Hi, everyone.
I have been heads-down in some very intense revisions on Magic by Starlight, and so I seem to be reverting to a once-a-week blog schedule. I love blogging, but demands on my time have been very intense lately, and the time I do have to myself is not entirely to myself, so during the time I have left, I work on my revisions.
Piece of advice: be very careful about brushing off a work you wrote long ago.
The quality of my writing has changed since then. I would rush through scenes, and it wasn’t always clear that I had a goal for such scenes. The discards file is of epic length. And now I am considering converting the entire thing to third person in order to give two male characters a point-of-view. And I know myself. When I am considering doing something like this, I usually end up doing it.
If it weren’t for the fact that I loved this story, and that it had rave reviews by my beta partners, I would be working on East of Yesterday. Heck, I probably should be working on East of Yesterday. But much as I love East of Yesterday, my heart is in fantasy and I would like to find success there first.
This is a fantasy with romantic elements that I am trying to keep light. Most fantasies have romantic subplots, and I think they are enhanced when they do. However, some romantic elements are barely there, and some are more romance than fantasy. It depends on whether you would characterize the romantic plot as on equal billing or greater as the main plot.
For Magic by Starlight, I would characterize it as the prominent subplot, but it is definitely not on equal billing as the main plot. I am reading a romance right now in order to figure out where my story stands, and I definitely do not have my characters practically buzz and thrum in each other’s presences, so I think I am safely in the romantic elements category. 🙂
With that, I’d better get ready to go to work. I have two reviews I am working on, and when I get a good draft of my query together, I’ll post it for your feedback. So I have a few posts brewing, but they are on a low simmer.
What have you been up to? Got anything exciting going on?
Good luck with your revisions. {Smile}
I’d say work on what you really want to work on. Readers – including editors – often notice that because it will come thru in your writing, very much for the better. {Smile}
As for myself, I have two tsunami stories and a plainsfire story competing for my attention right now. {Smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
Don’t get me wrong; I love East of Yesterday. But I am still in the middle of it, whereas with Starlight, I am in revision mode, not drafting.
Yesterday is more historical than fantasy, but it does have fantasy elements, and the plot could not take place without them. It is also a more serious story, and more literary. And I don’t know if it can work out into a series.
Magic by Starlight is pure fun.
Sometimes ti’s just plain easier to work on revisions instead of the initial draft. Since revisions are necessary, too, that’s not really a problem; it’s just a fact of life. {Smile}
I understand the differences. I remembered the time travel, which tends to be science fiction if you cna see a machine, and fantasy the rest of the time. Still, it isn’t the same as high fantasy, where even the history is what you say it is. {Smile}
Personally, my fiction turns out best with the freedom to make up everything. I know it has it’s own problmes, but i find it frees me to conentrate on “what if?” {Smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
Oh, yes. With the time travel story, I am forever looking up odd facts on the Internet. By Magic by Starlight, while a secondary world, is heavily based on Regency, England. I have only taken a few literary licenses, such as making firearms slightly more advanced than they would have been. I am even keeping the language appropriate, but I am trying to keep a balance between the language and not sounding too archaic for the modern reader.
For example, I have opted not to use the word “office” as in a trusted assignment–“Will you perform this office for me?”
But I kept it in a secondary world because I wanted to have the freedom to create a certain political situation, instead of shoehorning it into actual events.
That’s the advantage of setting a story in a secondary world: when you want things a certain way for the story, history, politics, and other “facts” you have to adhere to in our world don’t apply. So there are fewer problems that way. {Smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
You’re right about the danger of digging up old stories. (Yeah, I know that from firsthand experience. Unfortunately.) I’m still glad you decided to dig this one up. 🙂
Thanks, Chicory!! 🙂
I experimented with changing it from first to third person and I like the result very much. It would give me the chance to explore the two male characters more deeply. So I will probably proceed with that when I finish these changes.
I’m knee deep in revision at the moment, which means I will look for ANYTHING to distract me… I think my cat needs another bath…
Ha! I’m that way while drafting. But I <3 revisions!