WHIPS, WIP(S), WIP
Writing by Jana on Friday, 28 of March , 2008 at 1:09 pm
I have two projects in the works right now. The first (Blood Baptism) is something I started two years ago and promptly abandoned after discovering, much to my chagrin, that writing a novel is really hard.
Revolutionary concept, I know.
The second (Song to the Moon) is almost three months in the works, and is being developed via Forward Motion’s 2 Year Novel writing course. We haven’t started writing the actual novel yet, but are posting “assignments” based on weekly classes. Right now we’re focused on developing characters and then posting snippets of writing about them.
It’s a wonderful course and I’m finding it incredibly helpful to approach writing in such a structured and methodical manner. I decided to apply the structure of 2YN to Blood Baptism, to see if it would help me with that tricky little piece of business.
See, two years ago, I was taking an English Lit. class at the University of Toronto, and much to my delight (and surprise) the professor was an amazing and brilliant man. Ever have the kind of teacher who made you look forward to class? Who constantly challenged your ideas and provided amazing insights into literature like you’ve never experienced before? Well this man was that teacher. He focused alot of the concept of mutual exclusives and it got the little wheels in my head turning. Mutual exclusives deal with one concept or ideal being pushed to it’s limit and thereby turning into it’s opposite. Like good and evil, or chivalry and machiavellianism.
That’s how Blood Baptism was born.
I wanted to take all the standard fantasy tropes and cliches and turn them inside out. The quest, good vs. evil, over-the-top-magic, the wise mentor, the innocent-turned-saviour, the EEEEVIILLLLL overlord — all the things that saturate the fantasy genre to such a tremendous degree — and approach them from an angle of realism.
That is, realism within a world where those things could exist.
What would actually happen in a dystopian world fraught with unhealed scars, prejudices, and a malicious dictatorship, where an ancient prophecy was fulfilled and the trodded-upon placed its hope for salvation in the hands of two innocents? Well for one, not everyone in that society would buy into it; for another, success would most likely be impossible and failure a foregone conclusion.
Not a very shiny-happy premise, but I was obsessed by it. The actual execution was a mess for many different reasons, but I never forgot that story. So now I’m back at it again, and it’s finally coming alive.
Ideas sometimes need a longer gestation period than the writer would like. I’m hoping that Song to the Moon doesn’t have the same growing pains, but it’s too early to tell.
Either way, if you have a chance to participate in 2YN the next time around, take it. It’s free at Forward Motion or you can buy course developer Lazette Gifford’s 2YN book online.
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Comment by Soleil Noir
Made Saturday, 29 of March , 2008 at 12:27 am
Blood Baptism sounds intruing. I hope applying it to the 2YN approach works, I’d love to see it in it’s complete form one day. Good luck with it and I hope you continue to do well with Song to the Moon . 
Comment by C.J. Redwine
Made Monday, 31 of March , 2008 at 10:16 pm
I’m interested in BLOOD BAPTISM. It sounds dark, twisted, and I want to know if my inate desire to believe in a hopeful outcome would be fulfilled or if you could change my mind. 
I know it took me two years to finish my first novel (and another six months to rewrite, rewrite, rewrite until I whipped it into shape) but all that work was worth it because now I know I can do it. Writing a novel is no small feat.
And I like your point about ideas needing a long gestation. Sometimes ideas just spark for me and that’s that but for my current series, it took five months of brainstorming to figure out how to approach my initial foray into the paranormal genre (didn’t want to do yet another vampire/werewolf/witch novel but wanted supernatural elements) and another year to write and really learn my characters and my plot until what was a three book series is now a five book series with agents and editors asking for it. =)
Good luck and I’m glad I found your blog! Love to connect with fellow writers.
Comment by Jana Lubina
Made Tuesday, 1 of April , 2008 at 9:12 am
I’m am so totally go throw a cliche at you: It’s not always the outcome, but the journey.
Oh god I can’t believe I just said that!
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