planning – Emilie Morscheck

2021 Goals – Mid-year review

Because every professional needs goals, I set out some writing goals for 2021 in December last year. I thought now we are half-way through 2021, that I should revisit these goals and see how my progress is tracking.

These Cursed Waters

Submit to at least 30 Agents by 31st December – Since the beginning of this year, I have submitted These Cursed Waters for 22 opportunities, so I think I’m well on track to achieve this goal by the end of the year.

The Selkie Curse

A submission-ready draft by 31st May
- Including: Manuscript, Query Letter, Synopsis – I haven’t yet finished my edits for TSC, I estimate I will have everything done by the end of August. Only the synopsis has been revised and is ready to go. Between the pandemic, a full-time day-job and the end of financial year, it’s been hard to find the time and creative energy to edit.
~~A revised synopsis for book 2 by 30th June~~ – Done! I even finished this one a few days early!

Bleed For Me

~~Do outline review by 31st January~~ – Done!
First draft done by 30th September – Currently at 39% and due to finish by 13 November based on my 500 words per day average. I’ll likely still make my original deadline as I tend to write faster towards the end and get excited by my next project.
Start the structural edit in December – Should be achievable if everything goes to plan. I like to leave my manuscript at least a month before I do any edits.

Other Projects

~~Untitled new series #1 book 1 outline by 31st March~~ – Done! The working title for this book is Embers.
Untitled new series #2 book 1 outline by 30th November – I need to decide which project this will be, but I have several in the ideation phase which I’m excited to explore.

Other Activities (because sometimes you can’t predict the cool opportunities that will come up)

I have written 4 out of my 5 blog posts on editing TSC as part of my outreach for the Anne Edgeworth Fellowship
I got TSC submitted to my editor on time for the manuscript assessment
I have become more involved with my local writers guild, the CSFG and met some really cool people
On June 14, I achieved one year of writing 500 words a day. It’s well and truly a part of my daily routine
I completed by 2021 reading challenge to read 50 books – I might have to set a higher goal for next year!
I participated in CampRevPit on Twitter which was a whole load of fun

Overall, this has been a busy year for me, and not just for writing. I still have quite a lot left to do, but at least we’re only halfway through the year! In December, I will post my full reflection on my goals and create my goals for 2022.

Musings

Undertaking a Structural Edit: Part 1 – Planning

In 2020, I was awarded the Anne Edgeworth Fellowship to develop my manuscript, The Selkie Curse. The fellowship is generously funding a manuscript assessment and a mentorship. Along with the funds and my project work, those who win the fellowship are expected to undertake some community outreach. This post is the first in a series that I will be writing over the next few months about the process of structural editing. I hope to share my progress as well as any insights I uncover into the challenging task of editing my own novel.

About The Selkie Curse: Elsa and her mother, Queen Tiari, are at war with the Fisherman Kingdom. The young king of the Fishermen blames Queen Tiari for his father’s death, and he is set to destroy Tiari’s queendom. It is up to Elsa, and her best friend Aada, to find a way to end the war and save their home.

My first step in performing a structural edit was to plan it all out. I spent several days collecting every resource I had from workshops, theory books and editors, to compile a master list of tasks to be done. It was huge and needed a lot more structure in order to execute. So, I did what any sane person would, and made a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet with multiple tabs and tables.

I then broke down all of my information into stages of how I would tackle each component of the structural edit. The plan was to start at the highest level of my novel and work my down to the line-level detail. With everything in order, and the spreadsheet looking pretty, I was ready to start my re-read.

I left my manuscript for two months before starting the re-read. In the meantime I began working on another project to help distance myself from the plot, characters and world. This gave me a fresh perspective on the first draft. What did I find in that first re-read? Lots of mistakes. Spelling, grammar, what have you. But there was no time to fix those. I highlighted everything that stood out as important or terrible prose and moved on. The re-read also gave me a good sense of what did and didn’t work with the manuscript. Flat character arcs, timelines that didn’t add up and shallow worldbuilding.

Using my magic spreadsheet, I set about describing the book as how it was versus what I want to be at the highest level. Did the opening ask a question? Was that question answered at the end of the book? Were my acts balanced? Who is my target audience? What is my main genre? With all of these answered I felt ready (if nervous) to proceed. There was a lot to do!

I was fortunate to meet with my mentor, the lovely and wisdom-filled Leife Shallcross. She shared a fascinating insight into her trials in structural editing and helped me to unpick some of my nastier problems. She also issued me a challenge – to assign my book AO3 tags (more about tags here). I’ve given it a go here:

#LGBTQ Themes
#Slow Burn
#Angst
#Feelings
#mythical beings
#enemies to lovers
#blood
#family secrets
#ballroom dancing
#environmentalism

My next post will be about how I went about fixing the big issues across my manuscript. In the meantime, I will be working hard on the edits!

My key insights from the last few weeks:

Give yourself a break from the manuscript, you’ll be surprised at how much needs work, but also how much solid gold you have that will just need polishing.
Keep breaking down the tasks until they seem easy or at least manageable. Can it be done in under and hour? Will you clearly know when that task is done?
Start at the highest level of your manuscript. What is your dramatic question? Is it in the opening paragraph/scene/chapter? Do you answer it by the end of the manuscript?

