Of Swords And Books

Just an update, I suppose. I, for the most part, write these late at night, when I’m bored, and want to write, but know if I start, I’ll be up all night before I finish.

As the title of this post says, I’ve written 13 chapters in 17 days, each being about 3500 words in length. I’m okay with that figure, and overall, pleased with how improved the writing itself is.

I think back to how much I used to write. When I wrote OS&G, I wrote multiple chapters a day, however, they were shorter at around two thousand words. As I grew, I became more descriptive, I tried hard to narrate from my character’s perspective, something I didn’t do very well before.

Any, I likely still have a lot of problems in my writing. Sometimes, my writing is likely dry. I feel like the first few chapters were kinda passive before I recently created a steady path for the story.

A big part of me is ready to fail, but at least I can say that I did it. I will likely finish it, before I make another commitment to another project. I’ll likely re-write OS&G.

I write a lot everyday. I don’t self-edit as I write, as that would make my hours long process, hours longer. The worst feeling I could probably have while writing is self-doubt. I save that feeling for after I write.

I don’t know everything there is about writing yet. I don’t think every writer does. I’ve never been a good speaker . I could rarely if ever, voice out my own thoughts and feelings. I feel stupid whenever I speak, and I believe it too. But I like being alone with my thoughts and creativity, I feel less dumb, and more… something else. See, even here I can’t described how I feel with words.

So, where do we go from here? I keep writing. If all goes well, than I could see myself finishing before the month ends. At this point in the first draft, I had 23 chapters left. I don’t know if that will be the same or not, but It should be close enough.

Funnily enough, I multiplied the potential remaining chapters with my average word count, and added on to my second draft, I would have the exact same word count as my first draft that had a word count of 3000, 500 words less than my current.

I’m getting drowsy watching Clint Stevens on Twitch, and I suppose it’s time to end this update. It’s been a blast. Catch you later.

I wrote the first chapter of the second draft. 18 days have passed since i finished the first draft and the break was nice. But it had been more of a break from the story than writing itself.

I wrote 50,000 words on the “break,” writing the series that sort of got me into writing in the first place. Before I considered myself a writer, I wanted to be an artist, draw manga for a series. One of the first stories I thought of, was designed with this manga format in mind. So writing it felt a little awkward.

For clarification, it was a series about football (American) and it focused quite a bit on the sport itself. As a fan of football, I sort of hate the television shows involving football, because at the end of the day, the sport was unimportant to the show. It always boiled down to the lives of the players with the sport taking a back seat. Football hardly ever drives the series.

But of course, a book written with a heavy football focus wouldn’t attract many readers at all. I figured going into that, but continued to write it just because I was bored, and addicted to that particular story. I developed on the original premise, changed things such as the opening to the book, all awhile keeping my original idea in tact. Of course, I want to create good characters, and I can’t do that writing about football drives all the time. There were scenes away from football, but football never really left their mind. Their lives revolved around it, and it was exciting. I wrote my own passion for the game, through eyes of different characters.

I also wrote with no outlining at all. Not a single plan set for myself. A slight change, but I had a lot of regrets half way through. I had made a change that completely changed everything midway through. Something that changed the story for the better, but I pretended I had written that in the beginning, writing a note to myself if i ever went back to it in the future.

I love writing. I genuinely do. I can’t see myself stopping out of getting bored of it. I want to finish my second draft, possibly a third draft. Maybe get some beta readers for the second, I don’t know quite yet. I don’t know anything about what the future holds. A success? A failure? Maybe both. Maybe I won’t ever get the recognition I want and maybe all of these blogs are just me talking to nobody but myself.

But, I’m having fun, so I’ll push forward. If I don’t succeed with publishing, I’ll just post it here, why not. I’ve never been happier doing anything than I am writing.

Second Draft due date hmm… I don’t know. Hopefully by October or during. I’m excited, peace.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Oh my. I did it. My schedule was accurate, and I finished with days to spare. I feel good about completing it, but the next tasks are daunting. Going back through will be a long grueling task.

The word count is 126k words and 44 chapters. As I progressed further, I believe my writing improved. My word count grew from under 2,500 to about 3,000. Not that I’m saying that by typing more words means the writing itself is better, I believe the overall quality greatly improved.

But what’s next? When do I start rewriting? A part of me wants to take a long break. Maybe a month off. I’m debating taking August off of the project, and maybe practice with some other method.

There’s a lot to trim and make perfect. I have a lot to improve upon as well, and the road ahead will be a long one. It may even be longer to rewrite the first draft than it was to write it.

I wrote probably 23/27 days this month., and I enjoyed doing it. I’m proud to have worked that hard to be consistent enough to write a chapter each of those days. But the month before was a long grind as well, and I’m starting to get a little tired. A part of me just wants to play Divinity 2 all day. They always said the marathon in the middle was the hardest, but for me, it was the end.

