May 18, 2013 Updates

Not much happening here. I haven't written anything except for a few tweaks here in there in SSChron. Recently, my mom bought me a few books I wanted to read about screenwriting and film making. I started reading Writing Screenplays That Sell by Michael Hauge and am quite enjoying doing so! As I'm sure I've mentioned a few times in the past, I often imagine SSChron as a TV series more so than an actual novel, so I was interested in seeing how I could improve it in that sense.

The book has provided numerous insights, I have to say, and it has prompted me to do some major edits for my book. These past few weeks, I've been wondering why my book hasn't been as gripping as I've wanted it to. And the book has helped me come to a few conclusions why. And thus follows a semi-not-so-maybe-so-lengthy reflection.

In the first few chapters (I haven't completed the whole book yet), it mentions a concept called 'outer motivation' and 'inner motivation.' An outer motivation is a "visible goal with clearly defined finish lines" or "what the character visibly hopes to accomplish by the end of the movie," or the 'what' statement. And inner motivation is defined as "the reason for the outer motivation, which the character think will lead to self-worth," the why statement (80). The author continues with outer motivation, saying how effective outer motivations consist of certain qualities: "it is visible, it has a clearly implied endpoint, the hero will pursue it until the end of the story, the hero must desperately want to achieve it, the hero must actively achieve it, it's within the hero's power to achieve it, the hero must put everything n the line to achieve it" (43). I feel as if my characters are lacking this kind of outer motivation in many senses. They were sent on a certain mission, but for the most part, none of them really know what they're doing, and so they aren't "desperately trying to achieve" their goal.
Already before, I realized that this was a major flaw in my novel and tried to somehow fix it, but I'll most likely have carefully think over how I can fix the problem more efficiently than before. After all, if the characters don't even want to do something, the reader won't particularly care about it either.

And so that leads me to another point I read in the book, concerning character development. One necessary aspect of a character, as Hauge explains, is that the audience needs to empathize for the main character(s). Hauge gives three methods for creating empathy (he also mentions that the earlier the audience empathizes with the character, the better): sympathy, jeopardy, and likability (good-hearted, well-liked, funny). My characters face jeopardy in many situations, but I don't feel as if it makes the audience empathize with them in any way, unfortunately. In some situations and with some characters, yes, but with other situations revolving around other characters... not really. Especially for the first two characters introduced. Even thinking back on them now, they don't seem particularly special in a way that I have sympathy for what they've faced, and they're not amazingly and uniquely likable either -_-. Yeah, I'll be needing to do some major character editing.

And the last thing I'll mention right now. Of course, Hauge is talking about film making from cover to cover, not writing films, but much of what he has to say concerning plot concepts and character developments is completely relevant to novel writing as well. I'll quote him to bring up my next point: "My strongest advice to those considering writing a multiple-hero feature film is simply don't. Such a screenplay is extremely hard to pull off, because multiple heroes tend to diffuse the focus of your story and make it confusing. It is also tough to sell such a screenplay, because it is often difficult for a reader to keep all the characters straight in written form... The best approach is to stick to a single basic hero— or perhaps two heroes [and then he gives examples to where that can apply]" (71).
The first thing I thought when I read that was, 'Huh. That sounds just like my book.' For that matter, I originally planned on having 10 main characters: a lot, I know. But in some sense, they would all be essential to the major plot, or so I thought. Not that I think about it, I realized that subconsciously in my mind, I realized that I didn't really need all of them. When I was talking to my sister about my book, I even told her something along the lines of, "Chara A is more important that Chara B, Chara C more than Chara D, etc. These five are more important to the plot, but the other five are also kinda important in their own sense." I briefly thought about trying to narrow the main characters to two, but I decided that was impossible considering my story plot. So now I'm considering narrow the main characters down to five. And by that, I'm thinking that I'll completely erase the other five from my book, not just make them minor characters.

I know as a fact that I tend to have too many characters to count. I've had that problem too many times in the past, such as with ROI and WOC. I like having many characters, but I've come to realize that although I enjoy creating many many characters, I doubt readers will enjoy trying to keep them all in check. So with ROI and WOC, I limited many characters down to a generic term: a Pherealen citizen, a bandit, etc. And I've found that that makes it easier for the reader. After all, in most cases, when a name appears in books, it generally means that that character will play some part in the book, but in my case, many of my characters were only there as side-plots that don't really affect the main plot in any sort of way. End of tangent :)
And so that's what's going on in my head right now. Cut off five characters that I've already established in 450 pages that aren't necessarily important but that will change the past 450 pages in several ways? I'm sure it'll eventually be worth it, but it really is going to change a lot of what already happened in subtle ways that do pile up. The dialogue that will disappear, the connection between some characters, the events that wouldn't be recorded because one character was awake while the other (more major) character was asleep, etc, etc. Or should I just write two versions of the book? >:P

And I just thought of another concept that Hauge talks about. The four categories of primary characters: hero, nemesis, reflection (character who most supports hero's outer motivation or is in the same basic situation), romance (80). Of course, a book doesn't need a romance to be good, but it definitely needs a hero and nemesis.
As it is so far, 450 pages written and still going, my main nemesis... has yet to be mentioned, seen, or even talked about! It's crazy now that I think of it, but it's true. There have been 'nemesis-assistants,' as I will call them, who work for the top bad dude, but he's never even been seen before (as I just mentioned). Yeah, I'll need to change that. : |

Alright, and I'm done with the semi-not-so-maybe-so-lengthy reflection, hurrah! :D As I said before, the book has provided many new realizations that I've already somewhat guessed but didn't really know about! And I believe that it will make my book a better one in the long run once I apply what I have learned in the past few (and by few, I mean three) chapters I've already read—man, they're LOADED with good stuff! Who says film-making books aren't for novelists? (If anyone ever said that... I don't know one haha). Peace out ~~
Louise Esli

May 13, 2013 Updates

Hello!
So *ahem* I don't think I've written anything since last post. I decided that I won't be doing a Nano event this month because I want to take some time and relax a bit and write at my own speed. So that's what I'm doing right now! :) I've been thinking of some ideas, though, so don't worry, I've been doing something at least! Alright, that's all for now.

