You know all those problems I was talking about with direction last time? Well, it only takes one good chapter to right everything again and surely enough, shortly after I wrote the last blog post, I hit that chapter. It's not that anything significant has actually changed in where I'm going with the story, it's just that I hit a certain tone in that chapter that reinvigorated the way I felt about the story. Whenever I describe what the book is about I avoid the vampires and werewolves part, because that has obvious problems with people's assumptions. (Quite reasonable assumptions, I might add.) But I think I'm doing okay with it now. I do know that it's going to be more than 50,000 words long. I'll definitely get to the 50k by Thursday, I'm at 43,413 now, so should be no problem.
I also created a spreadsheet for An Odyssey of Shadows, that maps out how the word count is distributed between the different characters in the book. It's quite cool, I like it a lot. I like reading about those kinds of stats, I really enjoyed reading the Wheel of Time stats like this. And I also found out some interesting stats about my own writing. First off, my chapters are shorter than they were in Songlord. I suppose it's because I'm jumping from character to character, but it was a bigger difference than I expected. Clarissa has the longest chapters, on average. Edric, obviously, has the most words from his point of view.
Looking forward to the big ramp up to the finish!
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
Day 21
Caught up with the required word count again! That was close for a few days, I was trailing behind what I needed. It was a busy few days and I didn't have as much time as I'd like to sit down and write, but I managed it last night. The target for yesterday was 33,333 and I got to 33,335. Well placed, it was the end of a chapter and everything.
I'm finding myself with a strange lack of direction though. Ever since the large conflict earlier on the book, I've been branching out and while I like some of the ideas, the story has lost the sense of purpose it had originally. I still have an overarching plot, but something is missing. I'm sure an inspired idea will crack me over the head soon enough, but it's difficult to even decide on my point of view characters for each new chapter now. Hopefully that will improve soon, I'll try to spend a bit more time planning.
I'm finding myself with a strange lack of direction though. Ever since the large conflict earlier on the book, I've been branching out and while I like some of the ideas, the story has lost the sense of purpose it had originally. I still have an overarching plot, but something is missing. I'm sure an inspired idea will crack me over the head soon enough, but it's difficult to even decide on my point of view characters for each new chapter now. Hopefully that will improve soon, I'll try to spend a bit more time planning.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Day 4000
Wait, what? Today is day 11. You didn't really think I was gonna blog every day seeing a 'day 1' post, did you? If you did, I sincerely apologize. I've been writing my novel instead of blogging; and I've gotta say it's going quite well. At the risk of being, as one of my friends put it, 'fad-alicious' I've got vampires and werewolves (and a variety of other creatures of that ilk, but these two seem to classify the entire book automatically) in my novel. Don't worry, I haven't set up teams or anything.
So, today I broke the 20,000 word mark, which is pretty cool. I'm a little ahead, but I'll need it for tomorrow, where I don't anticipate getting any writing done for An Odyssey of Shadows, I'll be working on Aspect instead. It's quite a breakneck pace I've set for myself this month, trying to simultaneously write two novels, one for assessment, the other under severe time constraint, but I'm getting it done. December will feel like a big holiday by comparison (I hope).
Around 20,000 words, I'm finally reaching a scene I've been planning for a long time, one that I've been really excited about. Thankfully, I do also have some plans for what happens afterwards, so I don't just grind to a screeching halt once the awesome is over. After all, there's still room for everything I've done so far, doubled up again, and then 50% again, so there needs to be a lot more story. But by introducing a few new characters that I can edit earlier references to in later, I think I've given some serious longevity to my overall character arcs.
So, today I broke the 20,000 word mark, which is pretty cool. I'm a little ahead, but I'll need it for tomorrow, where I don't anticipate getting any writing done for An Odyssey of Shadows, I'll be working on Aspect instead. It's quite a breakneck pace I've set for myself this month, trying to simultaneously write two novels, one for assessment, the other under severe time constraint, but I'm getting it done. December will feel like a big holiday by comparison (I hope).
Around 20,000 words, I'm finally reaching a scene I've been planning for a long time, one that I've been really excited about. Thankfully, I do also have some plans for what happens afterwards, so I don't just grind to a screeching halt once the awesome is over. After all, there's still room for everything I've done so far, doubled up again, and then 50% again, so there needs to be a lot more story. But by introducing a few new characters that I can edit earlier references to in later, I think I've given some serious longevity to my overall character arcs.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Day 1
Meet my protagonist: Vier. He's a wraith that lives beyond the edge of time. He's been observing humanity for some time, and has realized that their galactic empire will eventually collapse as humanity tries to 'conquer' itself. His solution? Introduce a common foe to unite the humans against. But humanity exterminated the last of its sentient opposition, creatures such as demons and vampires, in the Dark Ages. So Vier must travel back to the Dark Ages, a vastly different version from the real Dark Ages, and ensure that the creatures of darkness aren't driven to extinction.
