Hi Everyone!

Thanks for stopping by my Block Party Post!!!

I am part of @KellyAnneBlount's SNOW anthology. My story is called RED SNOW. It's about a girl living alone in a cabin in the forest working for an evil witch. It's part RAPUNZEL, part CINDERELLA, maybe a dollop of SNOW WHITE.

But here's the fun part ... I thought I'd show you a little of my process. How I took Kelly's prompt, outlined the story, wrote a rough draft, and then came up with the final version.

If you're like me, you know intellectually that it's okay for rough drafts to suck. But there is a part of me that thinks (EVERY TIME!) that the writing is so bad there is no hope it can ever be good. I'm hoping to illustrate this here. I got the idea for this post from a book written by a friend of mine, Mary Robinette Kowal. It shows this process—from idea stage to rough draft to final by four well-known scifi and fantasy authors.*

PART ONE - HOW IT ALL BEGAN:

One day I was minding my own business at home, looking out over a sea of redwoods when I got a call from Kelly.

Redwoods from my Window

She had this awesome idea: why don't we get a bunch of Wattpad authors together and do an anthology? The stories were to be set in a log cabin in the middle of winter, with the theme of forbidden love. All the stories had to feature a character named Claudia who owned the cabin and be a minimum of 10,000 words. Now I just needed to come up with a story.

PART TWO: THE STORY IDEA PHASE:

After coming off of my Once Upon Now modern fairy tale retelling, I thought I would start with a fairy tale this time too. The idea of a cabin in the snow begged a theme of loneliness, which in turn led to the idea of Rapunzel. Now all I needed was an evil witch, a handsome "prince" and a talking snake. Oh wait, there is no snake in Rapunzel. But there is in my story. His name is Eugene, and here's what he looks like:

Eugene the Talking Snake

Next I created the other characters: Daphne the young woman serving the evil witch. Claudia, the evil witch. And Zach, the handsome search and rescue officer/"prince." When I create characters, I do long "free writes" on them and also a spreadsheet where I lay out certain important attributes. If anyone wants a copy, let me know.

PART THREE: OUTLINING:

If there is an opposite of a "pantser," I am it. I outline everything. Even the shortest short story. Because a story isn't just a sequence of events. It's a very specific sequence of events. A tried and tested format that readers "expect" even if only subconsciously. If the elements aren't there, a reader may think "that story didn't work for me" and not even know why. It is really akin to the Hero's Journey. For years I struggled with this, making myself insane with spreadsheets and rules. Until I found my secret weapon—Blake Snyder's "Save the Cat." He created this as a screenwriting tool, but I find it works well for anyone writing a story. There are 15 Beats in any story. If you hit them all, in order, you can be confident you have a narrative that works. Here is the Save the Cat for RED SNOW: (Please note the story did change as I wrote, but still, there are SPOILERS in my outline. If you don't want to read them now, wait until the anthology is out. Buy it.*** Read RED SNOW. Then go back and look at the outline.)

SPOILERS***SPOILERS*** SPOILERS***SPOILERS*** SPOILERS

1.     Opening Image – Daphne bleeding beneath the largest tree in the snow.

2.     Theme Stated – Make your own destiny

3.     Set up – (What needs fixing?) Daphne's life. Loneliness. So we see her with the snake doing her duty as guardian of the forest. Literally bleeding for the cause. Then she goes back to the cabin alone in the woods. Makes two cups of cocoa. Maybe she has made a pretend friend out of stuff in the cabin who is seated on the chair. Or maybe she makes a bunch of friends out of odds and ends, or clay or in the snow. But every spring her friends melt, which is an issue. She has a routine. She is engrained in her life. She watches the border. Sees the outside, but will never get to be there.

4.     Catalyst – Zach the handsome search and rescue volunteer on horseback. She sees him on the perimeter. Humans can't see the forest and end up eschewing it. But rival witch clans will try to break the wards and steal the magical apples. If this happens she is to summon Claudia. She watches him radio someone about a missing child. He seems so kind. Something startles the horse and it rears. Zach is tossed beyond the wards in the forest, unconscious and bleeding.

