Monday, September 01, 2008

My Book Is Finished!

WOO HOO!

I had to force myself to write the end, which is the hardest part of any story for me. I will admit that there is a ton of room for improvement on this whole thing, but that will come in the revisions.

I started out in March with a sort of vague idea of what it was about. I started writing, and doing a lot of research on the Navajo people and traditions, and soon found a lot of stuff in the early chapters that was flat out wrong.

I checked out a pile of books and searched the internet for everything I could find on Navajo culture, and in the process my story started writing itself. I would sit down to write, and not have any ideas what I was going to write about. The story was just there waiting for me to take down like dictation. The whole thing just came out. I read about some very interesting Navajo legends, and one of them became a main thread in the story.

I discovered on the next to the last chapter, that the book with the legend in it, misguided me a little, and I will have to go back through and change the order in which things happen some because of it.

The discrepancy came in the form of the four sacred mountains of the Navajo. They are all given a color. Even within my reference book, the colors for the north mountain and the east mountain were switched. One page said North was the white mountain, but on the facing page, it said that north is the black mountain. ARRGGHHGH! The legend used white as north which is what I used. The village was supposed to be at the foot of the white mountain, so it is getting shifted from the north to the east.

I took some liberties with this and invented some extensions to some of the Navajo legends. I figure if we can make fantasy with white people in it, why not with Navajo people in it? I think it is a good story, but I know the revisions will make it much better.

I have the whole dang deal on its own blog at: http://greatfatherofeagles.blogspot.com/ On the right column click on "March", then scoot clear to the bottom. The chapters are displayed in reverse order. Kind of a pain, but there you are.


DramaMama provided the design and music for my blog.

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2 Comments:

At September 02, 2008 4:57 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yay! Isn't it great to finish a novel. I love finishing it. Once I have words on paper I'm in heaven. I can do so much better with revisions - no blank paper staring at me :)

I keep tons of notes and then I go back and start fixing. Which for me is the fun part. I love conceiving a story, plotting it out, and I do love writing it but that first draft is always the hardest part of writing for me.

Jennifer

PS: I have to do Anonymous cause for some reason Blogger won't recognize my typepad signature...

 
At September 03, 2008 8:11 AM, Blogger Erica Hanks said...

Yay for Honey!

 

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