Val Neil

My Drafting Process

November 11, 2019 by Val Neil

There are a few different ways I write scenes. The method here is when inspiration strikes, not when I’m specifically sitting down to craft a scene.

Crafting

When I’m inspiration writing, I tend to start with straight dialogue. Some people struggle with dialogue, but for me, the character interactions are what make the scene. I have a movie playing in my head of the characters talking, so I just write that down.

If I’m super busy, sometimes I’ll dictate to my notepad on my phone and email it to myself. This means I’ll have snippets of dialogue, often with no quotation marks or indications of who is speaking (though from the voices, it’s usually very clear), let alone setting. The scene building is generally done later, unless I’m writing in order and starting a scene “from scratch.”

Below will be some excerpts from book 2 that I’m working on. Please be advised that they contain major spoilers from book 1, and minor spoilers for book 2.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

[Read more…] about My Drafting Process

Writing the Second Book

November 5, 2019 by Val Neil

book2 frustrations

I created this blog post draft in October and made a graphic, but got over my hump and was able to continue, so it just sat in drafts with nary a word in the actual post.

It’s now November, National Novel Writing Month, and I’m stuck on chapter 15 of book 2, so I figured it was time to bring this shit back. No real context needed here. The pic kinda speaks for itself.

Happy NaNo Eve

October 31, 2019 by Val Neil

It’s Halloween. I’m tired, but I haven’t posted anything in a while, so I thought I’d mention my NaNo 2019 project, book 2:

I’ve already got a pretty good start on this thing. I took a week off in October and drove to my mom’s house to be alone (or at least sans children) and write. I spent two days plotting (that’s a first!) and tearing my hair out, but I managed to start.

I’m currently at 36,591 words. To give you an idea, book 1 is 127k. My goal is to get a completed rough draft of around 100k by the end of December.

My first drafts tend to be lean. I start with straight dialogue and work out from there. It’s good to have critique partners who can point out when I’ve got white room syndrome or need to dig down on those emotions, but I’m getting better at that through practice–it just doesn’t always show up in the first draft. I’ll do another post soon about my drafting process.

For NaNo, I just want to get as much done as possible. I’ve already got a pretty solid writing schedule, so it probably won’t increase my output by much, but it’s an excellent excuse to get out of the house and meet other local writers. If you haven’t checked out the NaNo activities in your area, I highly recommend it. Last year in Sacramento they had a lot of free workshops.

I will probably switch my blog schedule to biweekly. I was trying to get something posted every Monday, but when blogging cuts into novel-writing time, that’s not good. I want to get books 1-3 finished as quickly as possible.

Procrastinating with Productivity

October 14, 2019 by Val Neil

A recently became aware of a new word. While it seems to have a few different variations, this is my favorite:

quiddle blog

Ever find yourself doing a ton of stuff completely unrelated to the thing you need to do? Maybe there’s a big assignment or project you need to work on. Procrastinating on said project makes you feel bad, so instead, you kick into overdrive on something else. You clean the house, fold the laundry, reorganize your desk! You do everything except the thing you need to be doing.

That’s me today. I’m supposed to be writing chapter two of book two. Last week I wrote a bunch, but halfway through realized I was using the wrong point of view, so now I have to go back and rewrite as a different character. So what am I doing instead?

Catching up on email. Brainstorming about writing a reader magnet (freebie that’s used as incentive to get people on your mailing list). I came up with a great one–backstory that can be made into a short story. It’s briefly referenced in Dark Apprentice, as “The Bread Incident.” Harper found Nikolai doing something embarrassing with bread, though what is never specified (it’s probably not what you think). I just need to write it. I sat down at my desk, all pumped to write…

…and immediately went to Canva to make covers.

Granted, this didn’t take long and it was fun, but it still isn’t writing. But covers are done now, time to write, right? Well, no, because it got me thinking about my own procrastination, which led to this blog post idea, which lead to me making another Canva graphic, which led to me talking to you here. It’s not all bad, I did need to queue a blog post for next week, so this will be it.

Hooray for quiddling. As they say on Writing Excuses, I’m out of excuses, now I need to go write.

Let me know which bread cover you like best.

Guest Post: Space Dust by Eloise De Sousa

October 5, 2019 by Val Neil

This week I’d like to welcome fellow author Eloise De Sousa, who is doing a blog tour for her new book Space Dust. Welcome Eloise!

Thank you, Val, for hosting me on your fantastic blog. Let me start by introducing myself. I’m Eloise De Sousa, an adult and children’s author based in Berkshire. I’d like to welcome the readers who have been following my blog tour over the past few days. Thank you for your support.