Part of it may have been because I wanted to finish before the beginning of August, and when I got near to the end, I had ten days left in the month with only 3-4 chapters remaining. The time I was allowed to use up was very tempting, and I took two days off in a row.

I am excited to work on it further, but I am going to take a break. I don’t know how long of one in August, or if I would take one at all. If my itch returns, I will return. If it doesn’t return soon enough, I will return myself, and the itch will come with it, I’m sure. Anyway, it’s fun updating, even if no one reads it. A year from now, I can look back and see how I progressed.

Thanks.

I am doing well. Writing lots and lots. Today was the first day since my last post I’ve decided to take a break. A single day, hopefully.

It’s hard for me to take a break, especially when I was at my most productive. I think it’s the doubt I built up for myself. I think I’m writing a nice one-off fantasy novel, but i realize there’s little urgency in a lot of places. Like, at the beginning, my character is simply chained to his job. The job does lead to significant change in the plot-an almost insane amount of change to the plot-but I feel as if I could cut a good portion of that out.

I have-I believe the last time I checked-33 chapters and 92,000 words. When I see chapter word count for most fantasy books, I feel as if my word count per chapter isn’t enough. But a part of me doesn’t care. If I feel I can get across my point in 2,000 words as opposed to 4,000, I will.

When thinking of my word count, I thought about OSaG, my main series I want to build. I suppose my pace is faster because I started writing based off of television more so than books. Of course, I’ve been reading more books than watching television for the sake of the craft, but I feel as if it almost justifies a faster pace.

But back to OSaG. I think I liked writing their chapters more because I always got to jump from character to character, scene to scene. I feel like I could fill time easier, which is a problem for To Burn a Firefly. Time progresses, as long as a year, to weeks to days. What happens in between?

Sometimes, the genre shifts. At moment, it’s a grim dark, while the other it is kind of like slice of life sort of thing.

Though of course, I feel as if do some things well. I believe the concepts are creative and interesting. The power I develop is cool. I worry about my use of the power. How it will be used for action, and if the action would be good enough.

But luckily, it’s the FIRST DRAFT. Of course it will have flaws. The OSaG chapters I’ve written were and still are quite flawed. I will probably aim to rewrite them. I still plan on finishing Firefly before the month ends.

I’ve also written a tie-in to my main series which I enjoyed. I have passion for this, even if it may not be on the exact same level as I had for OSaG. Finishing it will be worthwhile and I’m glad to see how it plays out.

I can confirm I will rewrite it once, but I’m not sure about twice or thrice. I’ll worry more about word count later. Right now, I just want a string that sticks to both the beginning and end.

Oh, and yeah. I’m going to rewrite OSaG. It would be about the third time for the beginning, but I think it’s best to make the first arc as strong as possible. I’ve written three arcs, but I feel as if I didn’t aim for hints to the third one in the prior two. We’ll see how that goes.

So last time I blogged a month ago, I wrote about not being quite as productive as I wanted to be. Did I fix it, or did I fall into the same uninspired trap as before?

Well, I can say for sure, that I’m inspired now. I wrote twelve chapters since, bringing the total to nineteen for the project. I’m about halfway through. But twelve chapters in thirty days is crazy to think about. Not because I’m “proud” of that. Quite the opposite.

I find it crazy that I only wrote twelve chapters last month. It felt like I’ve been writing every day. And just now when I checked the date I posted the last blog, and figured out that I fell behind a bit.

Then I realized, I wasted a week of my life to Skyrim. Ugh. I could of spent that week writing, but I don’t regret it. I haven’t been addicted to a game like that for a long long time. Games were once my passion, which happened to wither away this past year. Every game felt boring to play-a waste of my time even.

But that week break or so, when I only played Skyrim, not writing, not reading, I reset. I came back stronger. Games are fun to me again. But so is writing, so is reading.

I’m currently reading Oathbringer, by Brandon Sanderson, and Making Shapely Fiction, by Jerome Stern. The formal is fantasy, while the latter is an advice book. Reading both simultaneously actually makes me feel like I’m becoming a better writer.

Hopefully I’m not blind to my own failure in my writing, but I feel like I’m improving each chapter I write. And with that, I want to write in order to improve. Writing is a game of its own, after all.

I said last month, I wanted to finish the first draft by the end of June, so I could start rewriting in August. If I keep my pace, I will be able to finish the draft before the end of the month. But realistically, I will start rewriting in august, but I don’t know if I’m capable of rewriting forty plus chapters in a single month. That’s beyond most people capabilities, I’m sure.

After the rewrite, I will go through it multiple times, writing and fixing things as I go. At that point, I could probably do multiple chapters a day. But there is also a boredom factor it has. First thing is of course, I have to make the story consistent. For example, if I say a building is made of stone in one chapter, than thirty chapters from then, I say it’s made of wood.

Simple things like that, I have to be careful in preparing. Every location, every person in my story, needs a strict guideline to follow. In my first draft, I don’t usually write character sheets, I simply write. I save that for the rewrite.

