Second Draft Plotting Progress

It’s been a bit busy so far for the start of the month. I’m still trying to figure out how time goes so quickly. I have a November 28th deadline for my second draft of the plot. As of today I’m closing in on a third of the chapters detailed more fully.

Shout out to my writing groups for all of their ideas and support as well as my fellow writer and buddy, Teague. It really helps to have a group of people in the same head space.

Hoping the by the end of this week I will be about 50% through this draft.

Plotting Second Draft Begun

I’ve gotten my barebones plot together. Now it is time to begin on the second draft. Waiting on some feedback to also incorporate into this draft as well. Hoping this goes smoothly. I’ve given myself and end of November deadline for this draft. Final draft by the end of December. I will officially begin work on the new version of the book on January 1st.

I’ve settled on two main characters with some supporting important characters. The main protagonists will be Marcus Kardon and Miriam Lenore. Marcus is a squire to the King and Miriam is an assassin. We’ll see how those sparks fly!

Outline First Draft Complete!

I’ve finally completed my first draft of my plotted outline after making some major changes to what I was doing with the story. It feels like quite an accomplishment since I would say my heart is a pantser. I’m trying to lead myself slowly to a more organized method with some pantsing and a lot of plotting from now on.

I must say that meeting and talking with other authors is a critical step on the journey. Just hearing other ideas and talking them through with other people as passionate as yourself get the creative juices flowing.

At this point I can say a major enemy has been removed from the plot of this novel and will await later volumes. For now we will have a more down to earth plot to keep things a little more grounded.

My goal is to have a fully fleshed outline by December 31st, 2025. Having completed my first draft I’m feeling confident I can make that deadline but I will keep pushing myself to perform. It is amazing what I can get done when I get into the right flow state.

Lastly I’m after listening to some advice from the great Kevin Anderson, I’ve decided to start working on a long languishing horror project as well. The idea is to always have something creative to work on so that if I get blocked in on project I have another to jump into and work on to keep things moving. Since my fantasy project and my horror project have been percolating for a long

Magic? Ethics? Originality? Theme?

Working furiously on my magic system. I have been feeling that I haven’t put quite enough thought into my system of magic. Tonight was a freeform writing session trying to get to what I want and what I think I can get out of my magic system in my books.

What is the nature of my magic?

What are the ethics of my magic?

How original is my system of magic?

What is the theme of my magic?

How powerful, how robust, what are the downsides to doing it? Are there any?

These are the many thoughts I’m having to wrestle with so I can make this work with my story better. I don’t want it to be a crutch but I also don’t want it to be too simple.

What are you, who I hope will someday be my readers, thinking a magic system should contain and convey? Honestly looking for some feedback here.

Time Moves Quickly!

Somehow the last year has escaped me. Earlier this year I had surgery and since then I have lost a huge amount of weight. Getting healthier has taken a massive toll on my time and concentration. However it is now time to get back to it.

I’m trying to commit to myself to make more regular posts here but my main focus will be on continuing my first draft. The only issue with that being that I had authorial epiphany. The thrust of my first novel needed to be pared down. I am now replotting and reworking characters to fit the new design. This is not the simplest of choices to make but I felt it was necessary. I was front-loading to much “epic-ness” into the first novel and I could feel myself moving towards something unsatisfying.

So the rest of this year I’ll be working on the new plotting and adjustments. My plan and goal is to have the fully plotted novel by the end of this year. Next year will be my time to flesh all of the missing chapters and finish up a first draft. I just need a lot of scaffolding.

I hope everyone out there is doing well and I look forward to communicating more!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and family! To those who don’t celebrate Thanksgiving I hope you have as great a day as I am having.

As far as writing I am closing in on 17k words for NANOWRIMO. I’m into Chapter 24 with the entrance of a new character named Eric. He has a last name but my writing buddy told me the kind of resonance it had for him and now I have to change it. So for now we will call him Eric NoName.

This is the best progress I’ve had on my book in a year. It’s been a hard year but I need to realize that hard times will happen and not let it slow me down so much. I already write slowly so any extra slowdown and it has a huge impact on everything.

Again, happy day to everyone!

NANOWRIMO Update

So I’ve almost broken 13k words. My plan was just to make sure I write every day and get some words on paper for NANOWRIMO. I’d like to hit at least the 25k words I hit last year. 50k would be nicer but I’m running out of time for that.

Story Update - One of my main characters has been captured by a group of assassins…it’s been a tough part to write. I knew where I wanted to go with it but only generally what happens for two chapters. I was feeling pretty blocked even with my word vomit for some reason. So it has been a little bit of a slog but now I have finally made it up to a battle and those just seem to flow for me so much I’m going to leave that for tomorrow. Getting closer to the halfway point of the book. Never thought I’d make it as far as I have.

NANOWRIMO Halfway Point!

I don’t have quite as many words down as I would like but I’m vomiting them out as fast as my brain will let me. I’ve currently made it to Chapter 21 with a working title of Ambush. I’ve broken 10k words. I’ll really be happy if I hit at least half of the 50k for NANOWRIMO. It will put me at approximately 50k words into the novel. I’d like to get the story told from beginning to end then the work can really begin in making it better through lots of edits and drafts.

NANOWRIMO!!

The month of NANOWRIMO is here. To those who don’t know what this is, it is a website dedicated to getting authors writing and committing to writing 50k words during the month. Last year I reached about half that amount. I’m hoping to at least match that and so far I have a pretty good tally of over 2.5k words so far this month. The first draft of Chapter 17 Miriam and the Cub is complete with lots of work to come during a second draft.

I’ll try to do a better job of updating the blog from here on out.

I’ve been busy avoiding lots of things aside my full time job and several podcasts I worked on during the beginning of the Fall. Decimation of Dragons about the House of the Dragon television show, as well as She-Hulk Avenger of the Law, our podcast about the She-Hulk show. Along with those was my weekly work on the Dark Discussions podcast.

If anyone is interested in getting in early and seeing where the story is going send me an email.

Interview Podcast Up!

We interview the director of Block Island Sound - Matthew McManus. Great interview! Give a listen!