The time has come to settle upon a final cover for my novella Out of Darkness Rising! Scott Appleton, the proprietor of Flaming Pen Press asked me to post two cover options here on my blog and gather reader votes on which is the preferred cover!
The Story behind the Story
signing the contract… |
Home from Haiti
To borrow Sam’s words from the last page of the Return of the King, “Well, I’m back.“
The trip to Haiti was awesome. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to go and I can’t wait to go back sometime soon! Although I missed my family, ten days was far too short a time to spend in Haiti.
The little village children who came to play with us and attended camp were precious! Unfortunately, I didn’t get to take as many pictures as I would have liked. For one thing, I always forget to take my camera around with me, and for another, whenever I was playing with the kids or working I was simply too busy to stop and take pictures! Thankfully there were lots of people on the trip who were much better in the picture-taking department that I was! ;)
Stars in the Universe – my other blog – is where I’ll be posting the stories and some photos from the trip! The first three days worth of updates are already posted (click to read them here: Haiti 6 Log) and I’ll be adding the rest of my trip log throughout the week!
And now some extremely exciting news! Obviously I did not have internet access while I was in Haiti and so I did not check my email until I got home two days ago. I found a response to the queries I sent out two months ago, inviting me to submit my full manuscript Out of Darkness Rising! The email arrived the day that I flew out for Haiti.
So I hastily performed a final editing of the manuscript, packaged it up, and shipped it off this morning! This doesn’t mean that the publisher will necessarily choose to publish my book, but at least it’s a step in the right direction! I won’t hear back for several months so I’ll just keep plugging away with my other project Song of Leira – it’s coming along quickly now and I’m getting more and more excited about it!
Orevwa!
(I keep accidentally blurting out the few Haitian Kreyol words and phrases I know in random sentences… it makes for interesting conversations! I’m going to be looking into purchasing a Kreyol dictionary soon so that I can learn more before I go back next time!)
~ A Servant of the King
To the praise of His glory!
Lights… Camera… Action!
Suppose, the main idea that you want the readers to understand about your character is that so-and-so… say Bob… is very brave and has fought hundreds of battles. Well, of course you wouldn’t want to introduce Bob to the story by having him wake up and eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast and then set off for work. No, you would have Bob enter in a way that would exhibit his bravery and skill after having fought hundreds of battles. That way, right from the start, the reader understands a little bit about Bob and you set the stage for the rest of the story.
Just like your first chapter sets the stage for your story to come, the character’s entry sets the stage for their character and behavior throughout the rest of the story. Your character’s entrance must draw the reader’s interest, gain their compassion and their attention. You want the reader to sympathize with your main character and be engaged in their lives right from the start. You want your character to be remembered right? Well, a boring entrance will not distinguish your character from any other characters in the story… or millions of other characters in other books.
This is what you want to accomplish with your character entry!
Besides writing, I also enjoy acting. I was in a play recently where my directors stressed that you have to know what your character is doing before coming on stage. I thought about it for a bit, and it really makes sense. Knowing what your character is doing before he/she comes on stage, gives a sense of depth to your character. It makes the audience feel that this is a real person, not simply an actor walking out on stage into the scene and then walking off stage to wait for the next one.
So, when the lights are called and the cameras are ready, you shout out “action” and your character steps out on the stage of your story for the first time… what sort of an entrance do you want them to make? Another way to think about it is: What do you want the reader to know first about your character? Then write your entrance to show them this and to engage their attention.
Two other things that are vitally important to the movement of your storyline and plot are the stakes and the intensity. What is at stake, in your story? Does your character have good enough incentive to do what he/she does? Are the stakes high enough? What about intensity? Is the goal difficult enough to reach?
Why does your character do the things he/she does? Why does he/she feel the need to fight that battle? You must raise the stakes for your character; give them an incentive, a reason to face death and danger. A poor incentive will not engage your readers’ sympathy and interest.
A bad example – in my opinion – of raising the stakes would be in the movie The Return of the King. (Granted I absolutely love the Lord of the Rings books and movies, but this is one instance where I think the movie directors/script writers did not do well.)
It is the middle of the movie. Aragorn has just succeeded in convincing King Theoden that Rohan should ride to Gondor’s aid. Aragorn knows that if the Ring is not destroyed, Sauron will take over the world, time is running short, Gondor is about to be defeated. He has to act. Then, in a move unprecedented by the book, the movie writers sought to “raise the stakes” by having Elrond ride all the way from Rivendell (an impossibly long journey, I might add) to tell Aragorn that Arwen is dying.
