Plotting and Hunting Down Research

Or basically, the realisation that I might actually have to do some pre-emptive planning.

Now, me, I'm not a planner. I quite like coming up with characters mid book - it keeps me interested (the books that I have planned out have generally been abysmal failures). But generally, I write things that are set in worlds that I make up. So I don't have to know too much to actually start writing them. And what I do need to know, I can ask professor google as I go along.

A crime book, however, is different. There's red herrings, plot twists, clues, psychological actions... if I don't do some pre-planning before I start, I'll end up with 10 drafts. And I've quite gotten used to the idea of doing under five drafts. I've even started to think I might be able to aim reasonably for three drafts before I send it off to beta readers.

So, I'm actually going to have to plan things out. And given that this story involves the police, fraud crime, and the AFP (Australia's version of the FBI), I actually need to think about more than the plot. Plausibility and accuracy are actually entering into the equation. Previously, it was more a matter of making the world rational, coherent and consistent (which was quite a struggle at times in itself).

But this is based in the real world. Not alternate reality, not fantasy, not science fiction. The only stuff I've written in the real world before have been short literary pieces. And the first story that chooses to poke its head up in our realm is a novel which requires me to know a lot of the in an outs of police work.

Amazing what you can find out from the AFP annual report though :D

If there's silence around here, it'll be because I'm suddenly busy again. I've got editing, research, and now a new beta project :D Middle grade fiction. I really did enjoy betaing it last time, so hopefully it'll be good as it was last time :D

Enjoy all~

Sian

Sudden Realisation: Steam-punk

You know what? Before now I was operating on a very loose idea of what steam-punk was. I thought it was just about steam in the Victorian era. So it made no sense for me to have trams or bi-copters, or to even contemplate airships, because, well, it's just not possible to load a massive steam powered engine onto an airship. Gravity would get you quicker than you can think about it.

But that's not what steam-punk is about. Definitely, there a lot of steam, and cogs and brass about. But there is also electricity. The difference being it is applied to the ideas of the Victorian Era.

The ideas of the time knew nothing about the modern ideas of cars or computers. Their sense of magnificence was always present, trying to make an impression was vitally important in a class bound society.

So steam-punk, in my mind at least, is the principals of technology, the science behind the technology, applied to a Victorian Era. Or in my case, colonial Australia in the Victorian Era.

And you know, my hunch was right. The unions were playing funny buggers about the late 1800's. They're most definitely a good start to the revolution.

I need to get to the state library some time. I also need to design a airship tomorrow. That will be... interesting, given my previous attempts at designing verticals.

Wish me luck,

Sian

Update: 4/11/2010 我真的很高兴！！！！

First things first: 我真的很高兴! (I am very happy)

Why? Well I got into contact with my Chinese host family, and my Chinese wasn't so terrible that I couldn't understand them. I used a dictionary a heap, yes, but... they miss me! And I miss them, and everyone's all missing everyone else, and they're all lovely...

I just feels great that I was able to contact them, have a proper conversation with a minimum of misunderstandings, and that they still like me.

*runs through blog throwing happiness about.*

Secondly: nanowrimo is going well. Both my books are at the first turning point, which is great. Now I've just go to figure out where to go from there, but it'll come. I've got two random new characters in the steam punk novel - one that is entirely new, and is going to be a major character. I love it when things go well.

Viva la Revolution! Well, in colonial Australia, anyway.

I've also figured out how to fix a major plot issue in my other book (The Manda). I am tossing up whether to get to that now, or after november. It's probably going to be after.

But things are still percolating. I think I may be at the stage where I can start sending this thing (The Manda) out December/January. And then, if it doesn't get any bites, I can put it away in full knowledge that I have other things happening.

The only bleak note on the horizon is that the accommodation people at my university have not gotten back to me. Ahh well, you can't have it all in life.

Tomorrow, I am word warring with a fellow writer, who writes 5k a day without fail. I'm going to be slaughtered. But I may get more done then I was.

So all in all, a pretty good update. :D

Slightly better on the Manda

This is going to be a rambling update. You Have Been Warned :p

Things are going slightly better with the "When the Mute Speak", my current WIP (YA Fantasy). For one, I figured out how to fix my start off without rewriting the entire thing. Always handy - because the beginning of the book supports the rest of it, and it has to be right. Getting it right is incredibly hard, and I may have managed to get halfway there. Good news is that I think I can get past "halfway there" without rewriting the entire thing.

Chapter two is a problem. Info dumps galore, and it doesn't feel... real. But I can do chapter two better. I figured it out. We're getting there.

My Beta's are awesome, as usual, and the second one is crazy fast. So things are going well.

A lesson I have learned when it comes to Beta's: always give out the same version. Get more than one perspective. Then re-write.

There is still the problem of my second act. My beta is getting confused at the climax, which is never good, so I need to set that up better. I also need to show the process that Kira goes through in coming to her conclusions. I never noticed before, but she often tends to make them on the spot, and with no evidence to back them up. I can see how she came up with it, but then I wrote the plot, so it's probably me taking shortcuts.

In other news, I'm going to start a new project for Nanowrimo. Hopefully it'll give me the break I need from Kira and her world, and get me into editing mode. Personally, I'm excited about the community aspect of Nanowrimo. I've never actually met proper (I mean people who are writing for publication) writers. I wonder what it'll be like?

The desicion on the which of the next two ideas to follow through on is a tricky one. Both require research, one requires damn good writing. (The other requires good writing, but only as a vechial of plot. The writing in NKFH has to be brilliant.)

The other one (no working title yet) requires research on the police. NHFH requires more life lived - I don't have the experience to do it justice. So it's probably going to be the other one first.

How do I find out about the police and their internal structure? A question for a rainy day.

Update completed. I wish you all a good weekend.

Sian~