Archive for the ‘The Winds of Winter fantasy poem’ Category
Writing vs. Writing About Writing
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
In spite of having emergency dental work that included two root canals, and in spite of a persistent case of influenza and the perpetual headaches it seems to have left me with, I’ve made a highly productive time out of the last couple of months.
I’ve done a lot of work on The Winds of Winter:
- I finished three scenes near the end of the poem. That leaves me with the last scene (or perhaps two more scenes) to write. I now know how the whole plot develops, and it’s only a matter of execution.
- I’ve rewritten two scenes at the beginning of the poem, to improve the story setup.
- I wrote another scene that belongs in the revised beginning — either the whole thing, or the guts of it. Maybe I’ll decide it needs a few lines of fleshing out, but I’ve got most of it.
All of this means that I’m well on track to finishing the first draft of The Winds of Winter this year — probably early this year — after ten years! (I started writing it in 1999.)
And that’s why I’ve been quiet. I write about writing when my story is stalled — when I’m too tired to keep writing metered verse, or when I’ve hung up on the plot, or don’t know how to approach a scene. When my story-writing is going well, I don’t want to interrupt it for complicated essays about writing.
So I’ve been story-writing.
Merry Christmas, all.
Still Working on The Winds of Winter
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
Sooner or later, fatigue is going to catch up to me, and I’ll have to take a break. But right now I’m still working on The Winds of Winter.I’ve one more scene left to go in the first draft — the end. (OK, probably one more scene. I won’t swear there aren’t two, but I think one will wrap it up.)
I haven’t started it yet, though. I’ve begun revisions on an early scene, with an eye to improving the story setup. I’m working this way partly because I happen to have the ideas for the revisions now and don’t see any point in waiting, and partly because restructuring the beginning might inform my treatment of the end.
I’ve been planning a First Draft Cake — after so many years, writing the last word of the last scene deserves a celebration. (I started writing this story in 1999.) And I’m beginning to contemplate what it will be like not to be writing Winter.
There are more stories to be told about some of Winter’s characters, but I don’t know what form they’ll take yet. And my next fictional project will probably be something unrelated.
The Winds of Winter
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
I’ve sent three new scenes of The Winds of Winter to my first readers. That, probably, means I have only the last scene left to go in the first draft.
I thought I was going to take a break, but I’m going to second draft right away, because I think I’ve seen how the I can improve the structure of the beginning. If that works, then I’ll take a break between the second draft and the polish draft.
The Challenge of Description
Monday, October 26th, 2009
A few weeks ago I was working on a late scene in The Winds of Winter, and it wasn’t coming together. I was wondering whether I should introduce an element that Shazemar (a sorcerer, the main character) deals with in my imagination, but which I hadn’t written into the story so far.
Somewhat coincidentally, I came across the Story Structure posts at Storyfix.com, and decided as a result of reading them that, yes, I did need to introduce that element, because pacing in the late scenes demanded a turn in the story rather than merely the progression of foreseeable events. But if I don’t set this element up early, it feels forced and arbitrary when I work it into the late scene.
I also could improve the story if I structured the beginning so that it posed more questions not immediately answered.
Both of these things indicate that I need to add material to the beginning.
Currently, Shazemar’s introduction is some ways in. The introductory scene is good. I wish I could move it right after “The Incantation of the Dragoness,” the opening scene, but both the action and the plot-significant remarks in it can’t happen any earlier. And I need to cover some of what Shazemar’s up to before. So I need a new scene.
Thing is, Shazemar’s introduction is the scene that presently contains the ‘who are the (west) Debroans?’ material — the descriptions that give some idea of who they are, as a race and as a culture. The character description in this scene is in two blocks: first, of the group that’s travelling, so you get a general idea of the Debroans; then later of Shazemar as an individual. So it’s broken up. I don’t have one long chunk of description that makes the reader’s eyes glaze over because it’s too much to assimilate at once.
I tried writing a new earlier scene in which Shazemar is alone, and I’ve been having a problem with it. My description of Shazemar as an individual is good, but it doesn’t have adequate cultural cues, and I’m having a hard time working them in, because it makes the description too long. In my experience, you can ask people to focus on 3-4 elements of a description to form an impression. But if you start adding more than that, you have more an inventory than an image: the mind doesn’t form a coherent impression of so many items. I haven’t successfully licked this problem in this new scene.
I have an idea for a different approach to it, which I’m going to start on now. We’ll see if it works.
On other matters:
I still have more root canal work to be done, and I have a sinus infection. I will be updating, but not very efficiently. Look for a new section of Sigurd this week.
Next post will probably be about cultural cues in description. (Actually, the next post in the series turned out to be about first impressions in description).
The Title’s Back to Winds
Sunday, September 20th, 2009
After thinking about it, and kicking it around with the inestimable folk who hang around in chat at Forward Motion for Writers, I’ve decided to call my epic fantasy poem The Winds of Winter anyway, whether George R. R. Martin uses the title for an upcoming work or not.