Musings

2021 Goals

Because every professional needs goals, here are my writing goals for 2021:

These Cursed Waters

Submit to at least 30 Agents by 31st December*

The Selkie Curse

A submission-ready draft by 31st May
- Including: Manuscript, Query Letter, Synopsis
A revised synopsis for book 2 by 30th June

Bleed For Me

Do outline review by 31st January
First draft done by 30th September
Start the structural edit in December

Other Projects

Untitled new series #1 book 1 outline by 31st March
Untitled new series #2 book 1 outline by 30th November

In 2021, I’ll be taking a step back from writing short stories. I will continue to submit what I have, but I have so many ideas for novels that I want to start putting them down.

What are your goals for 2021? How do you plan to achieve them?

*Edited 3/01/2021: Was originally 5 submissions but that was too easy. I’ve changed it to be 5 every 2 months.

Writing Tips

Creating Compelling Character Arcs

I’ve been planning a new trilogy (Bleed For Me), and for the first time, I’ve really delved deep into character creation. A new area of interest for me is in planning character arcs.

There are a few kinds of arcs that a character can go through: transformation, growth, fall and static. In all of these arcs except for the static arc, the character will change in some way. The transformation and growth arcs are very similar, but the transformation arc requires the characters core beliefs to change. With a growth arc, the character can become stronger, more powerful or more skilled, but their beliefs don’t necessarily have to be challenged. The fall arc involves the character losing their way and is often associated with the antagonist.

To help me work out a balanced character arc. I’ve developed a method which involves choosing the kind of arc, and determining the narrative purpose for the character. After that, I work out what I want my character to look like at the end of the book (or series), and work backwards to the beginning of the book. Working backwards helps trick your brain into making sure each step is logical and will help reach the end goal.

It looks a bit like this (downloads at the end):

This worksheet assumes that the character will go through a transformation arc.

Filled out, it looks something like this:

Claudine is one of the main characters in my new series. I decided that I want to give her a transformation arc over the course of three books. The image above includes her arc from the first book in the trilogy.

My first step was to determine her narrative purpose – why I felt compelled to write her, and what I hoped to use her to illustrate. This could be expressed as a statement or question. In Bleed For Me, the question I want to use Claudine to answer is:

How do you become strong enough to face your past?

I used this question to inform the larger themes of the book as well as suggest the journey Claudine will go through. It also helps suggest the end state for Claudine. As you can see in the image, Claudine needs to learn to trust others so that she can become strong enough to face her past. I set the initial state as the opposite of the end state: Claudine is someone who believes she can only trust herself.

The next steps are easy to fill out. What transformation does she have to go through in order to learn to trust others? Well, Claudine will need to see that her old belief is harmful and change her ways. Keep asking these questions until you fill out all of the boxes. Each step should be logical.

In order to allow the change to occur, the character has to make a choice. This can be physical, mental or spiritual, but it should reflect the transition between each of the states. More complex arcs will have more points in between and possibly combinations of arc types.

From here, I will need to integrate these points into my outline. It will help me determine which chapters might be good to show from Claudine’s perspective. It can help me come up with scenes. It will also help me determine how I can continue to develop Claudine in books 2 and 3.

It can be fun to develop these for your other primary characters. How does the antagonist reflect the protagonist? Do other characters play a part in the main character’s arc?

How do you create compelling character arcs? What’s your favourite kind of arc? What tools do you find useful for plotting?

Download the worksheet here:

Creating-Compelling-Character-Arcs_EMorscheck Download

Musings

Finding the Motivation to Write

Last month I finished editing the novel that I’d been working on for the last three years. This month it was time to start a new project. In starting this new project, I was looking for a new approach to writing motivation. My main goals being:

Write more often
Get the story out quickly
Be happier with my writing

After doing NaNoWriMo many times, I know I can write quickly, but the speed I’m looking for in this new project also requires a baseline level of quality. What does that mean? I want to write quickly, but not too quickly. I want the first draft of this novel to be done by the end of October.

In order to achieve this, I’ve designed three strategies to help motivate myself. These are:

Rewards
Lowering the hurdle
Accountability

These next few months will be an experiment to see what I best respond to, and what makes me the happiest.

1. Chocolate

What do I like more than writing? Chocolate for sure! As can be seen in my tweet below, I’ve bought many mini blocks and have allocated half a block to completing a chapter. I decorated the blocks with some stickers for some extra encouragement. I’ve already found that having half a block waiting for me is very tempting, and motivation enough to get that next chapter done!

What do I like more than writing? Chocolate! Last time I used word counts as reward points. This time I've got chocolate for each chapter I finish. #amwriting pic.twitter.com/mTxm89AUle
— Emilie Morscheck (@EmilieMorscheck) May 30, 2020

2. Word Counts

In the past, completing a chapter meant achieving a set word target, usually 3,000 words. After years of being trained into doing this for university assignments, I’ve found that applying the same rules to my fiction doesn’t work. It stresses me out and I feel like I have to add unnecessary content to my chapters. My new completion level is 1,500 words per chapter and meeting the main plot goal for that chapter. Eventually, I hope to have all my chapters be 2,000 to 3,000 words long, but, that can come in later drafts. Right now, I want to focus on getting the story out.

3. Accountability

My last strategy is a tactic I know works because I’ve used it many times before. During this project, I will be keeping track of my progress using an indicator on this page of my website: https://emiliemorscheck.com.au/about/what-am-i-writing Everyone will be able to follow along and see how I’m going.

I’m hoping these three new strategies will help me reach my target of a first draft completed by the end of October.

How do you motivate yourself and keep yourself accountable? I’m always looking for new ideas!