Maiden and other stuff (Page 1 of 3)

Cool. Now I can reach my whole audience of three remaining reviewers when I post in this forum. :-)

Who's the other one? lol

Welcome seabrass! I just peek in every now and again to make sure that *looks at Dirk* some people behave. This is definitely a great group!!!

Well, despite my best intentions, I'm returning to form.

No matter what I'm working on, no matter any deadlines I might be staring at, I'm simply not writing all that much during the month of February. This is happening with my current work, Maiden. It happened with my previous novel, In Possession of N-ergy. And it happened pretty much with all of my other works. I can't recall a February in recent memory where I've actually been productive with my writing.

Maybe I should designate February as my month to edit. I know I can do that on a daily basis. A good break like that would not only help me get a work closer to publication, but would probably stir up my creative juices, so when I did return to writing, the words would come gushing out. I think that'll be the plan for next year!

Anyone else have times where the routine just gets all shot to hell?

You slowing down is a good thing for me since I need a chance to catch up on reviewing your story.

Read and acknowledged. I owe you reviews.

A

I think it's always the best way to go to leave a work in some sort of 'finished' state, be it a full draft, an outline, a treatment, or a synopsis. Makes it easier to pick up later. I think you've gotten a full draft out at least, so you're ahead of the game in that regard.

Maiden was one such story. I started it years ago, got eleven chapters in, then put it aside. After my last manuscript, I dusted Maiden off, thought some things through, and I'm deeper into it now than before. But that original foundation is still woven through the current draft, so all was not lost.

Interesting. time to bump them higher up on the dance card

Assuming this is your thread, not just about Maiden. Just finished NIT. What a work of genius!

well, genius is as genius does. I needed some credits tbh, but I don't like reviewing stuff I don't enjoy. It feels quite wrong. So I only review work I like, in case I can help a bit. Yours didn't even need that much help tbh, so I feel a tad guilty nicking your points.

I've had a chance to peek at chainsaw. Holy points, Batman! Aside from that, you seem comfortable in the style, which is very different style from the Warden story I remember. Impressive range.

Only read the first scene in detail, so I can't justly leave a review.

re the NIT I have reached the insight I was seeking

**************** SPOILER SPACE **********************

I've been comparing the MC to my "evilest good guy". [J e n n a] kills her sister along with her enemies in an elevator. Reviewers were upset, of course. J3nn does it by accident because she hates her enemies. Nit does her evil also by accident because she hates her enemies. The parallels are difficult to ignore.

Where the two characters break pattern is in foreshadowing. It's established in chapter 1 that J3nn has taken lives, and she's consistently evil by nicking things, lying, back-stabbing. That element is not present in the Nit (Her beating up computer mice & answering machines doesn't count - it makes her an angry person but not a murderer).

I shall compare it to Ned Stark. Let's put his approval rating at 80% as-is. If Stark gets angry at something and punches a window or similar inanimate object, his approval rating would probably drop to 79% (This is the equivalent of the mouse). Stark, angry, but in cold, calculating blood, strangles Arya to death. Approval rating plummets.

As a dramatic story, there is a disconnect I can't resolve. If you're going for that, consider foreshadowing it. During the phone call, the sister could mention the family pet MC has killed. Basically make sure not one reader can assign her the good-guy trait. Once a character gets in that slot, the fall from grace really hurts the narrative.

If you're going for any other genre, like noir or crime etc, I wouldn't change a thing - it's perfect as is.

Nb: part of this is I work in technology. I see a lot of people all but hurl mice at walls. I think they're mad that Word deleted their perfect paragraph. I never think they abuse people. If MC would go downstairs, find a car that doesn't belong to her, and smash the headlights and windows, this would have been good foreshadowing. Someone able to break an inanimate object that doesn't belong to them is so far out of the "good person in desperate need of help" slot that the ending resolves well.

Hello.

Ran into a small software snafu. Had to repair some chapters of Maiden. All is well now. Will be hard at work on the next chapter. It portends to be a longish one with Scrounger as the POV character. Lots of exposition in this one. I hope to have it posted Friday. Then hopefully another by Monday morning. Switched from the bad software back to using WordPerfect X8.

Thank you for your patience. For my writing, it has not been a good couple of months.

The software I had a sudden and inexplicable problem with was Scrivener for Windows. Somehow the save and make back-up features got all screwy. So I just switched back to WordPerfect and I use Dropbox to save my files so I have access to them wherever I can get internet. Never had an issue with WordPerfect. I think I'll stick to that for my novels.