The first chapter introduces Edric Sable, a Crusader of the Church of a Divine, a warrior tasked with slaying the devils and demons that lurk in the night. He's a pious, righteous, and powerful individual, who we'll learn more about as we go.
And this is the progress of my first day! Oh yes, the book is called "An Odyssey of Shadows". I'm really glad I had the idea regarding Vier last night, and now I've been developing it. I'm slightly worried about being cliched, using vampires and such, but given a NaNoWriMo novel is all about word count, that's something I can worry about later. Even if this never sees the light of publishing day, I think it will be fun to write, and different enough from Aspect that the two shouldn't interfere with each other. I can only hope.
2171 words out of my first day also means that I'm already ahead of my 1667 words per day average required to reach 50,000 by the end of the month. Let's hope I can keep that up!
The first chapter introduces Edric Sable, a Crusader of the Church of a Divine, a warrior tasked with slaying the devils and demons that lurk in the night. He's a pious, righteous, and powerful individual, who we'll learn more about as we go.
And this is the progress of my first day! Oh yes, the book is called "An Odyssey of Shadows". I'm really glad I had the idea regarding Vier last night, and now I've been developing it. I'm slightly worried about being cliched, using vampires and such, but given a NaNoWriMo novel is all about word count, that's something I can worry about later. Even if this never sees the light of publishing day, I think it will be fun to write, and different enough from Aspect that the two shouldn't interfere with each other. I can only hope.
2171 words out of my first day also means that I'm already ahead of my 1667 words per day average required to reach 50,000 by the end of the month. Let's hope I can keep that up!
Monday, October 31, 2011
NaNoWriMo!
I know it's been a long time since I've written anything on here, I've been very busy, writing, programming, coursework, building computers, the list goes on, and I try to get my writing done before I do my writing about writing. (Metawriting? :D ) I'm by no means 'done' with Aspect in any respect, it's still in its infancy, but I've just had a great idea for my NaNoWriMo story! Which is amazingly good timing, seeing as it's now 1:35 AM on November 1st.
Aspect, I've been experimenting with different character points of view, but I did so by writing a few scenes out of sequence, and, quite frankly, it was weird. I normally write in chronological order, so I get to anticipate and plan my favorite scenes, and change the details as I 'discover' other facets of the story writing the parts in between. Jumping straight into a scene I really wanted to write left me oddly short on material. I wrote the part I wanted and suddenly had nothing else to say, because I didn't know exactly where the characters had come from to get where they were, or where they were going.
Now I have the monumental, self-imposed task of writing both Aspect and my NaNoWriMo novel at the same time. Great idea, Stuart, this should be a fun month. :P It will be enjoyable in the end, but it'll definitely be a chore sometimes. But maybe, just maybe, some more Songlord quality stories are buried in there somewhere. I have high hopes for Songlord in the long run, and despite all of my other writing projects, Songlord 2 is actually one of the things I feel most driven to write. That bodes well for the story as a whole, but I feel I shouldn't rush on into the next book before standing back and editing the first one! I wouldn't want to change essential story events and suddenly have to rewrite vast swathes of book 2. Anyway, I look forward to the return (or not?) of Catherine Langord and Isaac Darksbane.
Aspect, I've been experimenting with different character points of view, but I did so by writing a few scenes out of sequence, and, quite frankly, it was weird. I normally write in chronological order, so I get to anticipate and plan my favorite scenes, and change the details as I 'discover' other facets of the story writing the parts in between. Jumping straight into a scene I really wanted to write left me oddly short on material. I wrote the part I wanted and suddenly had nothing else to say, because I didn't know exactly where the characters had come from to get where they were, or where they were going.
