I have some exciting news to share!

[Naruzeldamaster]

So, after I finish this chapter that I'm working on, and the following chapter, I will officially be done with "act 1" of my Sinbad story.
Act 1 is mostly introducing the world/characters/getting the band together. So it's frankly a little short? (I feel like that'll be my style ? )
Act 2 will be a fair bit beefier (Chapter and chapter length wise)
I'm not far enough to know how beefy or long act three will be. Heck, my brain isn't even giving me any scenes from that far in and playing them on repeat. (Like it tends to do with every story) Well there is one scene, but it's one I've discussed a bit already.

I know it's not much of an achievement, compared to ya'll who've finished multiple books. But, for me, my interest rarely holds this long for a story.

Now I'm kind of torn if I should focus exclusively on Sinbad so I can potentially finish the rough draft this year, or continue doing my flip flop of Hound and Fox / Sinbad every other chapter.

 

[pmmg]

Its an achievement. Go you.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Its an achievement. Go you.

I detect a bit of sarcasm in that compliment, but I'll take it as an actual compliment lol
Question: Should I make a 'master' document of the first act when I have it done?
I know that's a 'you do you' type of question, curious what you do though.
I already save individual chapters as one document.

 

[Prince of Spires]

Congrats on getting this far.

Don't worry about length. My personal experience with first novels is that the next one will get longer. A novel needs an aweful lot of stuff happening to get to 50.000 or 100.000 words. A lot more than you probably realized when you started. Don't worry about it and just write the story and see where you end up.

Also, scenes tend to get longer as you get more writing experience. You dig deeper into the character and the details and the moment. Where now you might have a line saying "and X happened" you might later have a whole chapter. It's normal and something that comes with experience.

Question: Should I make a 'master' document of the first act when I have it done?

No. What would be the point? Just go on and start writing act 2. Shuffling things around at this point doesn't get you anything. It's just doing stuff so you look busy while you don't actually achiece anything. So don't touch it again and just continue forward.

 

[RoccO]

Who is Sinbad anyway, why does he emerge in history? There are some tropes that travel through time, but no one takes the blame for them. You could say they travel the seven seas, and you know where that comes from. Cloud Nine, I do not know the origin, but has been palpable in my memory. I wonder how many I could come up with today, so I will think about it, in my gingerbread house.

I do not know the story-line or plot-arc of Sinbad, I think there is a movie with it staring another victim of the pantheon. It could be as early as an aboriginal dot painting, or as old as a cave painting, but still as relevant today. A lot of these remakes change as time goes by, and become the new staple, I know that.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Who is Sinbad anyway, why does he emerge in history? There are some tropes that travel through time, but no one takes the blame for them. You could say they travel the seven seas, and you know where that comes from. Cloud Nine, I do not know the origin, but has been palpable in my memory. I wonder how many I could come up with today, so I will think about it, in my gingerbread house.

I do not know the story-line or plot-arc of Sinbad, I think there is a movie with it staring another victim of the pantheon. It could be as early as an aboriginal dot painting, or as old as a cave painting, but still as relevant today. A lot of these remakes change as time goes by, and become the new staple, I know that.

As far as I'm aware (and my knowledge of him is very light so I may miss some facts) he's a legendary thief/pirate born from a desert kingdom.
He travels the seas and one of the items he stole is a magical ring that allows him to control the tides/waves.

Beyond seeing a (I think) Disney movie about him, I don't know much about him and I think the Disney version was relevant similarly to mine, Name and the fact that he's a pirate.

Congrats on getting this far.

Don't worry about length. My personal experience with first novels is that the next one will get longer. A novel needs an aweful lot of stuff happening to get to 50.000 or 100.000 words. A lot more than you probably realized when you started. Don't worry about it and just write the story and see where you end up.

I'm not particularly worried about overall length for my first novel lol (Technically first two, since I'm working on a Rom Com too)
I just mean I'm picturing the average size of each act for what I want to accomplish with it. Could be more, could be less. The Sinbad story especially is likely subject to grow/shrink from what I'm planning.

Also, scenes tend to get longer as you get more writing experience. You dig deeper into the character and the details and the moment. Where now you might have a line saying "and X happened" you might later have a whole chapter. It's normal and something that comes with experience.

I am trying to walk away from 'x said in y tone' yeah. Although my efforts are very light at the moment. My writing is maturing a bit on that front.

One thing/phrase my brain is fixated on right now is. Say I'm having the party interact with royalty/leadership etc. One of the characters will say something sassy/uncivilized/unexpected in the face of royalty/leader. Leader will go 'Ha! I like the mouth on this one.' I have no idea why, but I've used the line at least twice already, I hope it doesn't become a tick...

No. What would be the point? Just go on and start writing act 2. Shuffling things around at this point doesn't get you anything. It's just doing stuff so you look busy while you don't actually achiece anything. So don't touch it again and just continue forward.

I might keep a spare document of the entire thing when it's done though. Since I'll have to compile it into some form of PDF I think anyway?

 

[pmmg]

Sinbad comes from the Arabian Knights tales. He has seven legendary voyages. From his stories we get the Roc, which most westerners know, and he has a story similar to Odysseus and the Cyclops. Sinbad collects riches and craves adventure.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Sinbad comes from the Arabian Knights tales. He has seven legendary voyages. From his stories we get the Roc, which most westerners know, and he has a story similar to Odysseus and the Cyclops. Sinbad collects riches and craves adventure.

Yeah I figured he was one of the arabian knights stories but I knew little more than that thanks for the info.