- Titles aren’t copyrightable.
- At the rate he’s writing, I may finish first; and his title may change between now and then anyway.
- I always expected to subtitle the poem to give the reader some clue as to what it is. (The Winds of Winter: A Fantasy in Verse) or something.
- If his books comes out titled The Winds of Winter, and anyone searches for that title, my poem will come out on page 87. Then, anyone who knows that the poem exists and is looking for it would surely be smart enough to search for ‘winds winter poem’ on the second try.
- It fits the poem too well to give up.
New Epic Poetry Title
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
I’m calling the poem Dragon Winter. I’m not nearly as fond of that as I was of The Winds of Winter, but it does a reasonably good job of telling the reader what the story’s about, and I need to make a change quickly.
I’ve updated all, or almost all, the references in this journal and on the rest of the site.
My Fantasy Poem Needs a New Title
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
I just discovered that George R. R. Martin is going to use The Winds of Winter as a title for a forthcoming book. That means I need to retitle my epic fantasy poem. Titles aren’t copyrightable, but the confusion would result in all references to my poem getting buried under much more numerous references to Martin’s book.
It’s too bad, because The Winds of Winter was such a fitting title for the poem. But I’ll have to come up with something else.
Writing Dragon Winter
Monday, July 27th, 2009
I think yesterday morning’s writing will stand. (I’m working on Dragon Winter.) I tweaked it tonight. It’s a little too early for me to be sure I can keep it, because I can’t yet read it from as distant a perspective as I need to judge it.
I’ve also been trying to figure out what goes into my current scene besides a description of the action. I think I need the physical description to connect the previous scene with the following scene, but I don’t like a scene to accomplish only one thing.
It’s been suggested that a scene can do four things: develop character, develop the setting, develop the theme, or advance the plot. A good scene will accomplish at least two of these things.
I have some preliminary ideas, but it’s getting late and I’m probably going to sleep on it before I work more on the current scene.
She Saw the Moon over Milford Haven
Sunday, July 26th, 2009
I’m singing “Milford Haven,” by the Oyster Band, because I found that I can fly!
I finished a new scene of Dragon Winter last night, after finally realizing that the female main character’s reactions had to be expressed non-verbally. I’ve got a few scenes written ahead, so that leaves me with one crucial section left to write.
I’ve been working on this fantasy poem for ten years. There’ve been many times when it looked as if I couldn’t pull it off. Now I see that I’m going to. I’m elated.
I’ve set this week aside mostly for writing. (You can still expect the Norse verse form series to continue.)
The end is now in sight.
My Fantasy Poem, and the Hang Gliders Thereof
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009
The Poetry Friday roundup this week is at Susan Taylor Brown’s blog. I’ve been out, or writing, today, and haven’t read the poems yet.
Tonight I worked on my fantasy poem. I haven’t been feeling good enough to write, so I was glad to get back to it. I believe its title is going to be The Winds of Winter. The winds are a recurring motif, and they seem to be symbolically appropriate. And, besides, this title alliterates; that’s a hint to the style of the poem.
Later: I discovered that George R. R. Martin is going to be using The Winds of Winter for a forthcoming book, so I had to change the title of the poem. It’s now Dragon Winter.
I’m not writing in the accentual-alliterative meter I’ve been discussing in conjunction with Tolkien’s The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun: the poem is in blank pentameter, the same meter as Paradise Lost. I don’t have a formal scheme for alliteration, but I do it fairly frequently, as you can see from the opening scene, “The Incantation of the Dragoness.”
Right now I’m working on lines where I need to describe a hang glider aglow with magic as it flies into ice clouds, from the ground.
The poem isn’t urban fantasy: the culture I’m writing about somewhat resembles those of the steppe nomads of medieval Central Asia — if they had invented silk-and-bamboo hang gliders and had working sorcery of a rather scientific flavor.
About the gliders:
No, they weren’t inspired by Aang’s glider in the Avatar series (which I’m quite fond of). I started Dragon Winter in February of 1999, long before Avatar. And my gliders look very much like full-sized hang gliders.
No, they weren’t inspired by the gliders in Dinotopia. That’s a fine book — but I only read it a few weeks ago, after a friend asked me about it. Way back when I was starting Dragon Winter, I asked my father, an engineer, if it were conceivable that anyone could have built hang gliders before modern times if anyone had figured out how. He said that he thought silk and bamboo might solve the strength-of-materials problem. I suspect James Gurney may have had similar reasons for picking the same materials.
I probably would have written gliders into the poem anyway, on the theory that the Debroans could have employed enchantment to make sufficiently strong materials if necessary, but I like to have my devices work as naturally as they can. So I was pleased to make my quasi-medieval hang gliders out of silk and bamboo.
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