The plot doctor is in

You might remember my Plotter FAIL! of a couple months back -- it got a lot of hits.

The fix I came up with worked, more or less, but a small comment from one of my CPs suddenly undermined it all. To paraphrase her: The scene where [big event happens] is kinda rushed. It needs more weight.

The patch I put in because of my Plotter FAIL was what put the squeeze on Big Event Scene. The patch kinda turned into a Big Event itself in the writing -- which meant I ended up with four disasters in my story. This violates the Rule of Three. The patch was causing multiple problems.

It was a good revision session. Pic from Showtime's series Dexter.

So, taking my lead from Dexter, I hung plastic sheeting and prepared to fix the problem. Obviously, the patch and the Big Event needed to merge into one. Tricky, but do-able.

Continuity
One of the biggest concerns in moving events around is the impact it has on the characters. I was moving a scene to slightly earlier in the story, but whichever way you're moving you still need to be aware of where your characters are when the scene begins, how that will impact their reactions to the events, and where they will be when the scene ends.

This is true of any scene, and I think it's easier when you're revising because you can see the whole story more clearly. You are more able to ask:

• Does this make sense dramatically? What problems does it solve and what problems does it create?
• Is there anything the character learned between the two scenes that they won't know when the order of events changes? Or anything they will know, if you're moving an early scene to later? Characters should never act according to information they don't have.
• How does this impact the emotional sequence? Especially if relationships loom large in your story -- moving an event will change its impact. Sit down with your characters and consider all the repercussions carefully.

Logistics
Don't forget about the mundane stuff, either. Worry about the gear the characters have on hand, what they're wearing, how much of the city will burn down in this iteration, what to do with the time you've added or deleted by moving scenes around.

And after you've re-written the whole scene, realize that the city was still on fire at the end... whoops, somebody want to fix that...?

Adjust the fallout
Don't forget to adjust the downstream action to reflect the new sequence of events. Since everything is connected to each other, in a story, shifting a scene will always have some impact further along in the story. Often, that's exactly why you moved the scene in question -- but unexpected details can turn up, so be vigilant.

Have you had to move a major scene? What sorts of problems did that create?

Kickstarter UPDATE! 

I've changed the $100 pledge reward! Go take a look!

I'm running a Kickstarter project to fund the professional editing, proofreading, and cover artwork for my gritty fantasy romance, Disciple, Part I: For Want of a Piglet. There will be six parts in total, published over the course of the next few years.

I'm offering e-books, paperbacks, promotional bookmarks, and more at various pledge levels (ranging from $1 - $100). Check out the project page for my book trailer, budget, and production schedule.

Kickstarter.com is a fundraising platform for all sorts of creative projects. Artists post a profile of their project and offer rewards in exchange for pledged money. The pledges are not collected unless the artist's funding goal is reached within a set period of time. If the goal is reached, the artist receives the money, carries out the project and distributes the rewards promised. It's a fascinating site and easy to lose time in!

Guest blogging at Elizabeth Twist!

I discovered Elizabeth Twist's blog during the A to Z Challenge and I've really enjoyed reading her posts -- so I was thrilled when she wanted to interview me about my Kickstarter project. Check out the interview here!

In other news, I have survived my first week of Kickstarter. And I thought waiting for responses to queries was nerve-wracking! Fortunately, the stress is driving me to take my frustration out on my characters as I start plotting Part V of Disciple. I should be able to get a few blog posts out of the process, too. (cracks knuckles and grins)

Sparkly things

GIVEN that I am trying to avoid checking my Kickstarter project every five minutes, let's try to distract me with sparkly things.

The little kingdom in my fantasy novel has a climate and geography loosely based on New England (see this post). That's because I'm from New England originally and I make no apologies for loving it.

One of many things that New England is not known for, though, is its supply of gemstones. And any kingdom needs a stash of jewels, let's be honest. I knew my fantasy kingdom was not going to be rich, powerful, or luxurious but they do need some sparkly things to pull out for important occasions.

I am not a geologist. But I did do some homework and here's what I turned up:

Rocks in general
What's under the dirt? In New England, it's essentially all granite under the thin layer of dirt that the glaciers left behind. Therefore, I went looking for gemstones that are often found in association with granite. To use a more technical term, granite is the matrix in which the gemstones will be found.

Quartz. Yawn?

Everyone's seen big, clear quartz crystals and yes, they're nice. Rose quartz is pretty and smoky quartz has a certain mysterious air. Quartz is a very common mineral, though, so it's not very exciting. Right?

Don't forget that amethyst is just purple quartz. Purple being a royal color (due to the difficulty of creating the color with natural dyestuffs), a nicely colored amethyst is a natural match for royalty. It was a valuable gemstone before they discovered tons of it in Brazil.

Tourmaline
This is not a gemstone you hear a lot about, but it comes in a variety of nice colors including green, yellow, blue, pink, and sometimes two colors at once. Which, you must admit, is kinda funky looking.

Topaz
Classic topaz is yellow, but it can also be found in blue, orange, or pink. I'm fond of blue gems, and while this might not be sapphire it's still a nice shade.

Pure topaz is colorless and clear. While that may sound as boring as clear quartz crystals, consider: like glass, it's hard and transparent, but this gemstone is tougher than glass. Topaz is on the high end of the Mohs hardness scale, so if you could find a nice, big crystal... what sorts of useful things could you carve it into? (assuming you have the tools to carve it!) For an idea of the comparison, glass ranks about 6-7 on the Mohs scale, whereas topaz is an 8. That's on par with steel.

Beryl
Like quartz, beryl comes in many colorful varieties. Some of them are quite pretty.

Red	Gold	Pink, aka Morganite

Oh, and don't forget beryl's most popular color...

Green, aka Emerald

Now that's a sparkly thing worth mentioning.

I'm running a Kickstarter project to fund the professional editing, proofreading, and cover artwork for my gritty fantasy romance, Disciple, Part I: For Want of a Piglet. There will be six parts in total, published over the course of the next few years.

I'm offering e-books, paperbacks, promotional bookmarks, and more at various pledge levels (ranging from $1 - $100). Check out the project page for my book trailer, budget, and production schedule.

Kickstarter.com is a fundraising platform for all sorts of creative projects. Artists post a profile of their project and offer rewards in exchange for pledged money. The pledges are not collected unless the artist's funding goal is reached within a set period of time. If the goal is reached, the artist receives the money, carries out the project and distributes the rewards promised. It's a fascinating site and easy to lose time in!

Guest Blogging at The Bluestocking Blog

I'm blogging over at The Bluestocking Blog today!

Since my Kickstarter project is for Part I of a six-part series, I blogged a bit about recursive plotting -- because the same structure applies to the series as a whole.

Happy 4th of July! Or, if you're recovering from Canada Day, I hope you're feeling better. I will be posting on Thursday with a regular blog post, unless I get in another guest blog before then.