizes are changing, as different characters figure more prominently in successive chapters). I wonder what per-chapter wordles would look like? I thought about teasing with chapter titles, but many of them will change, and some are probably too spoilery.

I also usually, at about this point, start doing Poser illustrations for some chapters, but I'm not feeling it right now. Gotta get back into the Poser mood, but when I look at some of my earlier illustrations, they are a bit cringe-inducing, and I just don't have the hours to work on improving my Poser and Photoshop skills. But I think this picture of Anna actually looks better in silhouette than the original image.

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Yep, been there.

It's worse when you realize you've been waffling and kind of lost the plot.

I like her hair in this silhouette. At least I assume it's her hair and not that someone's hit her with a Cauliflower Ear hex (which also moved them up on her head).

Dang, that was me. Wrong persona.

"Also, Alexandra is probably skirting the edge (if she hasn't already tripped right past it) between being a believable tween who's reacting to events with sometimes less than adult maturity, and being so annoying that everyone is rooting for her to get slapped, hard."

Wait, you mean she isn't already so annoying that everyone is rooting for her to get slapped, hard?

Seriously, though, I think you have a lot of latitude on this issue. Very few people will be reading this without having read the first three; they're already committed to the character. And Alex would be less interesting if she weren't kind of a bitch anyway.

-TealTerror

Hello, my name is Winterfox and I have a novel that's 150k words long and I'm only a bit past the midpoint and the plot's run away.

In other words: welcome to the club and the club's sure much bigger than I thought.

You know, since I started trying to write multi-parters - only one of which ever reached its conclusion, and it had the worst prose I have written in decades - my admiration for anyone who can just keep going to the end of a novel has become pretty boundless. You just keep writing, and you know that if there is something that doesn't work we'll let you know.

I think convoluted, unnecessary, and otherwise poor additions to stories are inevitable for any serious writer. When an author has created a world in their head and characters that have lived complete lives, it's easy to want to add those minor, chaotic details that suddenly change the character's whole personality. As far as going back and changing it, I find it is best to do that during times of writer's block, it helps to reconnect yourself with the story and give you an idea of where you want to go.

"Also, Alexandra is probably skirting the edge (if she hasn't already tripped right past it) between being a believable tween who's reacting to events with sometimes less than adult maturity, and being so annoying that everyone is rooting for her to get slapped, hard."

I honestly often hope she will get slapped. Despite that, usually her intentions are fairly noble (mixed with a bit of selfishness) and thus forgivable. I think the bit about her tripping over a line is too vague. Generally, there are several lines going in different directions and serving varied purposes. Alexandra has certainly crossed the, "so annoying that everyone is rooting for her to get slapped, hard," line, but she has yet to cross the, "so annoying that everyone wants her to get pushed off the invisible bridge and die," line, and until that point, fans will keep coming back.

My problem isn't with her being a bitch per se. I like fiery personalities. Quick is the most annoying whenever she tries to pigeonhole people and their actions into categories, as she does constantly if not readily, not by evaluating them against any meaningful ethical standards, but her purely subjective feelings of moral outrage. Less juvenile moralizing and more philosophic insight, if possible. I don't like her kowtowing to social norms either, not even privately, but that's a matter of my personal taste.

I'm not sure what you mean by "kowtowing to social norms"?

I think she'll be showing more philosophic insight in AQATSA (I think she showed a little in AQATDR), but she is a juvenile, so I think some juvenile moralizing is to be expected. It wouldn't be very realistic if she suddenly had the maturity and perspective of an adult, would it? (If you think she's less mature than she should be, then that's something I'll have to work on.)

I'm not complaining, I'm only reporting what annoys me about her character. Less mature than she should be? Perhaps in some areas, but she more than makes up for it in others, and that is the very source of my annoyance! :P

To me, obsessing over how abnormal she is and how she doesn't fit in any society signals a lack of inner strength, but, being an American teenager, it'd be rather strange if she didn't.

Overall, each person is an individual. As long as each of her characteristics makes sense and they're not inconsistent to the point of psychosis, don't worry too much about where the story carries her. How old were Joan of Arc and Babur when they sealed the fate of empires?

Fourteen/Fifteen... well, I remember at that age all I cared about was horses, my grades and boys. Not in that order. I find the least realistic thing about Alexandra so far is that near complete disinterest in boys. Perhaps some girls that age are truly not that interested, but quite frankly I don't remember knowing any of them.

I've never (yet) been able to muster up the wherewithal to write something as long as you have. Just keep going! Edit later!

I don't know; it might be a cultural difference (I'm from the UK) or maybe because I'm bisexual (though I only realised that at 17), but I wouldn't say boys were my primary interest at 14/15. My personal experience as a teenage girl was pretty chaste, though there was always a fair amount of gossip about other people's "relationships" going on the in background. One of the things I like about Alexandra is her indifference on this point so far, though I would expect it to be addressed this year - and I love that we've also been given just enough hints about Anna that we (at least, I) can speculate on her sexuality, even though Alex hasn't given it a second thought.

Honestly, my main concern was friendship, rather than romance - at around 14 my 'two or three close friends' system grew into a much wider social group (and at around 16 I realised most people in that group were dicks, and developed a really great close-knit friendship group in its place). Trying to find a place in a group, particularly - people you admire, people you challenge or compete with, that sort of thing. Becoming more self-aware in terms of knowing if people are attracted to you (and enjoying that, even if you don't reciprocate - awareness of yourself as female, maybe, and the negatives of that too, where you're so cripplingly self-conscious and you KNOW you're going to be judged for everything you do), or if they envy you, or if they resent you, or if they make you feel like shit - in short, as a teenage girl, everything came back to myself. I'd expect the parties and rebelliousness to start up around now, too. I think as long as you include the vulnerability of being a teenager as well as the bitchy annoying-ness, people will forgive a fair amount.

/essay

AQATSA update: Oh crap I can't stop writing and it's full of suck!

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Kowtowing to social norms

Re: Kowtowing to social norms

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