Another month has come and gone. Last month, I had begun developing the next stage in Taelord's tale, and was taking a pause on my novels. So where are we now?
Fan Fiction
As seems to so often happen with my writing, the DoD sequel didn't so much fall apart as get remade. I realized that I had been constructing the story under a false assumption, which unfortunately was a core principle the entire story was built on. Thus, I had to re-evaluate everything from the beginning. By the time I was done, the three books I had been considering had merged into a larger single book, and a lot of the work I had done (though not all) was now irrelevant.
Taelord's tale is still very much there, and honestly I will be surprised if I do not return to it again before my first novel is written. One of the issues with it is juggling Taelord's story with Runa's. Runa isn't really a part of Taelord's story, but she is present for parts of it, and plays a significant role. However, she's also going through her own story, which is completely disconnected from Taelord. So I have to determine if her story has enough material to carry it's own fan fiction, and if not, how to relate what I need to. This is pretty minor - figuring that out shouldn't be hard. But after spending a month on development - about 70% of which went out the door - it was time to return to my novels.
Novels
The development for the novels continues, very, very slowly. Interest is generally low, and most days I can't seem to bring myself to work on them. I don't think this is due to any shortcoming of the novels. I think it's just that I've known for a long time how the novels go together, and at this point there is very little left to discover. Thus, my interest wanes. That being said, I can usually get at least one significant hurdle overcome a week, which is generally good steady progress.
So how far along are the novels? Far. Last month, I had just realized that what I had for the third book didn't work, prompting me to redo the third book from the ground up. Now that plot and character arc is in place. Additionally, the stakes have been simplified (this is a good thing - I have a tendency to over-complicate them to no end). Now, I need to reconcile my simplified stakes with the first two books. I'm at least halfway through the outline with that.
Following that, I need to go back to developing side characters. There are two or three which still need work, as well as questions which need to be answered about the plot of book 3. At this point though, there honestly isn't much left to do. It's just a matter of finding the interest to do it. I do have a nice long trip coming up, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to pound out a lot of progress during that time. Hopefully by the next writing update, I'll be ready to start on the final outline.
So what's next? Continued work on the novel, one tiny piece at a time. Can you expect to see any fan fiction soon? Possibly. I've finally hit on a story for the Competition prompt, which also ties into DoD (very loosely), and am currently looking into writing it. No promises, but it looks good. Beyond that, no fan fiction is currently in the works, though as I said, I would expect to return to Taelord's tale before the end of the year.
Until then though, keep reading, and I'll see you on the other side.
~TGRF.
Fan Fiction
As seems to so often happen with my writing, the DoD sequel didn't so much fall apart as get remade. I realized that I had been constructing the story under a false assumption, which unfortunately was a core principle the entire story was built on. Thus, I had to re-evaluate everything from the beginning. By the time I was done, the three books I had been considering had merged into a larger single book, and a lot of the work I had done (though not all) was now irrelevant.
Taelord's tale is still very much there, and honestly I will be surprised if I do not return to it again before my first novel is written. One of the issues with it is juggling Taelord's story with Runa's. Runa isn't really a part of Taelord's story, but she is present for parts of it, and plays a significant role. However, she's also going through her own story, which is completely disconnected from Taelord. So I have to determine if her story has enough material to carry it's own fan fiction, and if not, how to relate what I need to. This is pretty minor - figuring that out shouldn't be hard. But after spending a month on development - about 70% of which went out the door - it was time to return to my novels.
Novels
The development for the novels continues, very, very slowly. Interest is generally low, and most days I can't seem to bring myself to work on them. I don't think this is due to any shortcoming of the novels. I think it's just that I've known for a long time how the novels go together, and at this point there is very little left to discover. Thus, my interest wanes. That being said, I can usually get at least one significant hurdle overcome a week, which is generally good steady progress.
So how far along are the novels? Far. Last month, I had just realized that what I had for the third book didn't work, prompting me to redo the third book from the ground up. Now that plot and character arc is in place. Additionally, the stakes have been simplified (this is a good thing - I have a tendency to over-complicate them to no end). Now, I need to reconcile my simplified stakes with the first two books. I'm at least halfway through the outline with that.
Following that, I need to go back to developing side characters. There are two or three which still need work, as well as questions which need to be answered about the plot of book 3. At this point though, there honestly isn't much left to do. It's just a matter of finding the interest to do it. I do have a nice long trip coming up, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to pound out a lot of progress during that time. Hopefully by the next writing update, I'll be ready to start on the final outline.
So what's next? Continued work on the novel, one tiny piece at a time. Can you expect to see any fan fiction soon? Possibly. I've finally hit on a story for the Competition prompt, which also ties into DoD (very loosely), and am currently looking into writing it. No promises, but it looks good. Beyond that, no fan fiction is currently in the works, though as I said, I would expect to return to Taelord's tale before the end of the year.
Until then though, keep reading, and I'll see you on the other side.
~TGRF.
