Thanks for the advice on POV FencerforJesus! I didn't think of it that way before.
I finally, after a year and a half, got my new computer and have started to get all my writing and notes together!
I'm so happy! I bought this program called Scrivener, it's for writers and it is really helpful in organizing and writing.

I've submitted my manuscript for my spiritual warfare novel to Oak Tara Publishers. Now it's a 3-4 month (or less) waiting game to see if they want to take it. Oak Tara can market to Barnes and Nobel as well as Christian Book Distributors, where I currently cannot reach. My hold up on my sequel right now is job applications now that my teaching certificate was posted this past week.

Ithil, for descriptions I think everyone's given a whole load of wonderful advice. Personally I try to follow two rules.

1) Don't put in unimportant details.

For example. In that hallway LC was using, scene description of perhaps the ceiling or the wall decorations would only be relevant if it sets the mood or interacts with the character thereby making it an important detail. JK Rowling is a master at this.

2) Since I write mostly 1st person I try to describe the room as the character interacts with it.

This serves two purposes. One, it describes the room and two it provides action interspersed with the dialogue. This can still be used in other POVs. It's the difference between the knight in the above example noticing the crack in the floor from the moment he entered the hallway versus discovering it with his foot and perhaps freezing for a moment with the pain of a stubbed toe. The latter is much more interesting than saying "Halfway down the hall a crack split the floor in two".

Fencer, good luck with both the novel and the job applications.

~Anna

Oh, great tips Menelve! Funny, but I just got this article in my inbox and it basically just expounds on what you just said! lol

So, on subject... Previously mentioned article on imagery is awesome.

So, on subject... Previously mentioned article on imagery is awesome.

That article confused me. I don't see any difference between the sentences they use as an example of what's right, and the sentence at the end which they say is wrong.

It makes sense in the first examples, because the first examples of what's wrong takes the focus off the characters entirely and just has the narrator describe the scenery without any regard to character perspective. Then it makes a good comparison by showing a better way of doing it - incorporating the characters and their viewpoint.

But when it reaches the last example:

The ancient floorboards creaked beneath her cold, bare feet as she paced the room apprehensively.

^^ That incorporates the characters just like their positive examples do. But it's used as an example of what not to do... I don't see too much wrong with that sentence (although I would remove the word "apprehensively" ).

On a side note:

The pine limbs now bent like those of a Christmas tree. A fresh breeze chilled her skin.
“Bill,” she whispered. “Speak to me...speak to me, Bill.”
But he did not. All she could hear was snorting and thrashing. She put a hand to her mouth. She thought she might scream but nothing came out of her mouth. Fear of attracting the bear kept her quiet. The pitch on her hand glued her lips shut.

In this example meant to show the correct way of doing descriptions, why would they think it's a good idea to compare something with a Christmas tree, when the focus of the moment is a nearby bear and a friend dead/unconscious?

~Riella

I have to admit, editing is a tedious task, and it tends to give me a bit of a headache Though I am doing August CampNaNo, I am still faithfully editing my NaNo novel every day. I have a couple of people nipping at my heels to get Dragon Eyes finished, so I edit a little every day and hope to have the second draft competed by mid August and around the beginning of September have it fully completed

For about a month now, I've been staring at my half-way done revision of my sequel and I simply cannot get myself motivated to work on it. It's not writer's block because I know where it is supposed to go, but I just can't get myself to work on it. Very annoying.

I'm getting really frustrated with this story. I've been working on it for four years, and I don't seem to be any closer to finishing it. Right now my problem is a minor character I really like, but who is supposed to have died by the next book (this is a prequel.) However, since I really like her, I don't want her to die (and seriously, enough people die in this book already, its depressing.) However, she probably wouldn't appear in the next book anyway, so it wouldn't make much difference. Besides, she's the mother of the main character in the next book, and I'm sick of the mother always being dead . . . Any thoughts?
(Its a major part of the protagonist's character that he was raised by his older sister. I tried to work out a compromise that had his mother being sick instead of dead, but I'm not sure whether that will work or not.)

That's tough, Lady Haleth. If you want, maybe you could figure out an alternative to death that would somehow remove her physically from the situation. She could run away. Go on a long trip. Be sold into slavery. Be taken prisoner. Things like that.

Or, she could always be absent mentally. She doesn't necessarily have to go insane, but maybe something intensely tragic happened and due to that, her brain shut down. Maybe she sits in bed all day because she literally cannot shake the depression and oppressive emotions, and thus it is that she can't take care of her child. They did something similar to this in The Hunger Games—Katniss' mom wasn't dead, but she was mentally absent, which forced Katniss to step up to the plate and care for her younger sister. I think the fact that her mom wasn't dead added a whole other dimension to the plot, because Katniss resented the fact that her mom couldn't pull it together.

