Maths Exams – A Creative Blockade
I have maths exams. I will repeat: I HAVE MATHS EXAMS. The revision gets in the way of story writing and is acting as a creative blockade for my "flow". I can't wait for today to be over then I will finally have done the exams and I can concentrate on what I do best: Write.
Of course in a few weeks I have to do the REAL GCSE Maths *sigh* My writing always seems to be post-poned by some ridiculas thing as an exam. Oh Well..
The Beginning
15000 words and the beginning and opening to the story as a whole is done.My MC has finally discovered himself and his aim and I have had a slight theme switch.
Various things have happened that I didn't want to so another plot revision looks hopeful.
Chamonix to Post-Pone Writing
Well my High School geography feild trip is going to get in the way of me increasing my word count next week, I may have to take a notepad and write there although the exhausting weork there may prevent that.
Tip: Take a notepad everywhere.
(There are spilling mistakes becasue I am on my school’s keyboard)
Enough?
After reaching 14, 000 words I am half way through my plot that was planned to be 100,000 words. I already know that I can expand earlier chapters but I am starting to wonder whether I have enough to write, I may have to re look the plot or lower my target significantly, what ever I do the minimum I shall write is 80,000. I shall have to add in possibley another 40 scenes to write.
Oh Joy… Tip: Plot more than you think.
The 60 Page Mark
Well I wrote 800 words today and I reached the end of my 50th page, I’m really pleased with myself because Im relativley happy with what I have wrote. Yes there are many things that need changing but as I progress into my novel I pick up hints from experianced writers and I include them in my work.
My writing is becoming more mature, I owe this to reading epic fantasy. Reading, apparantly, consciously and subconsciously shapes your writing to be more mature and in turn much better to read.
Well onto page 61…
Mapping – Thinking Bigger
Todays writing tip, and this is from experiance. When you build a world map for your sci-fi or fantasy story always think bigger.
When I built my world I started of sketching a city, then a country and then I expanded to continents. This makes it more realistic, where you story takes place is only the tip of the iceberg. When you start to introduce more world you can get a better idea of where civilisation started and how it expanded, also why some places arn't yet discovered and in turn you may get plot ideas.
So there you have it. Always think bigger.
My WIP – Hell’s Tools
At the moment I have planned and sketched out all characters and begun to write my first "serious" novel. I have called it "Hell's Tools" at the moment because the central conflict revolves around the items.
My word count so far is 11,500 words and I am working through it at a steady 500-1000 words a day, any more and I get tired and my writing becomes bland.
Of course, it is a dark fantasy, and the dark bits are REALLY DARK. Some of the evil things that have happened already make my bones shudder because its some of the most evil, horrific stuff I have ever written.
I love my villain and his backstory, I may even include some first person flash-backs. He is so simple yet so complex, I wanted to avoid the cliched Darth Vader knock off and add some originality into my characters. Apart from my villain I have a really cool cast of characters that I can't wait to pull into my plot (which is constantly changing).
Im really looking forward to completing this, then I will be having my first tast at publishing… Ill just focus on the writing for now. 
Holly Lisle’s Talyn
Well, after waiting two weeks fo AmazonUk to get the book to me I thought I would have a peek at the first chapter on opened the parcel. I read the first page, then I read the next, and the next, and the next. I was hooked onto the book and I read the first 4 chapters before putting the book down (I had to eat).
The Book opens with the main character and her friend, travelling through a normal street in the fantasy world of Hyre. We get to know about the setting and the world where Talyn lives, plus the culture of the Ancient race of Tonk. After than the plot steadily unfolds and Holly tempts us further into the book.
We learn of the base conflict, two waring nations, desperate to win a war that had gone on for three centuries. The Eastil and Tonk fight wars of Magic and Magery, not of sword so it is not surprising that the war flows out of Hyre and into the rest of the world. The mysterious Feegash come from afar and try to make peace, but Holly toys with us by insinuating that the Feegash have their own insidious agendas.
The start is fantastic as I have said and I can't wait until tonight where I shall be reading more of this adult fantasy thriller that combines the perfect balance of plot, characters and world.
Welcome
Welcome to the Dark Elite blog page. This is the first and introductery post to a hopefully long running Blog in the future.
I am Adam, a young teen author who has been starting and only just carrying on with a novel project, my experiance will hopefully benifit young authors as I write various articles on writing and especially novel writing.
Most articles will be on the development of novels and the way I go about starting a project and write. Other on writing articles may be about writing Dark Fantasy and key elements that I use in my work. Either way I hope the posts I submit are of use to you as a young author and will be benificial to your writing.
If you have any questions or comments just leave a comment after a post.
Plotting – The Motivational Way
When I started writing longer stories I went in head first and barracaded thousands of words into the story. Can you guess what happened? The story became blander that an eastender’s repeat. The characters were generic, the plot was “and then this” and nothing was leading anywhere. I would be fooling myself if I was to carry on.
After this failure fifteen thousand words in I went on an expedition on how to plot, there are quirky methods, there are ones based upon scenes you want to write. None worked for me, they all seemed to forceful of getting ideas out and didn’t leave room for me to breath. Plotting should be fun, vibrant and it should get you geared up to write the novel.
So the first thing I do is I take my base idea and write the opening chapter or prologue. Write about the first characters that come to mind, we’ll work on those later, just write an exciting piece that intrigues you and makes you want to build more onto the story. It may end up that you never use this in your final draft of your novel but the fact is it adds enthusiasm to your work.
Done? Right you have your start, the next thing is to vision where is this taking place, is it in our world. If so where? Is it in your made up world. If it is then you will need to world build. I usually start with a map of the world or city and create it around the location of the first piece I do. After this ideas start to bounce around.
Next thing to do is if your first scene is about the villain, you need a hero or vice-versa. When you have the 2 main characters you need an ending, what do you want achieved at the end of the novel, does your main character live. Of course you only have skeletons of characters at this stage, your 3D characters come alot later.
When you have your beginning and end you can start working on the middle or extend the beginning, you will need to introduce your main character in the first few chapters/scenes so you need an interesting action packed start for him/her. Then you will need a scene about you MC going from danger to more danger, you will need to constantly work on building towards your ending.
This worked for me, it will work for you, it will make you want to carry on to the end.
