1. Untitled
I don't even remember when this story came into being, but it was my very first. My aunt brought over these (very ugly) notebooks for us, and I was instantly enchanted by the blank, spaced pages. I might have been driven to write because something just had to be written. It's still an issue with me.
I didn't actually finish this book. Essentially it was about a bazillion big families, and I couldn't keep any of their names straight (One of the dudes was named Miguel which I took straight from a show on PBS I used to watch on occasion at my grandparents - the only time I ever watched public television growing up) or which family they came from, and then a stranger shows up out of nowhere, and it turns into a mystery. I'm pretty sure Eileen was the MC (maybe cause that's one of my middle names - seems like so many books of mine end up with a character whose name is one of my middle names).
What I learned:
*Not all families have to be big. I must have been so scarred by this story because it took many years before any of my MCs actually had siblings.
*You don't have to end every chapter with an exciting incident.
*Names can be more original (no offense to all the marys, toms, and anns of the world)
*Punctuation could maybe be kind-of good.
* If you have too many characters in a story, it's gonna be super, duper hard to make them sound different.
*Writing mysteries isn't for me. Well, it took this book and two others (one called The Black Shadow...)
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| My bro drew this as a 'cover' for my book. Heh. |
2. Untitled
A long, long time ago when I was a mere ten-years-old (maybe older, but for embarrassment's sake, let's just say ten), my best friend (aka, one of my big brothers) started enjoying computer games a lot which was really boring. I would sit next to him on a stool, and I began to write for entertainment. So I wrote this story...without a title, and I finished it (though, I don't always mention this being the first book that I wrote) at 31 pages. It was my first Fantasy, and I'm actually surprised at how well-thought out some aspects were. It was about these kings and queens with supernatural powers who had gone missing years ago. This young boy was told the legends of them, and it turned out he was the 'chosen one' who would save the day. Interesting twist, after being left disenchanted by the kings and queens, he almost chose the bad guy's side, but in the end, everyone lived happily ever after, including the bad guy (these were the days when even the bad guy won).
What I learned:
*The importance of getting The Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings (at that point, though, I had only heard my bro's version of Lord of the Rings) out of my blood.
*The importance of story world! I have never done as much story world plotting as I did for this story. I drew maps, wrote out histories, 'invented' languages and creatures, and wrote songs.
*Not to rip-off other people's creatures. Sure, they might have had different names, but we all know what those small 'humans' actually were :P
*One does not necessarily have to know the entire universe of one's story world. Nor does one have to write out stories about every single event that occurred in one's world, especially when the story world only grows bigger and bigger as portals are installed.
*Not every piece of clothing has to be described.
*You don't have to be super original with names because they'll end up sounding weird (Ha. The complete opposite problem as the other. Never a medium here). However, I did come up with the name 'Sananora' which I used as my blogging identity for many years back when I first had a blog, and that isn't half so bad.
*It's better not to show your writing to other people at first. Usch. (Of course, I took that to the extreme and never showed anyone my writing till the last couple years).
3. Untitled
This one is actually something I might want to pick up and rework some day in the future. It's an unfinished story about Edith Aadland, a girl from a big, poor family. She was sent as a paid companion to three elderly sisters who lived in a large manor in some moors. Her simple life is somewhat disturbed when she comes across a man playing a piano in a small graveyard. He takes her to visit an older woman (not sure if he was related to the older woman or not). And sometime a dragon was supposed to pop out of nowhere. I'm pretty sure it was a Jane Austen/Jane Eyre type mish-mash... but with a dragon.
What I learned:
*The unexpected is the best - hence the dragon. Doesn't that just spice up the story?
*Romance of any importance in my writing = Bleah (And I'm pretty sure I only wrote one scene with her and the random piano playing man).
*It's best not to try and write intelligently about something you haven't researched :P
4. Beyond the Border
This was the book I first purposefully titled. And it's the book I claim I first finished (April, 2011) with a whole 75,000 words. It was a Fantasy novel about a young woman of some fortune named Bethclaire whose lonely life was disrupted by the reappearance of an old friend. Unbeknownst to her, he returned through a portal specifically to persuade her to come back because she was the daughter of a king in the place beyond the portal. Ends up that her friend dies after betraying her, and everybody hates her until they don't, and then they decide that she'll be a perfect Queen.
What I learned:
*How to outline a novel, and I decided I would never do that again. Not to that extent, anyway.
*How to finish a book! (One of reasonable size).
*That I actually could feel some emotion towards my characters and their situations.
*How to consistently write day after day after day. I did 500 words per day by hand.
*Writing was actually something I wanted to do seriously.
*You go a long way with a cheerleader and someone who asks you about your progress.
*It isn't going to be perfect the first time around.
*How to incorporate the more human aspect into my writing - through conversations, emotions, problems. I don't think any of my writing before that really held any emotion.
For the longest time, the only good thing I did with writing was write, but honestly, I think that was the best thing I could do, and I don't regret any time spent or words written. Time is truly the only way writing works, and I'd encourage anyone to spend the time first. Later on you can pick up craft books, but now just let yourself write.
Are you planning to do this tag? Did you write any of your novels by hand? How many years have you been writing?
This is such an fun tag! It's so interesting to see your writing grow over the years :-)
ReplyDeleteIt was really fun to do! I was remembering all sorts of stories I'd written as I looked for major ones. I'm glad you liked the post! Are you going to do it? ;)
DeleteI'll have been writing for three years next month. I started my WIP sometime in August, but I wrote a little before that for a website that had a writing section. Of course, looking back at those, I cringe slightly.
ReplyDeleteMy WIP came with a few bumps, such as the computer I used going out and one losing the code for Microsoft Word due to a power surge, so I started to write by hand. I gave up on that pretty quickly. But my parents supported me through that, which was nice.
I'll probably be doing a post soon on my WIP. It will probably be in August as a little anniversary post.
I loved seeing how you progressed all in a post. That was really cool. Great job. :)
Oh yikes! The computer went out? Did you lose all your writing? That would be one of my worst fears. Back in 2010 when I was writing Beyond the Border by hand, we had a wild fire come uncomfortably close to our house, and so I ended up backing all my writing up on the computer after that. I still sometimes worry about the little bits of writing I do still by hand...oh well...
DeleteI'll be looking for that post, Ivie! Thanks for reading :)
Oops, let's pretend I'm not late to reply, lol.
DeleteNo, I had this sneaking suspicion that the computer was going to go out, so my dad helped me back everything up on a flash drive. When I got my computer, I got my own flash drive, put everything on that, and now I have the reliability that my most important writings are safe. :)
This brings back memories.
ReplyDeleteHeheheh. Yeah, it reminded me of that story where I thought something was funny, read it aloud to you, and was crushed :P I forgot to ask you permission to use your artwork...Oops.
Delete