5.     Debate – What should Daphne do? She should call Claudia. What if he isn't human and is from a rival witch clan? But it looked like an accident. And he's trying to save a child. And he's handsome. And she is so curious about men and lonely. And something in her memory was stirred by hearing about the missing child. Something familiar. She decides to go see if she can help him. Eugene doesn't approve. If Claudia finds out, Daphne will be killed.

6.     Break into Act Two – Daphne sees the man is injured. She manages to get him in the apple cart and takes him to her cabin.

7.     B – story – Daphne tries to get Eugene to help her rouse the man. He does only because he thinks if the man leaves sooner than later it will save both their hides. He tells Daphne to feed him some juice from an apple. He knows they are full of Daphne's own magic. But it is forbidden for anyone to eat them. But she is desperate so she agrees to do it.

8.     Fun & Games – The man wakens, but he is weak. She nurses him. He and Daphne get to know one another. He can't believe that she lives like this. She shows him some of the magical things in her cabin and he is amazed and intrigued.

9.     Midpoint – He has to go look for the missing girl, but will take Daphne with him. She says she can never leave or she will die. He promises to return for her.

10.  Bad Guys Close In Claudia comes. Daphne tries to hide Zack and tries to sneak him to the perimeter. Claudia discovers them. 

11.  All is lost (whiff of death) – Claudia seemingly kills Zack and tells Daphne she has made her job easier. It is almost time for her replacement to arrive. The missing little girl is on her way. Just like Daphne came 13 years before. She arrives

12.  Dark night of the soul – Devastated by Zack's demise, she sobs. She should have listened to Eugene and called for Claudia to wipe his mind and get rid of him. But she wanted company so badly. Daphne realizes she has to do something or the next little girl will end up like she did.

13.  Break into Three – Daphne realizes that it is her magic in the apples. That she is powerful. She realizes this because Eugene told her that the apples contained magical power and she is the one who has been feeding them. She only has to eat an apple to become powerful and overcome Claudia who is weakened because she zapped Zack.

14.  Finale – Daphne tries to get an apple but Claudia blocks her. Finally Daphne manages to get an apple. She eats it quickly. Nothing happens. Claudia comes in for the kill. The new little girl enters the forest. Reinvigorated, Daphne zaps Claudia. In a battle of zapping, eventually Daphne wins.

15.  Final image – crossing out of the snowy forest into the sunshine, Daphne on the horse with the little girl, Zach leading them to safety.

PART FOUR: ROUGH DRAFT:

Now it's time to write. I will only post here a little bit of the beginning of the rough draft. See if you can identify the changes to the final and why they might be important.

On days like this, when the harsh sun casts rigid shadows in the snow beneath the gnarled branches of the ancient trees, Daphne longs for the inscrutability of night. It is only on the full moon that she can imagine there are no boundaries to her forest prison.

Her fingertips are raw and her nose runs as she rummages in the snow at the base of the largest apple tree for the Guardian's dagger. The branches are bare of leaves, giving the place a haunted, skeletal look. Despite a perpetual winter, glowing red apples dangle from the branches like globules of blood.

"Get on with it already," hisses Eugene. Eugene is a talking snake. He insists he was once a man, and though Daphne works for a powerful witch clan, she knows Eugene must be delusional. There is no magic that could imprison a man in a snake-suit. Not that she knows a thing about magic. Beyond the wonders that manifest in Daphne's cabin, or on Claudia's annual visits, Daphne doesn't interact with magic on a daily basis. Still, she humors him. It costs her nothing to do so.

"I'm looking for it," Daphne insists. "Why don't you slither beneath the snow and help me look?"

"Are you serious? It's freezing in there."

"You're cold-blooded."                                 

"You're not the first woman who's told me that."

After I wrote the rough draft, it was time to rewrite. This story was actually one of the hardest rewrites I ever had. I had to do major shifting in the middle part of the story. I color-coded all the text into "steps" made index cards representing each one, moved them around, and finally came up with a new order of events. During this phase I was sure I would never wrangle this story into shape. I pulled out my hair. Cursed the world. Sulked. And finally fixed it. Exhausting! The story went through several more drafts. Finally, I sent it to my AMAZING editor, rdiamond89. It went through 2 more iterations. Here is the beginning of the final draft:

RED SNOW

Daphne kneels at the base of the largest apple tree in the Forbidden Forest, rummaging beneath the frozen crust of snow for the Guardian's dagger. Her hands are raw, and her nose is starting to run. Weak afternoon sun reaches like fingers through gnarled branches. Despite the perpetual winter, glowing red apples dangle from the branches like globules of blood.