So far, this tour has taken us to seven destination blogs, all different and all very talented in their craft. They have kindly accommodated my posts and helped share the news of my new children’s book, Space Dust. The book itself was written for the local Library Service to help support their Summer Reading Challenge which encourages children of all ages to read books from their local library over the summer holidays. I’m an avid supporter of children’s reading. Building great minds begins with a book!

space dust

If this is your first time joining the blog tour, let me give you a quick synopsis of the book.

Space Dust is a fantasy adventure about Little One and Big Ox. Little One’s mother has gone away and has forgotten to say good-bye. Big Ox decides to take his ward on an adventure up to the stars in his canoe pushed along by his absolute favourite spoon. They are on the search for Mummy and hope to wave hello to her from afar. There’s more to the adventure as Little One discovers along the way, allowing imagination and fantasy to lead the way.

When writing fantasy for young children, reality and imagination have to strike the right balance. After all, they love to point out the obvious as I found out in one of my reading sessions where I was questioned on how sea horses could survive on Jupiter! Working the realism of everyday life and given the number of parents who must leave their kids in childcare every day, to support their families and bring home the bacon, I used that stress as my conflict in the story and the generic child’s reaction of not knowing if Mummy is coming back. Adventure, fun and a generous dollop of imagination can help scare those worries away until Mummy returns but, it’s not always enough. Keeping the fantasy and reality in a tight balance gave the story enough drive to keep both the adults and the children absorbed in the story to find out if the duo found Mummy in the end.

Here’s a little taster of the book and the details to purchase your copy, which is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and my publishing site, Lulu.

Big Ox hugged his little friend.

“Don’t worry, Little One.

Let’s go on an adventure.

I’m sure it will be fun.”

“Where will we go?”

“Up to the stars.

We might just get to see mum

and wave to her from afar.”

With that promise

bringing a smile

to Little One’s face,

they set off in a canoe

on their adventure

into space.

Up, up high into the

starry sky they sailed,

weaving a beautiful

rainbow ribbon trail.

Click here to order your copy of Space Dust.

Do send in your pics and reviews of Space Dust – I’d love to share them with the rest of the readers.

Here is a list of my children’s books available now:

If you would like to find out more about my books or about me, please click on any of the links below:

Thank you for joining me. Tomorrow, we will be visiting Ritu’s blog, But I Smile Anyway. See you there!

Character Matters

September 30, 2019 by Val Neil

If you haven’t seen them, I highly recommend you set aside a week and watch Red Letter Media’s brutal dissection of the Star Wars prequels (I say a week because there are a lot of videos and they’re pretty long). One of the things they discuss is the difference in characterization between the original trilogy and the prequels. They posed this challenge to avid Star Wars fans:

Simple enough, yes? While the people they interviewed had no problem rattling off descriptions of characters in the original movies, they were stumped when it came to the prequels–resorting to job, physical description, or sometimes not remembering the character at all. You can watch the clip below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI?start=406]

If you’re a writer, I challenge you to do the same for your characters. Don’t rely on your own descriptions of them. Ask readers! I read for someone recently who inserted her character’s IQ in the text and when I said I found that dubious she felt insulted (the character was kind of a numbskull, average intellect at best). Telling me a character is smart doesn’t matter. Show them being smart.

One of the issues I’ve seen with a couple of people I read for is that their stories lack life. Grammatically speaking, they were an easy read, but they’re not engaging, to the point where I find myself skimming or zoning out. A friend of mine described them as “anemic.”

Why?

Well in one case, the book lacks tension (there’s a lot happening, but it’s just a guy doing stuff and everything goes as planned). But in both cases, the main character is flat. This is especially evident in the story that has tension. The writer is hitting all the right marks–adding hooks at the end of chapters–but none of it matters.

Because the main character is flat and lifeless. She’s not interesting. The side characters aren’t really interesting. The only descriptor I can come up with for her is “ditzy,” and that’s probably not something you want your main character to be.

Here’s another test for you:

Yank your main characters out of your story, put them into a completely different story, and ask your readers how they’d behave.

There’s been a lot of criticisms over JK Rowling lately, but if there’s one thing the woman knows how to do, it’s craft compelling characters. You take Harry, Ron, Hermione and throw them into Jurassic Park and people are going to know how the characters will behave. You can do this with all of her numerous recurring characters, from Luna Lovegood, Molly Weasley, to Bellatrix Lestrange.

It works because we know them. We care about them. And that means we’re curious to see what happens in their story.

No compelling characters, no engagement.

Val Neil

This week I’d like to welcome fellow author Eloise De Sousa, who is doing a blog tour for her new book Space Dust. Welcome Eloise!

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