Today I did some novel planning and research... covering the topics of agriculture, animals, tools and magic. Yes... magic... I detailed some of my character's beliefs and skills. The more I work on this, the better I know what a truly unique person she was.
This morning I did more historical research on Ohlone natives, Alta Californians and early San Francisco. I researched weapons and the military of that place and era. I also changed the main character names after doing a lot of research on the meanings. The only one I left the same was my protagonist, Elena. It is almost dawn and I must get some more sleep!
I've been working on my novel in progress... Perfection. Right now I'm doing historical research about the Ohlone natives and Alta California history. The more I learn, the more I can add dimension to the plot. I want it to be as authentic as possible. Its amazing how much research people have put into documenting this part of history. I'm impressed with the resources I've found. As a fiction writer, I can't imagine the work involved in doing all that non-fiction documentation... then the writing too. It is absolutely mind-boggling.
I'm happy because I worked on the final draft of The Scribe of Irohila today. Maybe I'm too hasty to be calling it a final draft - since I might someday have an editor telling me to make more changes. But its the final draft before sending it to a publisher for consideration, so I'm happy, happy, happy. I'm printing out the first three chapters. Next I'll write a cover letter and synopsis to send with it. Yes! I'm so excited about getting this novel out the door and I have the feeling that this is the right time.
This week I'm working on memoir writing. I've been planning to write part one of my autobiography this year. My oldest daughter requested it. My plan is to write three parts with part one being about my childhood. It is going to focus on societal changes, especially regarding racial tensions in the San Francisco Bay Area from the early 1950's onward.
I bought a book at Barnes and Noble to help me jumpstart my efforts...
So far I just love this book. Maybe with all the writing I've done already, I don't need a memoir-writing book, but I like the experience of reading his suggestions because then I feel like I'm not all alone doing it. He has chapters about writing interspersed with chapters suggesting short writing projects.. and lots of story-starter inspiration ideas. It helps.
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Today I see blogger.com changed the user-interface. So far it seems to be working just fine though I'll admit I wasn't thrilled to see the change. Now I have another new thing to try to get used to. I hope its worth the bother!
