So I was going to start Edenfall this week…but then, I realized I wanted to spend some more time in the universe of Worlds Away from Home, so I decided to work on Into the Nebulous Deep instead. ITND is a direct sequel to Mercenary Savior. Basically, it grew out of the realization that James’s… Continue reading Change of plans
Tag: discovery writing
Slogging through to the bitter happy ending
Oh man. I was hoping to hit 5k words today, and even though I must have spent five or six hours writing, I only managed half of that. It’s progress, I know, but it’s not as much progress as I’d like; the words just aren’t coming, no matter what I do. Blarg. The worst part… Continue reading Slogging through to the bitter happy ending
Braving the unexpected rough spots
Right now, I’m going through this unexpected rough spot in my novel, where I know what’s supposed to happen (or at least I have enough of an idea to wing it fairly well), but the writing just isn’t coming. This happens every time I hit the two thirds mark, and it really sucks. Currently, I’m… Continue reading Braving the unexpected rough spots
Forward to new ground
A couple days ago, I finished writing through the material I’d written for Worlds Away From Home back in 2008 before I dropped the project. For the first time since March, I find myself drafting entirely new material. It’s a little bit unnerving; I’m a much better reviser, I feel, than straight up writer. Revising… Continue reading Forward to new ground
Thoughts on the convolutions of discovery writing
It’s been forever since I posted, so I figured I’d put something up and let you guys know what I’ve been up to. I’m happy to say that Worlds Away From Home is going well; I wrote just under 20k this week, which is more than I’ve written in a long time. I hope to… Continue reading Thoughts on the convolutions of discovery writing
Quarterly report
So I figure that since I want to write professionally, it would be a good idea to keep track of my writing and do quarterly updates on my blog. Here’s the first one for this year: The red line shows my daily writing word count, the blue line a running seven day total. The graph… Continue reading Quarterly report
Major project shift
I’ve got this goal to finish my current work-in-progress, To Search the Starry Sea, by May 1st 2010. However, the deeper I get into the story, the more I realize how many problems it has–how much it sucks, in other words. Normally, this wouldn’t keep me from dropping the project or putting it on hold.… Continue reading Major project shift
Gah! It sucks
I’m about a third of the way through To Search the Starry Sea, and my greatest fear at this point is that it isn’t as good as the last novel I wrote. Because if it isn’t as good, that means that I’m getting worse, not better, and if I’m getting worse, that means I’m never… Continue reading Gah! It sucks
Snowmageddon! Hooray!
So for the past week, a series of crazy snowstorms has been pelting the Mid-Atlantic. President Obama has dubbed it “snowmageddon,” and it’s so bad that all federal government offices have been closed since Friday. With another storm hitting us tonight, it looks like we’re going to have the whole week off! Yay!!! So, for the… Continue reading Snowmageddon! Hooray!
Thoughts on writing characters
A couple months ago, I was listening to one of my personal recordings of Brandon Sanderson’s English 318 lectures from last year’s class. The topic was writing characters. Brandon outlined several techniques for making characters sympathetic. He also outlined how to round them out: give them flaws and handicaps, as well as little quirks to… Continue reading Thoughts on writing characters