An airplane whines overhead. Wiping her nose with the back of a frozen hand, Daphne stops to watch its progress across the muted sky. She wonders if the pilot sees her solitary line of footprints carving a path in the snow. Or do the witch's wards hide this place, even from above?

"Get on with it, slowpoke," hisses Eugene. He can't quite help being sibilant as he is a six-foot long, Day-Glo orange and aqua, talking snake. He insists he was once a man, and though Daphne works for a powerful witch clan, she believes Eugene to be delusional. There is no magic that could imprison a man in a snake body. Granted she doesn't know much about the subject. Beyond the magic that manifests in her log cabin, Daphne cannot conjure a single spell herself. Still, she tries to humor him. It costs nothing to do so.

"I'm trying," Daphne insists. "Why don't you slither underneath the snow and help?"

"Are you serious? It's freezing in there."

She quirks a brow. "You're cold-blooded."

"You're not the first woman who's told me that."

"I'm not a ..." woman, Daphne was about to say, but she is a woman. She's used to thinking of herself as a girl, though the curves on her body certainly argue the contrary. Since the age of five, for thirteen years now, she's been Guardian of the Forbidden Forest, living alone with almost no one to talk to but a snake. Time marked by these monthly feedings and the harvest visits from her mistress, Claudia, High Priestess of the Malum Coven.

"Not a what?" asks Eugene.

"I mean, you're not a ..." Daphne chides herself for almost challenging Eugene on his fantasy of being a man. She has hundreds of her own fantasies she wouldn't want refuted.

Eugene flicks his forked tongue. "You are not anything but annoying. On with it now. There's a succulent jackrabbit about one-hundred yards from here on the menu. So hop to it."

Daphne hates when Eugene talks about his meals. "Jackrabbit? Thinking too big once again. Remember what happened last time? How long was that poor thing stuck in your, um, throat?" Daphne shudders at the memory. "And you really should stop with the bad jokes."

"A man's got to keep himself entertained somehow."

She smiles in spite of being half-frozen and anxious about the impending pain. "Ah, here it is."

Removing the golden dagger from the blanket of snow, Daphne grips the bone handle. Her forefinger traces the star, eye, and triangle carvings. Melted ice drips from its deadly point. The trees quiver in anticipation, their hunger almost palpable.

Trying not to focus on the cold seeping through her thin jeans, she holds the knife above her left palm and takes a deep breath. She exhales. Even though the pain lasts only a second, she despises this part of her duties. But Claudia has been clear about what will happen if Daphne fails in her monthly task.

"On with it already," says Eugene, tail twitching.

Daphne glares at him, closes her eyes, and sings the requisite verse:

"As Guardian of the sacred trees,

I offer my blood to thee.

What's given freely,

I do impart,

My essence to thee with all my heart."

She opens her eyes and gasps as she slices deeply across her palm. The blood wells up in a dark line. Placing her burning hand on the snow, Daphne allows the blood to drain. As she feeds the roots beneath the primordial tree, all the apples in the forest, thousands of them, glow even brighter. Despite the chill, her cheeks warm with pride. Perhaps when Claudia comes at the full moon for the harvest, she'll be pleased with the crop and will reward Daphne. She falls asleep as her blood weeps into the snow, dreaming of being a beloved child encircled in Claudia's arms.

"Daphne, get up, you ignoramus. You'll freeze to death," a voice burbles into her fantasy.

Her eyes flutter open as she finds herself curled on her side, body shrouded in new snow, trembling, palm throbbing. Eugene is coiled around her. "Have you lost your little reptilian mind?" she says, teeth chattering. "I'm way too big a meal for you."

"Disgusting. I'm not a cannibal. You wound me." Eugene uncoils himself, slithering with a soft hiss along the red-stained snow. "I think you owe me thanks for not letting you die."