Now I have the monumental, self-imposed task of writing both Aspect and my NaNoWriMo novel at the same time. Great idea, Stuart, this should be a fun month. :P It will be enjoyable in the end, but it'll definitely be a chore sometimes. But maybe, just maybe, some more Songlord quality stories are buried in there somewhere. I have high hopes for Songlord in the long run, and despite all of my other writing projects, Songlord 2 is actually one of the things I feel most driven to write. That bodes well for the story as a whole, but I feel I shouldn't rush on into the next book before standing back and editing the first one! I wouldn't want to change essential story events and suddenly have to rewrite vast swathes of book 2. Anyway, I look forward to the return (or not?) of Catherine Langord and Isaac Darksbane.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Another Name
Oh, how this tortures me. I'm trying to name Aspect's protagonist, and have been for almost three days now. I have a good picture of who he is as a character, though not as clear on what he looks like. And the name is escaping me! I've got a lot of ideas for the story that I want to write about.
Basically, since I haven't explained yet on here, Aspect centers around a magic crafter, a man who can create new spells and enchantments. But he can no longer cast spells himself, he needs the aid of his three (much more inexperienced) apprentices to do the casting, and he can handle the manipulating of the magic.
In the world of Aspect, there is an event every ten years, referred to as a Passage, where an interdimensional creature enters their plane of existence and drastically alters the environment to suit itself. The protagonist was partially, and unwittingly responsible for the previous Passage, and has taken on the task of manipulating the next one, to see if he can control which dimensional creature finds a pathway into their world, ideally one whose elemental affinity would cancel out the current imbalance caused by the previous three Passages.
More on the lore next time!
Basically, since I haven't explained yet on here, Aspect centers around a magic crafter, a man who can create new spells and enchantments. But he can no longer cast spells himself, he needs the aid of his three (much more inexperienced) apprentices to do the casting, and he can handle the manipulating of the magic.
In the world of Aspect, there is an event every ten years, referred to as a Passage, where an interdimensional creature enters their plane of existence and drastically alters the environment to suit itself. The protagonist was partially, and unwittingly responsible for the previous Passage, and has taken on the task of manipulating the next one, to see if he can control which dimensional creature finds a pathway into their world, ideally one whose elemental affinity would cancel out the current imbalance caused by the previous three Passages.
More on the lore next time!
Saturday, October 15, 2011
A Name!
Naming things is the bane of my existence. Fantasy always involves unbelievable amounts of naming, and it always bugs me. Sometimes the names just don't work, but I can't sit and ponder on the name of village innkeeper #4 for days at a time. Sometimes I have to go ahead and just use whatever I can think of, and I can ctrl+f replace it later. (That is a great function.)
But some things are worth stopping to think about. My newest novel, an extract of which I'll be submitting as a college assignment, now has a name! 'Aspect'. The name is central to the story, short, and hopefully catchy. It seems to have some weight to it. It's the kind of simple thing I was looking for.
Aspect's mythology is developing in my head now, and I'll get more into that soon, but I'm really looking forward to writing it. Rather than my usual emphasis on first-draft speed, that I sort of inherited from NaNoWriMo, I'll be taking it slow, editing as I go, and see how that turns out for me. Hopefully the mythology will develop more fully earlier on in the book, because looking back at Songlord and Kosmos, there's a lot to change in the opening chapters.
But some things are worth stopping to think about. My newest novel, an extract of which I'll be submitting as a college assignment, now has a name! 'Aspect'. The name is central to the story, short, and hopefully catchy. It seems to have some weight to it. It's the kind of simple thing I was looking for.
Aspect's mythology is developing in my head now, and I'll get more into that soon, but I'm really looking forward to writing it. Rather than my usual emphasis on first-draft speed, that I sort of inherited from NaNoWriMo, I'll be taking it slow, editing as I go, and see how that turns out for me. Hopefully the mythology will develop more fully earlier on in the book, because looking back at Songlord and Kosmos, there's a lot to change in the opening chapters.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
New Idea
New ideas are always great, and I've been in dire need of one. I've mentioned in previous posts that I'm working on (possibly too) many stories at once. I've finished Songlord, but that's still rattling around in my head, new ideas for the second Songlord book, ways to improve the first one.
I've been working with another idea for the story for my game, which was taking basic shape, but what I've really needed is something for my college module on creative writing, so that I can get the ball rolling on its application process. Well, now I think I have that idea and it's quite an interesting one, if I do say so myself. It's inspired by a game, the new Magic: The Gathering game. (Very cheap on Steam, you should get it ;)
Obviously the story idea I've had has nothing to do with the video or card game, but the basic idea of powerful elementals that can cross dimensions is my starting point. We'll see what it develops into. I'm already mulling ideas for how they affect the world of the story, but haven't 100% pinned down any details yet. More to come.