The only deadline I could say for sure, is that I want to finish the first draft in thirty days. The rewrite, I could see it taking another two months, but I need to hold my breath. If I could finish before the end of the year, that would be great.

No one when they write their first novel realistically expects it to do well, but as a writer, I sincerely hope it turns out well. Will it be good enough to publish? I don’t know. A part of me doesn’t care either. This project was meant to be educational, kind of a bridge to make my writing better for Of Swords & Gems. If it could do that well, (and be decent to read) it would serve its purpose as a one off. Extra content from the same universe. More insight to the world.

I miss my other characters. But time apart, really makes me excited to work with them again. In time my old friends.

Side note, play Getting Over It With Benett Foddy. Builds character 🙂

Greetings void. This year keeps getting worse, doesn’t it? I won’t say much about the most recent tragedy involving George Floyd, but I think it’s important speak up. No one yet comes to this site, as I don’t really intend on opening it anytime soon. This is just an authors thoughts on the recent events.

I think it’s important that we hear the voices before we address the fire. Looting while undeniably bad, we can’t let it distract from the blatant problem with the American system. It doesn’t work. This shouldn’t be a left or right issue. The problem is it seems like both sides don’t care. It feels like one side doesn’t care, and the other one is insincere about it. Last I’ll say about it, hold the authority accountable. From the police, to governors, to each and every president from now on. It sucks that at such a time of uncertainty, people find themselves picking between the better of two evils, instead of the better of two goods.

Anyway… Productivity. Am I any better than my last post? No, but I am not necessarily upset about it. In the main project in Of Swords & Gems, I wrote everyday, a chapter from anywhere between 1-2 chapters every day, with about 2300 words per chapter.

With my current one-off project, I have only seven chapters written. And that’s not at the pace I would like to get to. My guess is forty chapters, with the first draft being done in two months. At least, that is my goal. By august, I plan to rewrite every chapter in a second draft. Then, read over it thrice, then get some beta readers.

What is it about? It can be summed up as a life story of sorts. It involves a swole (the name of his race/species) man enslaved to the humans. He starts off as a relatively nobody, who becomes a very important figure in lore. It takes place before the main timeline.

What’s the difference between Of Swords & Gems and my new project? Well, OSaG follows multiple characters. A lot, to be exact, where even though my main character has half the chapters involving her, there are a lot of chapters about many other characters.

My new project however, has only one character I follow. So it’s a new struggle I’m unfamiliar with. Before, I followed many characters in slow world pacing, being able to bounce off of one another, which made it kind of easy to keep my mind fresh. It felt more forgiving. But now, I wonder how to keep the story interesting.

But, it’s a skill I should learn, and hopefully will.

A few more things I’ll add about the project. It follows a different are of the magic I use in OSaG. Instead of Soul Enchanting, it follows Gemchemy, the use of Soulgems to create potions through alchemy. I’m excited to explore and learn more about it. I feel like OSaG follows the enchanting side a little much, as it is the magic of the humans. So maybe, I’ll explore elven elemental magic. Though, we get a little more insight into it from one of the characters in OSaG 🙂

There is action, though much of the beginning builds up. The beginning builds up Gemchemy, while the middle and end display what it’s capable of, if that makes sense.

That’s about as much as I’m going to share right now, but I’ll update probably again in a month. Thank you for reading.

So, I’ve been writing as I said I would, but I haven’t exactly kept up with the site. I started off by saying I was going to write a single chapter a week with addition to a side chapter every other week.

The good news is that I have been writing. A lot more than I had planned on schedule too. Funnily enough, I broke my promise very early on, not writing anything. I bought Scrivener the 25th of February, and am proud to say, I’ve wrote 137,000 words since then to today, and have completed three arcs.

As good as an accomplishment that is to me, I’ve decided to not post them. As of right now, I just don’t think my writing is at the quality I want it to be. I was relatively happy with the first and second arc, plot wise, but the third arc made me realize how fast I’ve been going. There needed to be some planning.

It’s a mistake to think I could have pulled something this grand off so early. But I’m not giving up. Right now, what makes me happy, is conveying my ideas to the page. My prose is weak. That is my biggest concern right now.

And it’s a crazy idea to think about what I’m going to do next, but I’m going to write a one-off story. That way, I can slow down, take a break, but most importantly, stay in the universe I care so much for.

I’ve been reading a ton more, while studying. All in the hopes of getting better. I don’t think there had been anything ever in my life, that made me as happy as I’ve been writing. I post to this blog for self interest. Not a single soul would likely read this post for months, or possibly years. But that doesn’t matter.

I’m not going to improve the story for fans that don’t quite exist yet. I’m going to rewrite it because my story deserves better writing. I would be happier writing a story I’m proud of, then releasing a story that isn’t quite good enough.

Cheers, Echo out.