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Dec. 1st, 2006 07:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nonionaySo Nano is done (I'm at 53,000 odd words. Pretty much a complete first draft except for a couple of sex scenes I'm too burned out to write, and an ending to rewrite.) Now I'm looking forward to giving it a break so I can come back to it fresh in a month or two.
The plan now? Get the first part of Juri ready for Norwescon, and possibly write a short story for that as well. My two short stories right now are an ancient thing, and fluffy Dracula vs the paparazzi. I kinda want to give myself a challenge, since they're allowing two submissions, and short stories can do the Round Robin critique. But that comes second to Juri.
With Juri in mind, I'm re-reading A Game of Thrones. It has a beginning I'll never forget. It starts with a prologue involving characters who have nothing to do with the rest of the book, but the situation they face is arguably the most important one in the entire series. It's also one that is constantly pushed aside because the characters are too busy fighting each other and caring about the throne. In the end, however, you know everyone's going to have to unite to face that ultimate threat. The scene also establishes up front the brutal tone that bugs so many people, but is why I love him. :-)
I haven't gotten to the first chapter yet, but I remember that, aside from the foreshadowing of the book's end in the first scene, it involved everyone together and basically peaceful. Martin's got an enormous cast of characters, so I want to study how he introduces them from the beginning. My number one problem is undoubtedly my tendency to bring in a whole of lot of characters/worldbuilding at once.
I'm also going to read War and Peace (at least the first parts) and whatever other epic political books I can. I seem to remember War and Peace opening with two characters having tea and talking politics. I also remember I loved it. The two characters were very sharply defined early on.
Can anyone think of other books I could read? Any thoughts on introducing a story with mulitple viewpoint characters (three important ones in my case.) Should I bring them all in at once? I was going to open at Bresizha's wedding, where I could show everybody. But now it seems too chaotic.
The plan now? Get the first part of Juri ready for Norwescon, and possibly write a short story for that as well. My two short stories right now are an ancient thing, and fluffy Dracula vs the paparazzi. I kinda want to give myself a challenge, since they're allowing two submissions, and short stories can do the Round Robin critique. But that comes second to Juri.
With Juri in mind, I'm re-reading A Game of Thrones. It has a beginning I'll never forget. It starts with a prologue involving characters who have nothing to do with the rest of the book, but the situation they face is arguably the most important one in the entire series. It's also one that is constantly pushed aside because the characters are too busy fighting each other and caring about the throne. In the end, however, you know everyone's going to have to unite to face that ultimate threat. The scene also establishes up front the brutal tone that bugs so many people, but is why I love him. :-)
I haven't gotten to the first chapter yet, but I remember that, aside from the foreshadowing of the book's end in the first scene, it involved everyone together and basically peaceful. Martin's got an enormous cast of characters, so I want to study how he introduces them from the beginning. My number one problem is undoubtedly my tendency to bring in a whole of lot of characters/worldbuilding at once.
I'm also going to read War and Peace (at least the first parts) and whatever other epic political books I can. I seem to remember War and Peace opening with two characters having tea and talking politics. I also remember I loved it. The two characters were very sharply defined early on.
Can anyone think of other books I could read? Any thoughts on introducing a story with mulitple viewpoint characters (three important ones in my case.) Should I bring them all in at once? I was going to open at Bresizha's wedding, where I could show everybody. But now it seems too chaotic.
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Date: 2006-12-02 11:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-02 07:29 pm (UTC)Mists of Avalon would probably be a good one to look at, yeah. I'm not too fond of the book itself, but I like Marion Zimmer Bradley, and the style is sort of what I'm going for.
Grr... Everyone tells me I stick in too much at once, but then all the books I like as much as I do. >sigh< I can't wait until I'm big enough to get away with that.
A Game of Thrones starts with a short, creepy incident as a prologue, and then the first chapter consists of an immediately interesting event (beheading) and the discovery of wolf pups. Short, interesting events that hold your attention while he tucks in character, setting and political info in with everyone's reactions. And then, a couple chapters later, he has the big party where he really gets to introduce everyone a la War & Peace. I'll probably have to do something like that.