Catégorie : Writing project

Diary of a new writing project. Day 10: dig

Today, on my way to daycare, I spotted a archaeological dig. Sort of.

Word count goal for the week: 7 500 words
Word count so far: 4 309

A writing diary is about a writer’s progress with a novel. What is there to improve, change; maybe write about characters arc, story beats.

And write about the inspiring things real life provides sometimes. Today, on my way to daycare, I spotted a archaeological dig. Sort of.

See, in my very small town, there was an old house at the corner of a round-about. Apparently, it once belong to a important figure of the Patriotes movement, a group dedicated to kick the British out of the country. The conflict happened in 1837-1838. The Patriotes lost, some of them were hanged, it was a big deal for the time.
Anyway, this centenary house (can you say that in English?) was destroyed without so much as a warning, out of the blue, order of the Mayor at the time, who always swore the small town would save it from its horrible state – we was forced to quit soon after that.
Scandal! Destroying history like that, without saying a word, after promising to save it! It made the news all over the province.


A big hole surrounded by a cheap gate and angry citizens were all that was left.
Politicians said they would ask archaeologists to analyse the site, which will become… a park maybe (I’ll keep you posted 😉 ).
So today, when I saw actual archaeologists digging on the side of the very big hole, I thought it would be fun if they find something… improbable.

Better yet, what if archaeologist students were to find a improbable something? What that improbable something could raise all the poor souls who drown in the small river basin near by?

Right now, I don’t think I can use those « if’s » in the current YA-WIP.
But a crazy writer on a quest never knows…!

Diary of a new writing project. Day 9: writing in a office

I am also trying something new, for my own sanity, and for the sake of getting through the first draft (or draft zero, if you’re more familiar with that term).

Word count goal for the week: 7 500 words
Word count so far: 3 336 words

I spent the entire day on a office chair. Most of it anyway.
What I really mean to say my butt hurt, my eyes are burning, twinkle twinkle little star is stuck in my head and I just want to go to bed, watch Ghostbusters again (it is the season after all) and call it a night.
But here I am, keeping up with that writing diary project, simply hoping it will be useful to someone.

Changing up the writing routine was not has dreadful as I feared it would be. I couldn’t work on the YA-WIP as much I would have like to, but still, I wrote more than I thought. All thanks to the tips I picked up in one of Chris Fox craft books.
I clear the distractions, Internet included this time, put in some white noise – a show I know by heart – and sprint-write my way through chapter 2.

I am also trying something new, for my own sanity, and for the sake of getting through the first draft (or draft zero, if you’re more familiar with that term).
I will neither revise nor edit until I reach 25 000 words.

Why revise or edit something I might trash anyway? Because it helps me with the story structure, the characters arcs; in one word, it helps with the general flow of it all. Plus, I love working on the writing, on how I can make this description shorter, or more to the point. I keep an eye on repetitive words or turn of phrase, hoping I won’t have to write too many drafts before the novel is ready to send to the publishers (where I live, no literary agent; query is addressed directly to the publishers).

Time for a chocolate pudding. Nope, I didn’t quiet reach the word count goal for today. But close enough for a chocolate pudding.

Writing a novel: Horror vs Spooky

To the point: my current WIP required serious questioning about genre. The story I have in mind could fit in three YA sub-categories. What’s a writer to do, but research and try to find a good answer?
Here’s the result of my research about Horror vs Spooky (Spooky is not a literary genres nor a sub-genre or categories of novels per say, but I like it; I like the definition I came up with anyway. I hope it make sense…).

Spooky

A spooky novel is, in my humble opinion, a story where tolerable fears, scary clowns and zombie baby-sitters are conquered at the end.
Spooky novels are scary in a way, but the hero saves the day and blood is spared… more or less.
Best example of what is a spooky story in my mind is not with a book, but with the tv show « Stranger things« . Spooky, thrilling, awesome. But after binge watching it, I wasn’t scared. I was over excited and I wanted to watch it again. And again.

I do like Spooky stories. I like spooky elements spread out in a good adventure/mystery novel even more.

Horror

On the other end, Horror novels, Horror stories is the pinnacle. Horror goes beyond fear itself. You don’t go back to horror, simply because horror haunts you. It makes you feel uneasy period, even unsafe in your own bathroom at night. Heck, during the day too.

Horror digs deep into our most profound fears as human being; and successfully make things way, way worst.
In a horror novels, nobody needs to tell the reader « things are pretty scary now, aren’t they? » Horror is there, in the words, behind that slowly moving door-nob, on the shoulder of the little moaning thing the character is approaching slow-ly.

Last note for Horror novels

I can’t write horror novels. Impossible. The urban legends I heard back when I was a kid still haunts me to this day (ridiculous, I know, I know).

And if I were to write an horror novel, I wouldn’t actually pitch it as a horror novel. Because the genre in itself is not doing super well.

In his thorough blog post, author Chuck Wendig talks about the dead of the straight off horror novel sections in bookstore and even in the indie market.

Things tend to go dark instead. Dark mystery, dark suspense, dark thriller…

Same goes for many genres. The only trick here is to read a lot and to keep writing!

I hope this post helped clarified a thing or two about the differences between spooky novels and horror novels. Until next time !