Sunday, June 10, 2007

A Scene-Capping We Shall Go

And when I say 'we', I mean 'me'. Unless anyone would like to volunteer to do it for me...anyone...anyone...? No? Sigh...fine.

When I first outlined Brimstone way back in, oh early 2005 I think it was (man, that seems like a long time ago...) I used the First Draft in 30 Days method, slightly modified to suit the way I do things. But I found it really helped me plan the book out scene by scene. Being a plotter, I live for structure. Problem is, when I originally mapped it out the spinsters were widows, then Kelly Harms said in our interview in Reno, 'hey virgins are where it's at'. That got me to thinking, which got me to realizing the story actually worked way better if I switched my widows to spinsters and then the next thing you know, I have an entirely different book in a whole lot of ways.

So after making the changes, I did an outline, but I didn't go back and re do the scene caps. And now that I'm struggling a bit with the end, I think it would be a good time to go back and do those. I'm not necessarily off track, it's just that I have a number of things that have to happen in the 100 pages I have left and trying to fit it all in and make sense and get it in the right sequence is proving a bit taxing on my brain. The scene caps will at least help me see what I have and then juggle things around to what I need. It should also allow me to figure out if my story and character arcs are fully fleshed out.

And speaking of flesh, I started reading
Jill Shalvis', Shadow Hawk today and I'm loving it! Great characters, lots of excitement. I'm glued to the page. I don't want to put it down, but I have one night left to watch The Game of Their Lives with Gerard Butler and Gavin Rossdale, although I'm trying to time it so I can still have an hour before bedtime to read some more!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck with those scene caps, Kelly!

Okay, I know I've spent waaaay over my budget for books this month, but I have to pick up Shadow Hawk now. I checked out her blog and I love how she writes. Always nice when you find a new author to read.

Unknown said...

Why is writing a book such hard work?

Good Luck with the scene caps and last 100 pgs.

Tess said...

Hope those scene caps go well!!!

Unknown said...

I need to try the whole scene cap thing. I know I've said that before, but I really need to try it.

I hope it all works out.

Melissa Amateis said...

Sometimes, I just wish the plot would magically appear and then I could just write the book.

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad you're enjoying Shadow Hawk!

Julia Phillips Smith said...

Usually a dose of Gerard Butler makes all my creative problems melt away. Hope he and Gavin Rossdale work some magic for you!

MJFredrick said...

Read the book - it's better than the movie. And I love Gerard Butler.