May 6, 2013 Updates

Whoo. So I began writing again. I wrote a sentence in SSChron then gave up because of writer's block. Typical. And so, like I did in April during the Camp, I fell back to the short story, Starless Night, and began writing a bit in that. And that's what I'm doing right now as well until I find some source of inspiration to continue with my main novel, which I am still proud to say is my longest book ever (though the one I believe will be least likely to be published). Why is it the least likely to be published? First off, it's plot might be to confusing for the majority of people. After reading maybe 25 pages, they'll probably wonder, 'Wait. Why are they doing this and where are they going. Oh, wait... no, I don't get it', and then they'll probably close the book. Yeahh, so that's one reason why.

Also, the book doesn't center around two or four characters like most do; there are too many characters and oftentimes difficult to understand who is on who's side. I have three 'sides,' so-to-say. One side is fairly obvious, beginning with two and slowly adding a few more, and then a few more. And then a new side is slowly introduced, and then the third... and then it gets hard to differentiate between the second and third. Unless the reader is myself and possibly my sis, they won't know it all until at least part 3 or 3.5 when everything is a bit more explicit. And even then, they might have to read back to catch everything that they missed the first time around.

So yeah. I can imagine my book being a TV series, due to its 'arc' style of format, where events are bunched together into mini plots. The mini plots will eventually come together in part 3, as I mentioned before. But I'm still writing parts 1 and 2, so there's still some more writing to go. :) I think there will be part 4 and even 5, as far as things are going right now. Whew. But I'm loving writing it, so even if it's not published, I'll be happy that I even wrote it. As I mentioned before, the book I'm writing right now is a genre I haven't touched before, so it's something fresh. Alright, I'm heading going back to the writing board now!

Additional Information

Hello again! Twice in a day, I know, crazy! :P

Anyway, I just took some time and read through the entire blog for fun and noticed a few things. First off, I began my blog by signing my name with "Amanda Louise S. Sora." Just as a quick correction, I've changed my pen name once again. I believe I 'officially' changed it during last year November to "Louise Esli." If you're wondering what in the world Esli means, keep guessing. :) Doubt you'll find out unless I tell you hehe.

Second of all, I had a few chuckles when I read about saying things along with publishing books and whatnot. Where everything is right now, I doubt I'll try publishing for a while. The soonest will probably be after highschool graduation. As I've mentioned several times before, I like to edit, re-edit, and re-edit some more! Which is why I still consider ROI not good enough to be published yet. Every year, I come back to a book and think that I can improve it in some way by adding descriptions and cutting out unnecessary dialogue and POVs. Additionally, I don't feel as if the characters come across as I want them to :\ But we'll see. You won't be seeing "Louise Esli" on a book anytime soon, I believe :)

Lastly, as a random side-note, I realized that I repeated quite a bit of information over and over again in my blog because I couldn't remember writing about it already (guess that's what happens when I take a week/month/half year break). Like, I believe I said that I am changing RoPT to PT about four times. I didn't feel like editing it out after re-reading it, because that takes the charm away from it ;P

Anyway, that being said, I also find it humorous that I keep saying things like "Thanks for your support" or "I hope you're looking forward to this and that" and whatnot even though nobody really reads this blog anyway :)

Nuff said. I'll start writing now..

May 5, 2013 Updates

Laugh at me if you want but I haven't written anything since May 1st. Sigh. What can I say? I've been busy with homework or doing nothing these days. That being said, I recently decided to change the title of Send Me into the Sherou S. Chronicles for various reasons :) Maybe I'll tell you the full name later and what it all means, but not now. I'm going to try writing some words now! Cha later ~

May 2, 2013 Updates

Well, the unofficial MayNoWriMo started yesterday and by the end of the day, I will be behind. Sighh. YEsterday I wrote ~2600 words, but today I've only been able to write 200 words (busy all day until about now, which is 10:30pm). Gotta finish up studying and whatnot, so by the time I'm done, it'll be to late. Anyway, that's all. Hope whoever is reading this is doing well. Thanks for following!
:D

May 1, 2013 Update

So I finished Camp Nano with 60 765 words, which is 10 000 ahead. Hurrah. I am planning on writing MayNoWriMo this month, but we'll see how it goes with finals later on this month and whatnot. My ultimate goal is 50K, of course, but I would be happy just getting 35K. I finished yet another arc in P1 of SM two days ago, so yesterday, in order to finish up the last 3500 words to get 60K, I had to quickly outline a new arc and start writing that. So yeah, that's what I did yesterday. Tada. Wish me luck in MayNano!

For SM:
Total pages— 456
Total word count— 173 001