Welcome to the next instalment of the Know the Novel linkup! Unfortunately I was a bit behind on schedule this month, so I missed the actual link up, but if you want to check out everyone else who did participate, you can find it on Christine Smith’s blog ! All right, let’s get into it!
1. How’s the writing going overall?
It’s very slow work, it honestly feels like slogging through a tar pit like some poor baby mammoth some days. But yeah, I’m making progress, slow progress is still progress. It’s also a very thorough rewrite, trying to smooth out a lot massive potholes and bumps in the road, which is a lot of work, so of course it’s going to be slow and hard.
2. What’s been the most fun aspect about writing this novel so far?
Definitely hanging out with my characters again, and being able to develop my world more. Everything about this story is so fun, it’s kind of like wish fulfilment for everything I want in a Celtic fantasy book. I love all of it and just being able to immerse myself in this world of Gaelic, werewolves, fae, cults, and my sweet neurodivergent boys.
Can you believe that next month is NaNoWriMo? I’ve been doing Inktober all month so I’m not sure my brain is quite ready to kick into gear and think about a completely different challenge just yet.
But, nevertheless, I’m here to introduce (or…uh reintroduce ) my NaNoWriMo novel for 2022. I’m going to be participating in the Know The Novel linkup, which is now five years old. Absolutely wild, I remember doing it for the very first time, so that makes me feel very old now. Anyway, let’s move on!
Introducing…
If you’re a dedicated reader of my blog, you may recognise this novel as my project from NaNoWriMo 2020, known then as “The Darkest Night”. Because yes, for the first time I am actually working on an established novel rather than a brand new first draft!
However, I’ve obviously developed this draft quite a lot since I pantsed it back in 2020, with absolutely no outline or anything. So I’m taking a second crack at this story to work on it some more and hopefully get a complete second draft (that has a more coherent plot line, fingers crossed).
Anyway, if you want to check out my original Know The Novel post for The Darkest Night you can find that here, and if you want to check out Christine Smith, who created this link up, you can do it here.
Let’s get into it!
What first sparked the idea for this novel?
The first inkling (pun intended) of this story came from listening to a YouTuber (I can’t remember who it was, so sorry about that) talk about and read excerpts from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings sequel, which he called “The New Shadow”. Unfortunately, Tolkien found the story bitter and depressing (fair enough) and abandoned it 13 pages in.
The story revolves around the land of Gondor, over a 100 years after the downfall of Sauron. Aragorn is dead, and his son now rules. But men have forgotten the true evil of the time when the Lord of the Rings ruled and have grown complacent, which disturbs the main character, Borlas.
Essentially, Borlas and a much younger man, Saelon, get into an argument about the true nature of evil, and Saelon mentions that a cult dedicated to the worship of orcs (and I suppose Sauron or Morgoth by extension) is now rising. Borlas immediately concludes that Saelon is part of this cult, which offends Saelon. Saelon invites Borlas to come to a clandestine meeting that night. Borlas is one of the very last people left who can remember life before the Great Peace, as it’s known, and he believes he would be able to recognise the scent of evil, so he agrees to come.
When he arrives at his home after his argument with Saelon, Borlas steps into his house and is immediately greeted by a “dead silence”, and he smells the old Evil “and recognised it for what it was”.
And there it ends.
Obviously that was not good enough for me, so I decided to finish it.
It’s been a while* since I got on here to tell you about my many beloved projects, so I thought I would do so today. It’s going to be a chill post, the internet equivalent of sitting down with a cuppa and a biscuit and chatting with a friend you haven’t seen in a few months. We’ll have a look at each of my major projects, discuss where I’m up to with each of them, what my goals are with them, and share some snippets and character art!
Let’s get into it!
*Approximately 18 months, to be exact.
The Changeling and the Wolf
This is my baby at the moment. The story of a young and idiotic werewolf, whose brother is a monster hunter. Together they discover an evil cult which is trying to resurrect the long dead tyrant Dark Lord, and it kind of just goes from there.
Hello and welcome back to this blog where I sporadically share my thoughts with the rest of the world.
Today marks a week since we entered the New Year, so I thought it was high time I updated you on how my 2021 goals went, and tell you all about my 2022 goals.
All right, let’s get into it! First up…
What were my 2021 Goals (and did I achieve them?)
Reading Goals
Read 80 Books (this is going to be my official Goodreads goal! But I’ll be sort of aiming for 100 books)
I ended up reading 109 books! So, kinda smashed this goal, if I do say so myself.
Read more diverse fiction (particularly with a focus on Ownvoice disabled books. I’ve got a list!)
I mean…kinda? I read pretty diversely in terms of settings and POC characters, but the disability rep was sadly lacking. Maybe this year?
Complete a Lord of the Rings reread and finish those childhood faves.
I did a LOTR reread and I did reread some of those childhood faves, but I’m still not finished with them yet!
an ordinary pen 
You must be logged in to post a comment.