Chapters 12 and 13 of the Glass Crown are done. Not only that, but some brainstorming with the wonderful wife has driven me to actually come up with the details and the whys of the end. There was a lot of her asking “Why?” and me replying with generalities and hand-waving. And because she is the Nikki, she continued to respond with “Why?” until I came up with some actual answers. I never thought two- and three-year-old questioning processes could produce such useful results. ;)
Tag Archives: Writery
Notebookery
I did it again! Well, technically I did it back in November, but I still did it! Another journal bites the dust!
This one was given to me by my Mom and Dad as a way to record my adventures in Japan when I was sixteen. My school district had a Japanese program that I participated in during my High School years. We also had a sister school, and I spent a couple of weeks in a host family’s home. I was lucky enough to be able to return the favor the next summer, and show Nobu around Michigan a bit. Anyway, as I tend to do, I spent more time experiencing the trip than I did writing about it. So, when I rediscovered the journal, only a few pages had been filled.
Truth be told, it’s not even really a journal. It’s a planner for the 1993/1994 academic year. It wasn’t tough to modify – I just wrote around the date markers, the entries from my trip, and the various checklists. I made sure to leave some buffer space around my trip journal so that I didn’t ruin my scribbles for posterity.
At first, I’d tried to turn it into a gaming journal. Myst 3: Exile, Myst Online, Eve Online, and Everquest 2. That effort went the way of most of my single-purpose journal efforts, which is to say nowhere. I picked it back up when I’d filled up the last journal, and filled it with quite a bit of Glass Crown, some final Adam’s Name – Detroit edits, and the beginning of the Remembrance rewrite. Looking back, it feels like I stayed incredibly on task through the entire thing.
Five months to fill its tiny lines and thin, recycled pages.
On to the next! There are stories to be told!
deviantArt
I used to publish first drafts of much of my writing here on the site, for your perusal and enjoyment. I’m pretty sure that those drafts disappeared when I migrated to WordPress, but it could have been a concern about publishability. In any case, they went bye-bye. And then someone (I think Izzy?) convinced me to set up an account at deviantArt. Tom wanted some critiques, she was posting jewelry that she’d made, and I was confused. “Isn’t that site for people that can draw?”
I discovered that there was a comparatively small, yet scrappy, contingent of writers there as well. And why not? Writing is art as much as drawing, painting, and photography. So, I thought, what the hell. I posted a couple of chapters of Todd’s Story, and fully intended to set up a regular update schedule. That didn’t happen. It didn’t happen so gloriously that there were gaps between posting chapters that were over a year long. I’d post a chapter here and there when life didn’t have my brain duct taped to the ceiling, but was never able to stick to a regular schedule.
UNTIL NOW! That’s right, for the first time, I’ve been able to mostly stick to a weekly Monday-night update routine. Todd’s Story will be finishing up shortly, and I’ve got a schedule of upcoming pieces that I’m excited to release. Stay tuned for “Two Vampires,” a short story whose universe will be sucked into the Adam’s Name multiverse. Not only that, but it’s my most-revised piece ever.
Go here for the weekly (mostly) updates to my Gallery!
Rusty gears
Right now, these two posts are turning the rusty gears in my mind. They are both worth the click through to the original posts:
Trust me, I’m a Doctor* (*Honorary, of Fine Arts)
Maybe they’ll turn some gears for you too.
Stuff, it happens.
What stuff happens, you may ask?
- The Prologue rewrite for the Remembrance is done.
- The Chapter 1 rewrite for the Remembrance is done.
- Chapter 12 of the Glass Crown has been started, and is getting wonderfully out of hand.
- Blew the dust off of my deviantArt account and started posting fiction bits weekly or every-other-weekly (fortnightly, if you will).
- It’s snowing, and that makes me happy.
- Drama happens. Great big messy buckets of drama. Vague item is vague.
Randomness
- We had two Halloweens, one Trunk-or-Treat in Pinkney with the sister-in-law, and the usual Trick-or-Treat on the 31st, this year in Owosso. The kids were excellent, had a great time, and took home an enormous amount of loot.
- Rewrite of The Remembrance has begun in earnest, and I am surprisingly excited about making it a better book. Make no mistake, if what the wife and I are doing now is any indication, it will be a more cohesive, connected telling.
- Chapter 11 of the Glass Crown first draft is done. Once I’ve gotten it typed up, it’ll be on its way to the alpha readers.
- Kids have been sick and not, off and on. That’s to be expected with the severity of the weather change and being on the far periphery of Sandy. I’m still hoping that we get a little more Autumn before Winter settles in.
Writing Status Update
A quick note as to the state of ongoing projects.
- The Adam’s Name kickoff story is in line to be edited by the great and powerful Nikki.
- It’s in line behind The Remembrance, which, post-edit, is heading for a rewrite and submission to an agent.
- The Glass Crown is still coming along. I’ve finally found the groove for Chapter 11, and it’s full of revealed plots and machinations! Much like Clue, but with less Tim Curry running around.
- I’m assembling both permissions and completed posts to assemble and complete a sequel to Todd’s Story. This one is also coming along nicely.
This has been your writery update. Please proceed with caution. Don’t walk under ladders. Smell the milk before you pour it. Don’t take wooden nickels.
Writing Journal
From my writing journal on 7 September, 2012:
The prologue is about Adam’s creation. It cannot set up the tension of the story, as the conflict between Adam and Walter is setting, where the conflict between OMGSPOILER is the actual story. Re-ordering the story to put these two closer to the front is a good idea, but am I going far enough? Should the creation myth introduce the Adam POV chapter?
This would allow the reader to get to know Jonah, Julia, and Sol while having Adam be introduced as part of the scenery, as he should be. But would that be too much Adam at once?
The creation myth belongs outside of the main narrative. It doesn’t work inside the story, unless they’d discovered OMGSPOILER. So, it can’t be added to the Adam chapter.
It comes down to whether the prologue helps the reader to understand and get into the story, or if it serves only to confuse the reader.
Also, I need to determine what it is about the minor characters that connect them to Adam and OMGSPOILER. They have to have no strong link to the main characters in their stories, or to the worlds in which the stories are being told.
Or, that’s how they have to start out when they meet Adam. Who knows what will happen between then and when they OMGSPOILER. Running into Adam has all kinds of unpredictable results.