Also, now I just need an idea for my NaNoWriMo novel and I'm set.
I've been working with another idea for the story for my game, which was taking basic shape, but what I've really needed is something for my college module on creative writing, so that I can get the ball rolling on its application process. Well, now I think I have that idea and it's quite an interesting one, if I do say so myself. It's inspired by a game, the new Magic: The Gathering game. (Very cheap on Steam, you should get it ;)
Obviously the story idea I've had has nothing to do with the video or card game, but the basic idea of powerful elementals that can cross dimensions is my starting point. We'll see what it develops into. I'm already mulling ideas for how they affect the world of the story, but haven't 100% pinned down any details yet. More to come.
Also, now I just need an idea for my NaNoWriMo novel and I'm set.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Start of Term
Ah, the university term, devouring even more of my oh so precious time. It'll all be worth it in the end, but right now, my writing projects, my coding, and my gaming are sort of taking a back seat to getting my new flat fixed and organized. No new writing stuff since last time, except more ideas about the projects I was talking about.
I've opened Kosmos a couple of times, and have read parts of it again, and it's clear I need to change a lot, so that's probably, hopefully, sorta, kinda gonna be what I'm working on soon. That and my draft proposal for what I plan to write for my creative module in college. *gasp* You mean I actually need to plan ahead in full, written-out form? We'll see how that goes.
I've opened Kosmos a couple of times, and have read parts of it again, and it's clear I need to change a lot, so that's probably, hopefully, sorta, kinda gonna be what I'm working on soon. That and my draft proposal for what I plan to write for my creative module in college. *gasp* You mean I actually need to plan ahead in full, written-out form? We'll see how that goes.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Return
Wow, it has been a long time! I've moved house, and my computer broke shortly before I had to move (argh, backlight) so it's been serious downtime. But the computer's fixed now, and my stuff is on the way to being in order. (Though still a mess, should be ordered soon.)
I've got a whole bunch of potential writing projects going now. I'm in the very first stages of planning (read: thinking of random ideas) for my NaNoWriMo novel for this year. I'm planning the story for my game. And I'm editing Kosmos. And I'm taking an optional humanities module at university, for which I'm doing some creative work too.
And above all else, I'm looking forward to getting back to editing Songlord! I'll be compiling a list of all the changes that I want to make to draft 2 while they're all fresh in my mind, and while I still remember what people who've read it have told me.
I've got a whole bunch of potential writing projects going now. I'm in the very first stages of planning (read: thinking of random ideas) for my NaNoWriMo novel for this year. I'm planning the story for my game. And I'm editing Kosmos. And I'm taking an optional humanities module at university, for which I'm doing some creative work too.
And above all else, I'm looking forward to getting back to editing Songlord! I'll be compiling a list of all the changes that I want to make to draft 2 while they're all fresh in my mind, and while I still remember what people who've read it have told me.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
The End of Everything
Songlord is finished! It's still a first draft, most definitively, there's a lot I want to change before going on to publication, but it's done nonetheless. Songlord is one of the writing works I'm most proud, more so than anything I've ever written before. It started out as a simple idea, singing to control magic, and grew into the behemoth that it is today. Inspiration can come from anywhere (especially since I don't sing) and parts of Songlord that I'd found so difficult in other manuscripts just seemed to work.
Naming my characters is normally extremely difficult for me, but with Songlord I was continually impressed with myself, the names just seemed to come and go as needed. That's not to say I never stopped and got stuck on names. (*Minor spoiler* The metal electrum took a long time for me to decide on the name for.) Catherine and Isaac, Langford and Darksbane, they all work with their respective roles. The one that was the biggest in terms of sheer inspiration was Gregarin Tionysis. I was writing the paragraph that was first going to mention the King of Tryst, and I hadn't even gotten to the sentence yet when the name jumped out at me. It was great.
I started Songlord last December, and it's been a great journey since then. I'll be revisiting Songlord soon, to edit and then hopefully go on and find myself an agent to get into the publishing industry. Somehow, I have more faith in Songlord for publication than Kosmos, but you never know. (I even wrote a short piece for Songlord's back cover, in my optimism. ;) )
So my next step is to take a step back from Songlord so I can approach it as a reader, rather than a writer, when I look for changes I want to make to the story. For a while I'll be venturing back into Kosmos and see if I can't streamline the NaNoWriMo story into a more coherent whole. I will, of course, be doing NaNoWriMo again this year, so that will hopefully give me a third manuscript to be working with. And I'm developing my own video game, which I'll be doing the story-writing for as well as the programming. (I will need an artist and a music person eventually for that though.)
