TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #87

If you've been following the thread for my Dilmir repost, you might have noticed that I have continued my dubious habit of informing you the moment there is any change of plans, only to go back on/change said plans the next day. I've tried to cut back on that in the past few days until I'm sure of what's going on, which brings me to now. Things are fairly well locked in, so it's time to update you on the newest plan regarding Dilmir.

For those of you who have long since learned to ignore anything I say (but are somehow inexplicably reading this), Dilmir is a story I wrote back in 2013. It was set in Feylund, and centered around elves and magic, with a good smattering of vampires. I wrote two sequels to that story. Together, the trilogy is referred to as the Feylund Series or the Dilmir series. For the sake of clarity in this FFC, I'll just call them the Originals.

Due to perceived thematic issues with...

TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #86

There's a truth about my writing I've been aware of for many years, and haven't really known what to do with. That truth is this: despite gaining lots of knowledge about writing, and learning what does and doesn't work, and everything else I've learned, writing has gotten progressively harder for me, and the quality of my writing has generally gone down from what it used to be.

Like I said, I've known this for several years, but I haven't really known what to do about it. I couldn't say why this was the case, and without knowing that, all I could do was stumble around in the dark, hoping to find the problem by chance.

After a recent conversation with TAF, who has once again lent his invaluable services as a writing critic/breaker down of problems/general sounding board for my crazy ideas, I think I know what's been going on.

Back in the early days of writing, I obviously didn't know...

TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #85

Way back when I started these FFC's, I was talking about rewriting Dilmir with a passive theme. I've apparently gone full circle, because that's what this entry is about.

If you've been following my writing updates, you know that after some 'serious' thinking, internal monologues, and several debates with myself, I decided that rewriting Dilmir was what I should turn my writing powers to next.

However, I quickly discovered it wasn't that easy. I've said before how the theme for Dilmir was wrong. If I was going to rewrite it, I'd have to redo that theme. I thought that was going to be fairly straightforward, but I was wrong. I won't go into details, because they would be long and boring, but basically the story just wouldn't work.

However, I eventually realized there was one way I could still rewrite Dilmir, with the theme I wanted, with the feel of the original, and still have everything...

TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #84

You know what? I'm back.

I am back.

I'm not writing like I used to, with stories and development filling every waking hour. And when I do write, stories don't flow unending like they used to either. But that's a way of writing I can never return to (barring making a million dollars and retiring to my writing mansion). But I am writing. I've solved the problems and learned the concepts, and the writing is working.

What this means is that I am back to discovering and practicing writing techniques, and back to turning out fan fiction. And this brings me to Dilmir.

In case you missed it, I recently asked my readers what they thought about a Dilmir rewrite. The idea had been floating around in my head for some time, and with my current ideas for a Valhalla-fiction not gelling satisfactorily, I decided to give it a shot. My first attempt at organizing the rewrite fell apart,...

TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #83

My last blog entry was titled 'End of an Era'. This one is titled 'The New Era', not because what I said previously is irrelevant, or because I'm 'back'. This is a new era simply because all of the changes from the last two years have solidified, and as a result, my activity in the writing department will be changing. I wanted to explain what those changes will look like.

Concerning Novels
This all begins with my novels. For the past few fan fictions, I've said I'm close to writing my novels. That is... not the case. Back when I wrote Dilmir, I had a clear idea what I wanted my novels to be. That idea has slowly crumbled apart over the years, and by now I'm back to square zero. While I have a vague idea of the stories I want to tell, I no longer have the world they take place in.

Before I can be remotely close to writing novels, that world will need to be defined clearly, and have plenty of...