Here's a fun thought I had... A new thread where all of our novelists can tell everyone about where they are in their book! Post your current scene and let everyone know what you're up to! Really I'm just interested in all of the weird and wonderful things the WritingForums members have come up with. Alright, I'll kick it off... My protagonist, an airline Captain, has just landed at Miami airport (his hometown). He's driving to his beachfront house after a substantial trip with his crew, smoking a blunt (that's marijuana cigar to all of you socially polite people) which he left on the floor of his car before the flight as he barrels down the highway. I did throw in a bit of post hoc fallacy as well. Can't be too simplistic with the drug use.
Not a horror scene or story but ... My mc is journeying through a pitch black tunnel with a sort of friend/guide. They're slithering along on their bellies and the mc, a newbie, is trying not to panic as he knows they have at least another mile till they reach the light. But then some unexpected company arrives ... rats.
My MCs, who are twins, regained their memory, thus rediscovering they had powers. However, they made a vow not to use it for fear of the "evil villain corporation."
Sorry. I'd normally take great delight in posting to a thread like this, but I've leaned that sharing details of my WiP greatly diminishes my enthusiasm for it. I'm keeping scthumn about this one, and it's certainly helping to prolong my interest.
At the moment I am writing the first section, this is the background. I am almost happy enough with it to move on to the first story section.
Purposely not going into too much detail here, but in the scene my MC is in transit coming home after a long time gone, to a world that seems much different than the one he left.
I'm in the middle of re-banging the plot into shape, a sort of from-the-theme-up thing. Sorry. No details. Not that I'm being coy, I'm still working them out and they're likely to all change by morning.
MC1: Preparing to make a pit stop on Mars to retrieve something and field test MC3 a little before going total balls out war. Struggling with a few hard mental destabilizing issues, and quite possibly going to get pushed over the edge and get stuck in seventh gear, going on an extremely messy rampage. MC2: Feeling nervous about using nukes. Taking pride in his training abilities of MC3. Wondering if the arrival of another species in an alliance will be enough to win the war. Questioning there intentions for traveling so far out of the way to help. MC3: Just finished PT, and is off to breakfast. Comparing her old 'profession' to the ones responsible for dissecting her patient. It is rather peculiar to have a torturess compare herself to a team of Terran Military scientists, based upon ethics and morality in the nature and mindset. Seems one evil versus another is fascinating and disturbing.
MC has just discovered that she has more abilities than a normal dreamwalker. She is training with a leader of sorts to figure out how far her abilities can go.
The opening scene... how have I not written it yet? Is there something wrong with me; am I a failure to this book? Why do I feel dead on the inside? I kid, I kid. But seriously, opening scene.
In my scene the MC's boyfriend finally admitted he was being a jerk and hated what he'd become, made a critical proposition to help her rescue some endangered kids which she'll be devastated if she can't do something about and decided to help the guy he's jealous of get something important in the intertwined interaction. But.... the critique group said, (like they always do when I write my happy endings ), that it was too easy, the boyfriend shouldn't be that perfect yet. So, I'm switching it up. He's not yet offering to help her rescue the kids but he'll reluctantly decide to help the other guy get the thing he needs. His motive now will be the sooner he helps the guy the sooner he gets rid of the guy and my MC has to accept that much while she continues to internally fall apart with guilt over not being able to help the kids. My critique group has incredible insight.
Have they been following your story? I find it easier to give ( story help not just critique ) when I've actually been following the story. They are now out of the tunnel ... about to eat some delicious rat stew. Haven't decided if the mc will choke it down or turn it down. He is thinking about the irony of putting the final bite on the rats though.
My critique group has critiqued my work chapter by chapter since its inception. But even then they can forget what went before, and sometimes what went before has completely changed and they've not seen the changes. But in the long run, I get what they are saying and that's why it works.
I'm doing that very unhelpful and unproductive thing of obsessing over my first chapter rather than actually finishing the damn novel. I wish I hadn't read so many of those "you must grab the publisher's attention from the VERY FIRST WORD! Make every single word of Chapter 1 ABSOLUTE DYNAMITE or they will shred your manuscript and use it as toilet paper!" articles... So, in short, I'm writing nothing.
I agree I'm not crazy about this advice either and it should only be given at the point when a writer is in polishing drafts. That way the writer can get the story out and then go back and see if the beginning is worth keeping.
Never obsess over the first chapter in the beginning. Write it, move on, and when you are ready, come back to it and fix it. I've changed my first chapter 5 or 6 times now (I'm losing track). I'm not talking about editing, I'm talking about major changes and it's still not in it's final form. On a lighter note, I just had an incredible epiphany about how I'm going to end the book. (Guess I should put that in my journal.)
You sound exactly like me. I've completely re-written it to many times and I know it's got to be changed all over again. Yet, I've known how the novel will end since the very beginning!
I usually work on multiple scenes at the same time and write a bit for both of them. Right now i'm in the middle of writing the scene where the MC and his lodger go on a road trip to get the lodger's belongings back from an abusive ex. Also working on a bit earlier on where the MC fakes an accident in order to get hospitalized so he can threaten some doctors...you know as you do.
My bloody query. Oh, and the first chapter of the sequel to the book I'm writing the query for. I always snarked at the first chapters of sequel books where they try to squeeze everything from book 1 into one reminiscing moment. Little did I know the horror... D: So yeah, my MC is lying in his bed by his fellow... student-acolyte-things, unable to sleep, with the PTSD of the first novel ringing through his mind.
Just wrote the tail end of one of my WiPs (hadn't started the main proper story, just the end), where the MC is reeling with the horror that the American Civil War, a war she hoped wasn't going to happen, has just begun following the Confederate bombing of Fort Sumter. I hope I'm maintaining the balance of horror without making it too melodramatic.
