Red Pens, Backstories and Whiny Character Make Overs: Writing Updates!

It’s been a few months since I did a writing update, so I decided it was high time I gave you another one!

So far, 2018 has been a pretty slow year for writing, I haven’t done a whole lot, but there’s been a few changes since my last update, so I’ll let you in on them. 😀

 

WIP—The Blade of the Dragon Trilogy

I mentioned briefly at the start of the year that I had started rewriting Jihi and then had stopped after about a thousand words. It was just dry and uninspired, and despite my earlier enthusiasm over the replotting and outlining I’d done, I just wasn’t feeling any passion for this novel at all.

So I put it away. And I’m probably not going to come back to it any time in the future (you’ll see it’s disappeared from the My Books page). I’ve always found it hard to move on from things that have a nostalgic value (such as Jihi does) to things that have a deeper value, but I’ve finally managed to do it and put aside Jihi and Shokan. 

Who knows? Maybe in twenty years when I’m a super famous author with millions of books sold, I’ll go back and finish these stories up. Who knows?

WIP—Kameradschaft

Poor Kameradschaft has not changed in about a year. But I’m happy with the plot at the moment, and I’m vaguely hoping that in March I’ll have time (after finishing off Rose Mask) to do a read through and a line edit, and then maybe find beta readers for it. Kameradschaft was originally written a year and a half ago specifically for a novella contest (I never entered it though), and I’m hoping that, if the contest is run again this year I’ll be able to enter this year around. Keep your eyes peeled for a beta reading opportunity, if you’re interested!

WIP—Rose Mask

Ah, my other baby novella! My child who was perfect until my read-through was completed in the first half of February. I was hoping to have finished my rewrite/edit of Rose Mask before the end of February, but that isn’t going to happen, and that’s okay. It needed more work than I thought it did, so I’m putting more work into it. Again, hoping that it will be done by the end of March and maybe I can do a twin post for it and Kameradschaft and send them out into the world together.

Anyway, in the last month or so, I completed a read-through, noting everything that I wanted to change. Then I developed a new (and slightly extended) plotline, developed character backstories (they were pretty pitiful before, take my word for it), and fleshed out the characters themselves, particularly Benito, the male lead, who, prior to the editing process, greatly resembled the whiny Raoul from The Phantom of the Opera, which I had not actually read at the time. I’ve also given the invisible servants a reason for being invisible, and just a generally more plausible storyline.

WIP—The Stars Fill Infinity

My epic NaNo novel has had an easy time of things lately. As soon as I finished it, I wante to jump right into the editing process (that’s how super passionate I am about this novel, who just wants to dive into the editing process??), but I literally forced myself to put it away for at least four months before I take it out and begin the marking of the red pen. However, in that time, I enlisted a few readers to give me a broad overview of the kind of things I needed to polish in my second draft. I’m hoping to get back on board with The Stars Fill Infinity after Camp NaNo in April.

WIP—When Infinity is Empty

This is the sequel to The Stars Fill Infinity and I’ve been planning it since the concept came to me right at the beginning of the year. I’ve done a lot of character building, and a little worldbuilding and outlining, but it still needs a bit more work before I’m ready to begin. Hopefully, it’ll be my Camp NaNo novel, and then I’ll let it rest for a bit while I edit The Stars Fill Infinity.

Other Projects

I don’t really have anything else planned for the next few months in terms of writing, however, I am thinking of expanding a 2000 word essay that I wrote a few years ago on the topic of Tolkien’s war service and its influence on his writing, especially The Lord of the Rings. I was reading over the original essay, which I had to cut a lot of material out of in order to meet the word limit I had set, but I’ve been considering expanding it into a 10,000 word essay, with more points and material. Since this is a topic I really enjoy exploring (it combines two things of great interest–war and it’s influence and fantasy) I’m looking forward to beginning on this project soon!

Some of you may remember me mentioning a short story called “Origami Cranes”, which I wrote in July/August last year, and then entered into a competition. I won no prizes for it, but I want to give it an edit/polish and then find another competition to enter it into.

Other than that, I’ll be maintaining this blog, and I’ve been considering for a while whether anyone would be interested in reading a blog story/serial type of thing, basically where I would post a chapter of one (probably a novella) of my works per week for you to read. Let me know if this would interest you!

How’s your writing going? What projects are you focussed on at the moment? What do you think of a blog serial?