Back to Songlord, *fairly big spoilers in the rest of this post*, the Epilogue was the first departure from Catherine's point of view in the story, jumping back to her brother Jacob, who we haven't seen in a long time. Usually my stories do change point of view relatively often, but for Songlord I made myself stick just with Catherine. I figured the Epilogue could tell a very essential part of the story in a very different way to make it stand out, and it was very liberating to suddenly have an entirely new personality to toy with for the narration. It was an affected personality, Jacob is not quite himself during the events of the Epilogue, but that makes it even more fun.
I also, since I couldn't get the thought out of my head, wrote the first few paragraphs of the second Songlord book. (Of course Songlord is a series.) I don't intend to continue it right away, I need to pin the first one down before I do that, but that particular scene wouldn't leave me alone. Following on with the theme of character perspective, I change it again for that chapter, and I think the second Songlord book won't be tied down entirely to Catherine, though I'll make sure she has a definite commanding presence. She's still my protagonist, but there's room for me to jump off to other characters now that my readers are familiar with Allirya and it's royal family. For instance, were you wondering what Geoffrey Langford was like? You'll probably see a lot more of him next time. No promises, nothing's set in stone, but he's part of my unwritten plan for now.
Naming my characters is normally extremely difficult for me, but with Songlord I was continually impressed with myself, the names just seemed to come and go as needed. That's not to say I never stopped and got stuck on names. (*Minor spoiler* The metal electrum took a long time for me to decide on the name for.) Catherine and Isaac, Langford and Darksbane, they all work with their respective roles. The one that was the biggest in terms of sheer inspiration was Gregarin Tionysis. I was writing the paragraph that was first going to mention the King of Tryst, and I hadn't even gotten to the sentence yet when the name jumped out at me. It was great.
I started Songlord last December, and it's been a great journey since then. I'll be revisiting Songlord soon, to edit and then hopefully go on and find myself an agent to get into the publishing industry. Somehow, I have more faith in Songlord for publication than Kosmos, but you never know. (I even wrote a short piece for Songlord's back cover, in my optimism. ;) )
So my next step is to take a step back from Songlord so I can approach it as a reader, rather than a writer, when I look for changes I want to make to the story. For a while I'll be venturing back into Kosmos and see if I can't streamline the NaNoWriMo story into a more coherent whole. I will, of course, be doing NaNoWriMo again this year, so that will hopefully give me a third manuscript to be working with. And I'm developing my own video game, which I'll be doing the story-writing for as well as the programming. (I will need an artist and a music person eventually for that though.)
Back to Songlord, *fairly big spoilers in the rest of this post*, the Epilogue was the first departure from Catherine's point of view in the story, jumping back to her brother Jacob, who we haven't seen in a long time. Usually my stories do change point of view relatively often, but for Songlord I made myself stick just with Catherine. I figured the Epilogue could tell a very essential part of the story in a very different way to make it stand out, and it was very liberating to suddenly have an entirely new personality to toy with for the narration. It was an affected personality, Jacob is not quite himself during the events of the Epilogue, but that makes it even more fun.
I also, since I couldn't get the thought out of my head, wrote the first few paragraphs of the second Songlord book. (Of course Songlord is a series.) I don't intend to continue it right away, I need to pin the first one down before I do that, but that particular scene wouldn't leave me alone. Following on with the theme of character perspective, I change it again for that chapter, and I think the second Songlord book won't be tied down entirely to Catherine, though I'll make sure she has a definite commanding presence. She's still my protagonist, but there's room for me to jump off to other characters now that my readers are familiar with Allirya and it's royal family. For instance, were you wondering what Geoffrey Langford was like? You'll probably see a lot more of him next time. No promises, nothing's set in stone, but he's part of my unwritten plan for now.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Almost There
I've been looking at the word "Epilogue" printed on the latest page of Songlord for a while now. So, yes, that means that I'm almost finished, the first draft of the entire Songlord manuscript is coming to an end, after about 8 months from when I started it last December. I know pretty much what's going to happen in the Epilogue, barring some details which will come to mind when I'm writing. It's a big scene, and I want to make sure I'm able to write it as well as I've envisioned it in my head.