Those are some ways you could avoid having the mom be dead. One doesn't need to be dead to be out of the picture. Be creative, and most of all, enjoy the process! You could really have some fun with this one.

I finally got a really great program for writing!
I've been creating detailed Bios for each of my characters, places and a brief history. I think it really helps me when writing to have it all laid out and ready to go.
Now if only I could motivate myself to really get to writing my actual story.
But at least I'm getting something done.

I recently gave my NaNo novel to read to one of my friends and she gave a real positive response to it, it was so nice to hear, I am real nervous about giving anything I write to anyone, cause I know I'm really not good at it, but in order to get better I have to have other people read it. She loved my book and even told me I have a writing style that resembled Tolkien, which was a REAL nice compliment coming from her . Right now I'm writing a short story and am posting it chapter by chapter for some of my friends to read, so they can critisize and tell me what they think as I am writing it, it's a lot of fun as they point out the things that they don't like, or they think should be changed, and that way it almost feels like we are writing the story together I hope to have it finished by the time November comes around

My most recent writing endeavor is actually going pretty well. In other words I'm coming up with the major plot ideas chronologically so I haven't gotten too badly stuck yet. I'm stuck at the moment cuz I'm trying to come up with a name for a minor character... I stink at naming characters I also have yet to name the major antagonist... but hey naming villains is so overrated, right? In all seriousness though... I will get to that, but it probably won't be until the 2nd draft

Right now it's focusing on two friends who are on the run from a corrupt group that has taken over the government. There's some fantasy elements and some romance elements getting tied in at the moment (which is odd because I never write romance, but I figured I'd try something new - it's predominately fantasy-based though.) By the time I'm done (if I ever get done) I'm sure you'll end up getting some sci-fi elements in as well That always happens when I try to write fantasy XD

This is actually the reason I'm probably gonna skip out on NaNo this year... I'm doing to well to stop or switch gears at the moment

An author's worst reviewer is self. I too feared having my first piece of work read by another but I was surprised as most first timers are.

Names? My writing bane. I hate coming up with names for characters, book titles, chapter titles, etc. For characters, I have sifted through baby name websites and for characters/places/etc that are definitely in a foreign language, I'll search for a language translator on line and get various words/phrases in Latin, Greek, or something else. For my books it's necessary because I have two very distinct story lines and worlds. So to make it easy for my readers to know which world they are in, when I switch between them, I have a very distinct naming style so there is no confusion between the two world.

And speaking of my works, I will NOT be doing NaNao even though I will have time this year. I am now focused on trying to get my sequel done. I'm sure I have 50,000+ words to go but I'm not going to put it aside to start a new NaNo novel. This next week, I am going to be contacting Oak Tara Publishing in regards to seeing if they want to pursue my first book. I submitted it to them back at the end of June and they told me to wait 12-16 weeks before contacting them about it. So next week will be week 15/16. Oak Tara Publishing can get my book out to Barnes and Noble and Christian Book Distributors which is exactly the type of marketing I need. Just pray that they take it.

*wanders over to the Writing thread with two purposes for posting*

First purpose - something interesting happened the other day. My sister and I were talking to a girl at a church gathering whose family had come for the first time. We asked her what books she liked to read and had a quick chat about that. Suddenly she said, "I like to write as well!" I said that I did, too, and asked her what she liked to write. When explaining, she said, "There's this site called ... NaNoWriMo." I was like "?!?!?! " I've never heard about NaNo outside of Narniaweb, so that was pretty fantastic. Didn't have anywhere to share it, so figured here would be appropriate!

Second purpose - April is far away and so is the Screnzy forum, so I guess I can ask a Screnzy question here? I was wondering, what are the rules for Screnzy? Can you write a script for an existing book, provided you give complete and full credit to the author and DO NOT plagiarize and if you're not intending on making it public in any way (such as, you will keep it only with your family and not use it publicly at all and will keep it at home) at present or in the near or even seemingly far future? Or is that not allowed, if you have not asked the publisher? And even if not for Screnzy, is this allowed, in general?

Second purpose - April is far away and so is the Screnzy forum, so I guess I can ask a Screnzy question here? I was wondering, what are the rules for Screnzy? Can you write a script for an existing book, provided you give complete and full credit to the author and DO NOT plagiarize and if you're not intending on making it public in any way (such as, you will keep it only with your family and not use it publicly at all and will keep it at home) at present or in the near or even seemingly far future? Or is that not allowed, if you have not asked the publisher? And even if not for Screnzy, is this allowed, in general?

Wouldn't that fall under the category of fanfiction? Because if fanfiction were illegal, I doubt fanfiction.net would be able to stay up as long as it has. And I've heard that fanfiction is allowed for NaNo and Screnzy.

~Riella