If you look at the epic movies Braveheart and Gladiator (also some of my favorites) both heroes started with a personal incentive at first (revenge for the loss of a dear one) and then moved on to a bigger broader goal (the saving of the people, restoring of justice and freedom). In my view, that is how you should raise the stakes, like stair steps, going up and growing bigger and broader.
Intensity
Is the goal difficult enough to achieve?
A good example of adding intensity to the story takes place in the Fellowship of the Ring at the very end of the movie (we’ll stick with the movie for now, since all the other examples I used were from movies!) The Fellowship has just left Lothlorien after losing Gandalf in Moria. Traveling by boat, they halt for the night on the Western shore just a short ways above the rapids of Sarn Gebir and a gigantic waterfall. No plan has yet been decided upon, but the Fellowship is watchful, on the lookout for enemies on the Eastern shore (the shore closest to Mordor).
And now suddenly the plot thickens. The company is beset by foes both from within and without. Boromir gives in to temptation and tries to take the ring from Frodo. The Fellowship is suddenly attacked by orcs from Isengard. Frodo, realizing that the temptation which has overcome Boromir is also a danger to the rest of the company, decides that he must go on alone. Thankfully Sam joins him just in time. The rest of the Fellowship are off battling orcs. Boromir dies trying to save Merry and Pippin when the two young hobbits are captured by the orcs. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli decide to follow the orcs to try to rescue Merry and Pippin. And so, at this moment of crisis, the company is split, the fellowship is broken…
And lots of intensity is added to the story! Obviously raising the stakes and intensity are closely allied. When you raise the stakes, you add intensity to the story. So both are necessary to a good plot.
Anyway, lots of random thoughts on writing. Hope it wasn’t too boring. But I’ve been thinking about all that a lot lately in my writing.
Update on writing: Innocent Blood (now tentatively titled Out of Darkness Rising) is in the second round of editing. Getting close to being finished!
So long for now!
~ A Servant of the King
Red “Pen” Day…
Hooray! I’ve finished the rough draft for my novella Innocent Blood! Complete at approximately 27,940 words – almost 11,000 words more than I had originally planned – Innocent Blood is done at last…
Well, almost! Now, for the time that every writer dreads… the red pen day. Editing time.
It sounds dreadful doesn’t it? What a plethora of horrible images those words call to mind. A slash of the pen, a line of red marks the clean white manuscript… stabbing, slicing, wounding. Alright, so I’m being dramatic. But truth be told, I hate editing!
However, an unedited manuscript is worse than the actual process of editing, so here I go. Editing, rewriting, deleting, rewording…
And then at long last, the story will be completely done! And hopefully by then I will have decided on the new title!
Here are the prospective titles at the moment:
Out of Darkness Rising
Darkness Slain
Rising Light
From Darkness Rising
Dawning Light
Can you sense a theme? ;) I’m taking a poll right now, trying to get everyone’s opinions on which title to chose, so if you care to vote, comment here and I’ll add your preference to the list. You can read the story teaser and a short excerpt here – Innocent Blood
Well, I have already abandoned the red pen too long and so I must pick it up again. After this, I hope to have a real blog post up here soon! :)
~ A Servant of the King
As if life isn’t busy enough…
I just started a new blog called Stars in the Universe that I am going to be posting to in addition to this one. You can access it here: http://shiningstarsintheuniverse.blogspot.com/
Here’s the start of my first blog post on Stars in the Universe:
The title of this blog “Stars in the Universe” came from Philippians 2:14-16a “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe, as you hold out the word of life…”
This blog’s goal is to be a place of encouragement and accountability for young Christians who desire to love and serve the Lord and others. Our mission: Operation Hands and Feet – to serve Christ and live for Him, serving and loving those around us and across the world, to shine like stars in the midst of the dark world around us….
Read the rest of the post here: Operation Hands and Feet
I’m going to try and keep Stars in the Universe updated without it interfering with my posting on this blog or my writing! So, I suppose I will be busy, but that’s always a good thing!
In any case, I will hopefully have time to write a full post here soon, but it’s getting late, so for now, goodnight!
~ A Servant of the King
To the praise of His glory
~ Innocent Blood update: I thought I had finished the first draft last night… only to realize this morning that I’d somehow left out a very important short scene… (it is possible to do so when you are writing at midnight) so, I have to add that in and then the first draft will be done and I can begin the unenviable task of editing and rewriting!
Word Count: 27,577 – 577 words past my 4th word count goal – haha, who needs them anyway?