Heir To Magic

I have started working on Heir to Magic again.  I am approaching it with a new scheme for writing. I started to plot it out using index cards like I had the first time, but I have changed my schemes and am instead going to try recreating the novel entirely in yWriter.

I’ve downloaded the latest edition of yWriter, yWriter5, which was released this past December. I can never thank Simon Haynes enough for allowing his fellow writers to make use of such a wonderful tool for writing. Particularly now as I am striving to get my novel salvaged from the scrambled mess that is my brain, sleep deprivation, stress and cold having made my brain so useless that I am still trying to write this single post over 14 hours after I began working on it.

Writing the novel is going to be a very very slow process. ::sigh::

My first step, after downloading yWriter5, has been to create a new project and put 25 chapters in it. I have now began creating the scenes that I can remember and putting them in chapters that are roughly where the scene will be in the finished novel. I then select “Tools > Display scene list” and bring up a box showing the scenes in the novel along with (among other information) what chapters each scene is in, word counts, POV character and a brief description of the scene. From here I can print this listing to allow me to sit back in a chair, watching the fire in the fireplace as I make notes about what scenes are missing and which ones I need to move around.

I’m currently waiting for my printer driver to download (at 19% as I write this), so I can work on the scenes later tonight, for now, I am going to go find something that might help me wake up some - or maybe take a nap… I haven’t decided.

I’m saddened to say that I have restarted my novel. I did not want to, I was quite happy to finish it off, however… life is apparently determined that I start out 2009 with a full clean slate.

On the 28th of December my computer got infected by the virtumonde virus, resulting in a situation very much like the one this fellow described. I, however, could not get onto anoher computer to access forums for help, and virtumonde disabled everything right down to my ability to print my novel. :::wails!!!::: So, I have been forced to save my laptop by resetting it to factory specifications, and given the hard lesson of why I should backup my writing - OFF MY COMPUTER - every night before I shut down the writing program to surf the Internet or check my e-mail.

Still growling about idiots that have nothing better to do with their time than make viruses and crap like that.

Okay, it is that time of year again, so here is one of my New Years Resolutions - To work on Heir To Magic.

I have neglected the poor story, getting depressed when I lost what I had been working on on yet ANOTHER computer.  I found it on a thumb drive just before Thanksgiving… and lost that thumb drive again.  I am going to find that, then print it out and save to two CDs.  I’ll put the thumb drive and one CD in the safe, the other CD will be a CD-RW I can modify with new copies of the novel from time to time with a monthly backup to the stuff in the safe.  The printout will be for rereading and making notes.  As I add to the novel here on out, I will print each chapter as it is finished.

I keep telling myself to get back to work on this story, but every time I think about needing to work on it I am busy with something else that is currently paying me to work on it instead.  Right now it is a couple of advertisements I am working on for people and some transcription work that I have been given.  The transcription is cool, it is something I have considered more than a few times, so getting the chance to work on a transcription project is really nice.  I’m thinking about adding that to my list of stuff I do, but might hold off and see how I feel about it after I finish with this project.

For now, Heir to Magic is on pause, still, while I try to get through the holidays and into the new year.  I’ll revisit it when I am working on my new year’s resolutions.

I am trying to decide if I would be completely insane to participate in NaNoWriMo this year.  I want to participate, but I also have a lot of other things that I have to do.  I know I write enough to qualify for winning NaNoWriMo ten times over in a month, but to focus all of that onto a single novel…. :::cringe:: I already have a novel in the works.

Now, there is some kind of deal I had seen that let you work on a current novel during that time, but I forget what it was called or where I saw it.  I like the challenge of a new story myself, so I might just go along with my scheme to start book 2 of Heir - rather or not I finish the rough draft of book one by then or not.  I know where book 1 ends, so I could easily start book 2, I just have to decide if I want to do that or not.