Update 35 1-7 Feb 2021

Still Need to Focus…

This has been a hell of week, not going to lie, I did not get as much done as planned. My area got hit with over a foot of snow on Monday when the last post went live. My snowthrower died and I spent over three hours of my Tuesday shoveling snow, then dealing with my back issues.

Now, being stuck in bed on a heating pad should have been pretty conducive to me outlining and writing notes for my next series. Should have been. But I did accomplish some of my goals, and with that this meandering intro is done.

Last Week:

I started with two goals. Start my outline and write the third draft of my personal essay. The essay got done, the outline not so much. Let’s start with the outline.

I changed my mind about a some of the details of the first book in the series. I was thinking through my main two storylines in the book and trying to figure out how they intersect. Without bogging you all down with pages of rambling and back story I’m going to try to clue you in on the problem I might have with my storyline.

Besides the issues of thinking it might be overly ambitious and then thinking “I’m not good enough to write this,” the main problem is the villain side of things.

Broad Strokes; The Villain:

The villain is very Luciferian in that he is a god who was cast out by the other gods. But the other gods tried to murder him, break him, and leave him as a powerless creature in the mortal realm when he wouldn’t die.

Now, this fallen god had many thousands of years to rebuild his power, his body, and plan. He had numerous set backs to his plans and currently he is imprisoned, but he had planned so intricately that the “mechanism” of the plan has kept going without his direct influence.

The main storyline of the series is that my main group of “heroes” were pawns that started the Fallen God’s plans, and now they’re trying to thwart the rest of plan from happening.

So what is the problem? The Problem is that I don’t have an intricate plan for the villain… and I keep second guessing myself.

Second Guessing Myself:

In the Ashlands, I had these characters drawn to a moment and place where they started the first domino falling. Though really it was more like five dominos fell and each started a different chain reaction.

I kind of thought I could get away with hand waving things happening and merely saying that it was part of the plan, or that my villain had already guessed that tactic. This works super well in D&D, when you have a super-intelligent villain you react to what your players are doing and say that the villain was prepared for whatever they do.

But as much as these storylines are based on games I ran over the last few decades; they are NOT those games. I need to know what is happening and why. Or do I? Does the D&D tactic work in a narrative, where I just hand-wave certain events? Or do I really need to know what those five dominos have created?

Leaning toward the Second:

This is a full narrative, and not a Co-op improv session. I think it’s vital that I fully understand what is going on at all times with the villain and his plans. And also I need to know how they “heroes” can stop, hinder, or turn those plans.

Because if I don’t know what’s going on the book is going to be a mess.

In Short:

In short… I am over thinking everything and making things difficult on myself. So, not much traction was made on writing the outline. But I did do a third draft of the essay.

I’m feeling very strongly about the essay as it deals with very sensitive topics. Getting these thoughts out on the page helps me a lot. Also, I kind of have message to friend/ fellow writer and I’m hoping they will get to read the essay and see these words. I haven’t been able to have the discussion with the person and, again, it’s very personal. My editor has said that they think the essay is very important for other writers to read as well.

I hope my story can help some people and I am very proud of this essay. Now I just need to wrangle it into good enough shape and get it published.

This Week:

This is the final week of my Thesis 3 class, though as I write this, I already have all of the work done and all of the grades. So, I have passed the class with another A. I’m still waiting for the final feedback on the first half of my novel, and that might be weeks away yet. But my teacher has hinted that I should start querying now.

To quote her; “You shouldn’t keep drafting as an excuse to hold up querying. As long as you have a very strong opening… start querying right now.”

Of course, I’m waiting for her feedback to see if SHE thinks I have a strong enough opening before I start sending it out.

More Snow:

As I write this, I’m waiting for more snow to start falling. I’m not super happy about it. I love snow on lawns but hate it on the roads. Besides the back issues, I just hate driving in bad weather. Plus, I don’t want to miss any work.

Next Update:

My goal is to have a brief outline of the Fallen God’s schemes and goals.

Probably a 4^th draft of the essay or submission.

Character write ups for the first novel started, possibly finished.

Sorry not a lot is going on right now, and I’m still debating doing other posts for the website. I’m creating things in a void as I don’t get to talk with any of you readers. Though I greatly appreciate the couple dozen of you who come through the site or receive the emails.