One Year Special!!
Update New Book 6, Thesis Diary 52 6-6-21
We’ve gone a full year together!
To think that at this time last year I was outlining and preparing for my thesis classes for my MFA and I thought up this series of posts to try and keep myself accountable.
In that time, I have finished the first novel, revised it twice cutting out about 10k, outlined the broad points to a five-book series, wrote a synopsis, outlined the new novel, finally got around to querying agents, started the new novel, started to long series essays on this website, etc etc etc.
It’s been a hell of ride. I wanted to do something special for this one and I really didn’t put the time into figuring out what that would be.
So, I think I will talk about the main topics and then introduce something new that is happening this year.
Novel Progress:
This was another light week. I only wrote a single chapter for the novel and I’m still thinking of removing it from the book. In a funny twist, it is the exact same chapter number that I ended up deleting from my thesis novel.
Chapter seven seems to be cursed in my rough drafts. Funnily, both were experimental chapters. In the previous novel it was a chapter of vignettes that was supposed to montage a bunch of travel to get all of the storylines to the same place. In the WIP it is a chapter from the POV of the Arch-Villain of the entire series. I enjoyed writing it and reading it, but it really is an exposition chapter. Sort of… it takes place before the novel starts (originally I had the chapter skipping through time but ended up just writing the moment that happens 2 years before)… and it reveals both a bunch of the past and sort gives a map of the world.
But the flaws are also there. It introduces more characters, all of which don’t have any real “screen-time” until the next book in the series. It sort of adds a bit of “mustache twirling” to a character who is… not meant to be seen as such, and maybe it reveals too much?
Other Writing
Besides the above single chapter I also worked on a “Cheat Sheet” for my pre-reader. I made a list of all of the characters and a glossary of terms. What started out as a simple sheet turned into an 18-page document and it was missing characters and I thought up another 10 pages worth of glossary since. I think instead of the cheat sheet I am going to work on a full character list and glossary for the entire series.
I know it will eat into writing time, but in the long run it will be very useful and more than likely I would include it in the book anyway. We’ll worry about that over the next week or so. Next topic:
Query Letters
I didn’t expect to have anything to mention on this yet. I mean I just sent out the first three letters on May 23rd.
But sometimes the business moves fast. I received the first rejection on the 2nd of July. Oh well. Surprisingly, I’m taking it rather well. I mean I know that the bulk of agents are going to say no. Statistically it’s a hellscape of rejection. Now, I’m sure that having 23 more agents on my list is helping me out. Once I start getting down to only a handful left… then the rejections will start to cut deep.
I will also admit that of the 24 names on my list, FIVE of them are people I feel a perfect “fit” for. What ended up happening is I would check out an agency, read through the bios of the agents and find one that totally clicked with me. BUT I needed more names so I would also write down anyone else in the agency who repped Fantasy. Those initial five people are the ones that I think will hurt the most when they reject me. In the current batch sent out, I only have one of the Five.
We’ll see how it goes.
Podcast
So, I might have mentioned it in previous posts but I think I only casually dropped it. But I am part of a podcast. We have finally got our recording schedule worked out and have enough material in the can to get the party started. I haven’t been given the final date of the first Pod going live as I type this, though I should know in a few days and it will be all over my social media.
The “What Am Games?” podcast is three guys talking about hobby. Mainly the building and painting of miniatures, but we also talk wargaming, board gaming, card gaming, and Table-top RPGs. I talk about RPGs a LOT.
We have several different weekly and occasional segments that appear on the show, from endorsing our favorite hobby youtubers, to talking about our FAILS and WINS of the week. Most of my fails and wins are usually about different things happening in my various D&D games.
So, if you’re into gaming please keep us on your radar, I will of course post links once everything is live.
This Week:
What’s coming for the rest of this week?
Well, I’ll be writing up the master list of characters and the glossary. I’ll be readying another handful of query letters. I should also get chap 8 and 9 done this week. That is my goal. 2 chapters and all of the other stuff.
I’m supposed to have another Curse of Strahd post this week, but my character hasn’t had the time to write in his journal and I feel like I’m breaking verisimilitude by writing these posts from a nebulous future that might not happen. Part of me wanted to skip this week but I think I will just do a very short couple paragraphs that were jotted down in haste. Ideally, I should have waited until we had 4-5 games in the bag before I started writing the posts, but I came up with the posts as part of my final for my last class. So, I needed to write stuff back in April and May. Playing a game that only happens once a month is weird for me.
All that writing aside I have been reading a lot of classic comics. I’m working my way through the 70s era Ghost Rider and about to start the original Dr. Strange stuff. Of course, hunting down this material is also part of the fun. We recently took in a great collection into my store and have been filling the wall and rows with excellent comics. It’s super exciting to see so many older comics back on our wall and in our collector’s case. Also, filling the rows tight makes me happy.
Not Much of a Celebration
I feel I didn’t do much special here… but I did talk up the podcast and that has been a lot a fun. I’m sure once you hear my horrible voice, you’ll enjoy these written posts more. Ha ha.
Well, I have a ton of writing to get to. I hope all of you are reading, writing, and enjoying things. BE well.
