Before I start, I am sorry this update is late. I uploaded it and I thought I scheduled it, but I did not. I did warn you there would be technical issues as I learn all this website stuff. I left the post intact.
With the spooky month coming to an end, I have two projects nearing the end and a new one on the horizon. Deadlines are remarkably helpful in keeping writers on-task – well, at least for me – so the waning days of October saw me hard at work.
I have finally completed my fantasy story and submitted it to the publisher. It took a lot of work and help to get it down under the 10k word maximum; the structure of the climax consumed a lot of words so I had to trim some things I liked, but overall I feel happy with how it came out. There were several drafts as I whittled it down, and thanks to my always-awesome wife and a friend from work (thank you DS for reading anything I give you and giving me honest, useful feedback) it is polished and off my desk for the time being. I would say it does not classify as a traditional sword & sorcery story, but it does include (and, at times, poke fun at) many of the tropes of that style. I tried to blend in some levity, as I often found that those authors had a wicked sense of humor that often did not come through in their serious epic fantasy stories. I struggled with the name of one of the characters, but inspired by some recent reading I did some research into old word forms and found some that I could use, and from there made some adjustments into different forms. With some input again from my work beta-reader, I was able to come up with a name that better fit the character.
And as promised, here’s the title of my story: Blade of Glass. I’ve had that title on my mind for many, many years; it began as a typo, but I always thought it would make a good title for a fantasy story, I just never had one to go with it. Hopefully, I have one now.
Next up is my as-yet untitled epistolary story. My wife and I have been working on the material end, trying to get the look right before we start transcribing the letters. I don’t want to give too much away, but we are trying for a very specific look for the handwritten pieces. It’s taken some research and trial-and-error, but we are close to having it where we want it to be. The deadline is rapidly approaching, so we should have it done and ready to go to Wayward Raven within the next few days.
NaNo month is here (well, it will be here tomorrow) so I have been working a lot on dialogue for book 2 of my YA series. I have about half the outline completed along with dialogue for the first couple of chapters, so I will be able to get to writing straight away. If you don’t know about NaNo, it is an annual writing challenge to get through 50,000 words in one month. It is self-regulated, so it works on the honor system, but it is very motivational and helps a great deal with creating better writing habits. If you are an aspiring writer looking for something to help you create your first novel, or an established writer who needs a kick in the butt or help getting into better habits, I highly recommend NaNo.
So that’s it for now. When I reach the end of this month, I hope to be at least halfway through the first draft of book 2. I am still tweaking book one, floundering with a title, and trying to decide how to proceed with it once I feel like it is done – traditional publishing or self-publishing. My inclination is to try getting traditionally published first, and if that fails to try and do it myself. But that is another story, so to speak, and with November in a few hours I must prepare to spend the next 30 days doing something write.