Happy Pi Day, squiders! As an ex-engineer, it is one of my favorite random math holidays. (I am also fond of Talk Like a Pirate day. Less math-related, though. But with more parrots.)
As you guys know, I’m working on the first draft of the third book of a high fantasy trilogy. I did most of my worldbuilding and planning a long time ago, and have the years have passed, it’s become apparent that some names will not work. Some character names are too similar to each other, and some worldbuilding elements will need to have their names changed as well.
The most apparent example of the latter are a type of tree I made up for the story, which I named Tinyurl trees. This was way before tiny URLs became a thing, but of course, now I run into trouble. I’m pretty sure every beta I’ve ever had has pointed it out at least once.
The thing is, I know these things are are issues. I’ve known for a long time. But I also know that if I stop now and change things, when I’m still technically in the middle of the story, that I will only confuse myself. I’ll either forget what I changed things to and change them multiple times, or I’ll change them and then forget and go back to the original, or an assortment of other combinations of issues.
So instead I’ve started a list. And on said list is every character whose name is too close to another’s, and every worldbuilding element whose name is confusing, and also every character that is missing a last name at the moment. (I have a couple characters that I didn’t originally think would be important enough to warrant last names, but alas, I was wrong.)
And when I finish this draft, I’ll go through and make changes in a nice, organized manner.
As for ROW80, I’m mostly caught up, finally. I have run into a bit of an issue where I need to do some major outlining before I go on–and probably outline until the end of the story. Hopefully that won’t take too long.
I’m a little lost about whether or not I should sign up for the next round of ROW80 or not. I’ll only have about 25K left in my story, which won’t take the whole time, and I’m worried that if I try to do multiple projects I won’t be able to keep track of what I’m doing on each in a manner that will allow me to judge my progress.
Nano has camp going in April, which might work better, though I don’t know if I can manage 25K in a month. In the old days, before I had children, sure, wouldn’t be a problem. But now? Who knows? Maybe I should do it anyway, just to see how it goes.
What are you up to, Squiders? Can you change names in the middle of a draft and not confuse yourself? (Do you remember to go back and fix things before you let people read it?) Any writing plans for April and beyond?
I tend to have a LOT of things going at once, because my kids homeschool, and I never know exactly how much they’ll need or want me day to day – but I can be pretty sure that there will be hometending to do.
So I write and hometend in bursts during the hours the kids are awake, and then do my more focus-intensive projects when they’re settling for sleep.
Of course, they’re 12 and 9 now, and the independent sort, and I like having lots of choices, at different stages of development. If you’re better with one thing at a time, I imagine it would drive you nuts!
For April, I will be working on at least one of three WIPs I’ve got partially roughed. One was completely pantsed; the other two are sketchily plotted. I’m thinking I’ll set my goal for 33,333 words, because I like threes….last NaNo, I completed an entire well-plotted draft of a fanfic novel – 122K words! The plotting really helped, and it’s a tighter draft than I’ve ever managed before.
I’ll also be posting in the A to Z Challenge, playing with some short fiction stories around a central theme – an idea I cam up with last year, and am only now giving myself time to play with – I’m currently developing those stories, and hope to have at least the first week’s worth scheduled before April gets here.
I’m also developing plots for my 31 Story-a-Day May; I’ve never plotted these out before, so I’m excited to see how it’ll turn out.
And I’ll be blogging regularly, and moving through the revision process for another WIP…
Like I said, I love options! =)
I wonder what the odds are on your very sweet tree name becoming a staple of the Internet world?!
Your list sounds like the perfect way to approach the issue. I hve been known to shift names mid-draft – and then forget them! =)
You sound busy! Good luck with everything! I have a toddler, so it’s a bit of a handful at the moment.
I’m still a little sad about the tree name. It worked so perfectly. Darn you, Internet!