NaNoWriMo

Speaking of my upcoming Script Frenzy adventure, in November I participated in its sister event, National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo.

I won! Meaning that I managed to write more than 50,000 words in 30 days!

Script Frenzy!

It's almost April! My sister and I will be participating in this year's Script Frenzy. That means that between the two of us (who have next to no experience in writing scripts), we will (attempt to) write 100 pages of a screenplay in 30 days! Wish us luck!

Check out Ferdinard!

Some (Novel?) Thoughts on Noveling

It's been interesting to write a novel for the first time. It is a totally different writing process than my shorter projects have been!

Earlier in the process, I felt like Sophie from Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. If you happen to be familiar with the book (not the movie--the movie doesn't have this part), Sophie at one point starts cutting out triangles from one of Howl's suits, out of which she plans to make herself a skirt. But then Howl catches her at it, and she has to sew them all back.

Of course, at that point, there's not much left of Howl's suit (most of it is now triangular holes), so Sophie has to sew triangles back into a netting she has created.

Writing about Mariah and the Beast (or whatever the title will end up being), a few weeks ago, I had my framework, but I sure had a lot more holes than I did the netting around the holes! I filled in piece by piece, until I finally found myself with a clearer idea of how to handle this rapidly-shrinking story-suit I had on my hands.

Now, I have most of the main holes filled in--besides one. There is one puzzle that I need to solve. The problem is, that is the main puzzle that the Mariah in the book is trying to solve. Except that she has an easier time of it than I do, because the framework around the solution is already there; she just needs to find what fits. As for me, as the author, I'm the one who has to find something to fit in that hole!

I mean, it's a whole lot easier to look at the clues, eliminate the impossible (leaving, to paraphrase Sherlock Holmes, the solution, however improbable), and find a solution, which is then verified by the story, than it is to look at the clues and the constraints that you have and try to find something that will fit there. It's much easier to be a character than the author, because the author has to make all those decisions, and the character just does as she's told.

Anyway, off to bed (after working on the book for a little longer)... I hope my musings made some sense!

-Mariah :)

A New Book in the Works!

I realized today that it's been a while since I've posted on this blog, so I thought I'd tell you all about my newest project.

My big brother, Jordan, passed away in October after battling a rare cancer for several months. (Hence the lack of blog posts.) This book-in-process is the result. (And, yes, the "Mariah" in the book is, indeed, me.)

More to come soon, but here's a bit about the story:

Mariah is still trying to comprehend her brother's death when--she finds herself in the middle of a fairy tale.

Now life, which was already plenty complicated enough, thank you very much, is suddenly even more interesting, as Mariah tries to understand life in an enchanted palace.

Mariah had stumbled upon the palace during a snow storm, and now she was snowed in, with a Beast, an invisible servant, and the (likewise invisible) Lady of the Palace, who seems to want something from Mariah.

But--isn't it the story of Beauty and the Beast? So what happened to Beauty? Why does the Beast disappear for a while every day? Why isn't the fairy tale the way it's supposed to be?

Sylvester meets Little Red Riding Hood!

Published! :)

Announcement:

Ferdinard and Other Unexpected Fairy Tales by Mariah B. Forre is now available online!

My estore:

https://createspace.com/Customer/EStore.do?id=3387392

Amazon.com:

http://amazon.com/Ferdinard-Other-Unexpected-Fairy-Tales/dp/1448607701/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250530744&sr=8-1

Or, visit my website:

http://mariahbforre.weebly.com/