TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #104

Not that long ago, there was a six-month-ish gap in my writing, marked by a strange inability to stick with any one story. I've mentioned this before, and talked about why I believe that happened.

One of those reason was my increasing speed in the development of stories. I had watered down a story to its most basic parts in an attempt to better understand such things as character arcs and the 3-act-structure. And while I definitely gained a new understanding and appreciation for those things, I failed to maintain the other part of stories: the meat on the bones. I had successfully boiled away everything which made the story into a story, leaving only structure behind. This is what caused my 'short story syndrome', which I've mentioned before.

Following the 6-month gap, I turned my attention to the Dilmir series. But while those stories were all respectable lengths, they did not cure the short story...

TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #103

Since my last update, Archmage of Feylund has been released, concluding Dilmir's tale. If you haven't read it, definitely go check it out. And now that it is completed, it's time to turn my attention to the future. There are two main avenues the future of writing for me is currently comprised of, so I'll break them down separately.

Future Fan Fiction
While I would at the moment say that the release of future fan fiction is quite likely, I won't say it's a certainty (indeed, based on my track record in these FFCs, I should never say anything I might do is a certainty).

I have a story, which is a sequel to Valkyrie, my tale of Utgar's origins. Currently I'm titling it Dawn of Darkness, though that could change. It picks up immediately (give or take a few weeks) after Valkyrie, and centers around Utgar, Taelord, and Runa. Currently it's moving along nicely and starting to take shape. Barring a...

TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #102

A few things have changed since my last FFC, so the time is right for another one.

The first of these updates has been coming along for quite some time, and that is the completion of book 4 of the Dilmir series, and of the series itself. I finished the writing of the story this morning.

There's still a bit to do - there are some edits I want to make, then I need to proofread it, which will take a few days. A few things need to be added to the beginning and end as well. All together, I would guess that you can expect to see the story posted by next week.

This brings me onto the second update, which concerns the novel I've been planning for awhile. This novel will be fantasy, and as such will have a magic system. The magic system is a very important part of the plot, and as a result, I'm having trouble coming up with one which suits all of my needs. I don't want to proceed with that...

TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #101

I wanted to write this quick update, because things are stirring and plans are forming. First off though:

Dilmir:
Dilmir 4 is continuing to move along at a decent pace. According to my outline, I'm around 1/4 of the way through, though my guess would be closer to 1/3 through the actual material. Either way, the story is looking to be rather hefty, once again leaning towards the 150 page area. I'm having to rework the outline a bit as I go, because some areas I'm not super happy with from a convenience stand point, but so far everything is working. I'd say a late February/early March release still looks likely.

Writing:
In my last FFC, I wrote down my thoughts about how I've been rushing the development of stories. In summary, I basically haven't been giving story premises enough time to really flesh out, and have instead been going ahead with only parts of the premise, extrapolating...

TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #100

Welcome to the 100th FFC. I wanted to save this number for something special, perhaps the final FFC before I went to my novels. Alas, it was not to be.

Nothing has changed regarding Dilmir 4. The writing is underway, and I anticipate it being finished somewhere around the 20th. There's some edits I might want to make - particularly to some of the early chapters, but they shouldn't take long.

The reason I wanted to write this FFC is because I've had some thoughts about my writing, and I wanted to get them down before they fled from my mind (which has been known to happen).

For the sake of simplicity, I'll refer to Utgar, my first telling of Utgar's tale, as Utgar 1. Valkyrie, my second version of that tale, I'll refer to as Utgar 2.

Stretching from before HiS, all the way to Utgar 2, my writing was in a major slump. I've written about this before. I had no shortage of...