Why can't she remember to be nicer to Eugene? As irritating as he is, he's the only friend she has who is capable of speech. "Sorry, Genie," she says through clacking teeth.

"It's Eugene."

No matter how many times in the past thirteen years Daphne tried to give him a nickname, he resisted. "Eugene," she acquiesces. Struggling to stand on her wobbly legs, she manages to steady herself on the nearest tree trunk. The apples in the forest are so bright that even when Daphne closes her eyes, the image burns against her eyelids.

"You did well, Daphne."                                

She raises an eyebrow. Eugene has given her exactly one other compliment in thirteen years, and that was when she accidentally left the cabin door open—and he feasted on her pet rabbit, Fluffbucket the First. Daphne cried for a week; Eugene had a rabbit stuck in his throat for two. Needless to say, he hadn't been inside the cabin since.

"Why are you being so nice to me lately?" she asks.

"I don't know what you mean," he huffs and slithers away. But Daphne is fairly certain she sees something in his snaky expression that resembles pity. She wraps her arms around herself and staggers, a frozen icicle of a girl, back to the cabin where she left a fire burning in the hearth.

***

Daphne pulls open the heavy, wooden door and stumbles inside amidst a gust of snow. She slams it shut to keep safe her pet rabbit named Fluffbucket II—in memory of her first—her rat Thor and his mouse wife Mrs. Thor. Though the rodent couple may be of different species, their love cannot be denied.

The one-room log cabin has only the barest of furnishings—all rough-hewn but sturdy. There is a narrow bed with a patchwork quilt next to a small, round night table topped with a lamp, a loveseat made of bent willow, which faces the hearth, and a larger table with two chairs in the kitchen area. One of the two best parts of the Guardian's cabin is Daphne's beloved bookcase, full of the illustrated tomes Claudia bestows when she thinks Daphne has done a good job. Most of them are fairy tales, which are her favorites. The words and pictures fill her imagination with visions of handsome princes and fair maidens, of royal balls and glass slippers, of love and stolen kisses.

PART FIVE: RESOURCES:

* Mary RobinetteKowal's book is called: SHADOWS BENEATH: THE WRITING EXCUSES ANTHOLOGY. In additionto Mary, it includes work by Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler.Here is the link to buy it: https://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Beneath-Writing-Excuses-Anthology-ebook/dp/B00LDOM8A2

**There is a Save the Cat website. Here is the link: http://www.savethecat.com/ On the website the break down the beats of many well-known films and also some novels. There is also a book.

PRE-ORDER LINKS FOR THE SNOW ANTHOLOGY ARE COMING SOON!

Thank you for reading my post. Thank you to @KellyAnneBlount for hosting the Block Party. Thank you to @LucyFace for the cover. Thank you to @rdiamond89 for editing. Thank you to all the other writers in the Snow Anthology, but in particular @JessicaBFry who does her best to keep me sane. Thank you to my alter ego @BrittanieCharmintine who is way more fun than I am and wears cuter clothes. If you haven't read MERMAIDS AND THE VAMPIRES WHO LOVE THEM yet, go do it! Here's the link: https://www.wattpad.com/story/15146893-mermaids-and-the-vampires-who-love-them-winner

Thank you for reading my post. Thank you to KellyAnneBlount for hosting the Block Party. Thank you to LucyFace for the cover. Thank you to rdiamond89 for editing. Thank you to all the other writers in the Snow Anthology, but in particular JessicaBFry who does her best to keep me sane. Thank you to my alter ego BrittanieCharmintine who is way more fun than I am and wears cuter clothes. If you haven't read MERMAIDS AND THE VAMPIRES WHO LOVE THEM yet, go do it! Here's the link: https://www.wattpad.com/story/15146893-mermaids-and-the-vampires-who-love-them-winner

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P.S. Don't forget to enter the 130+ #WattpadBlockParty Giveaways! Clickable links are at the top of my Wattpad profile! :)

GIVEAWAY LINK ONE:

http://kellyanneblountauthor.blogspot.com/2017/01/giveaways-for-wattpad-block-party_31.html

GIVEAWAY LINK TWO (with Widgets):

http://kellyanneblountauthor.blogspot.com/2017/01/giveaways-with-widgets-for-wattpad.html

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