And as is inevitable, thoughts of how the second Songlord book is going to go have been creeping into my head as well. It's best for now if I keep notes on them rather than writing them out in full, starting up the second Songlord before I've even done any editing of the first one would not be the best idea. And my plan isn't to edit Songlord straight away, I have a kind of alternating conveyor-belt system going, where now I can approach Kosmos more as a reader than a writer, so I'll be better able to edit it.
All part of the long road to publication. I'll let you know when I finally write Songlord's Epilogue and get on to editing Kosmos.
And as is inevitable, thoughts of how the second Songlord book is going to go have been creeping into my head as well. It's best for now if I keep notes on them rather than writing them out in full, starting up the second Songlord before I've even done any editing of the first one would not be the best idea. And my plan isn't to edit Songlord straight away, I have a kind of alternating conveyor-belt system going, where now I can approach Kosmos more as a reader than a writer, so I'll be better able to edit it.
All part of the long road to publication. I'll let you know when I finally write Songlord's Epilogue and get on to editing Kosmos.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Ultimate Destruction
This is my writing blog, but for today, it's the saga of how I couldn't get back to Spain from the Bahamas, because I should explain why I haven't been writing on my writing blog.
So. I was supposed to arrive in Spain last Thursday (today is Wednesday, I arrived last night.) Now, I'll start by saying that I'm very thankful for the extra few days in the Bahamas, that's always good, so all of this is by no means me complaining. It just feels like a story worth telling.
On Monday it became clear that then-tropical storm Irene was headed in the general direction of Nassau, and my flight was scheduled to leave on Wednesday night. I dunno, maybe I'd get out beforehand, maybe not. On Tuesday, British Airways canceled the flight for Wednesday night. They had good reason, I've gotta say. See, the flight from Nassau to London is technically the return journey of the BA plane, it leaves from London, stops in Nassau, and goes on to either Providenciales or Grand Cayman, and then it goes back the same way. Understandably, British Airways didn't want to fly 400 or so tourists out into the path of an oncoming hurricane, so the flight never left London. So it clearly couldn't leave from Nassau.
So my flight on Wednesday didn't leave. Hurricane Irene turned slightly east on Thursday, so Nassau only really got a glancing blow from the hurricane's western edge. The power went out for part of a day, or a few days, depending on where on the island you were, and the internet went down for about 4 days. There are quite a few funny stories to be had about that, like relations in faraway countries getting better information about hurricane Irene online than us in Nassau were getting from the local radio.
So, my flight was rescheduled to Sunday night. Come Sunday night, I went to check in, and was informed that the flight had been delayed until 7 AM Monday morning. You see, BEC (the local power company) had not yet restored power to the airport, so the airport had been running on a generator. The previous night, the flight I was supposed to be taking left from Providenciales, on its way to Nassau and then on to London. But the generator at Nassau airport died, whether it ran out of fuel or broke, I'm not sure. But that meant all the lights on the runway went out, so the plane couldn't land. It had to return to Providenciales (gotta say, I'm glad I wasn't in that part of the journey) and wait. It flew back to Nassau as soon as possible, and all seemed to be good to go the next morning.
With all however-many of us on the plane at 7:05 AM (had to be at the airport just after 5), we sat there at the runway. And we sat there. The pilot explained that local air traffic control didn't have the proper records of their flight path for them to take off, and they were trying to deal with that. We finally left at 9:05 AM. Would've been cool to only have to arrive at the airport at 7.
Anyway, also, as we had been informed earlier but I haven't mentioned until now, the flight's catering, the food, hadn't lasted because of the delays. (As one would expect.) But there is no catering service at Nassau airport. So one of the local hotels was hired out to do catering for the flight, but of course, they didn't have the standard foil containers needed to heat the meals on the plane. So cold food all the way to London, I'm glad I sleep well on planes, otherwise I might have been quite hungry.
Then a relatively uneventful, though not completely run-of-the-mill overnight in London, and I left from Gatwick, on time, the next day, and arrived in Malaga. All in good fun, and my phone seriously saved my bacon a few times.
All in all it was an eventful trip, and despite all that, I'd definitely do it again. It was a fun visit, and I'm looking forward to another one next year.
In other news, those of you who are reading my ongoing writing works, I've just finished Chapter 28 of Songlord. You should read it.
So. I was supposed to arrive in Spain last Thursday (today is Wednesday, I arrived last night.) Now, I'll start by saying that I'm very thankful for the extra few days in the Bahamas, that's always good, so all of this is by no means me complaining. It just feels like a story worth telling.
On Monday it became clear that then-tropical storm Irene was headed in the general direction of Nassau, and my flight was scheduled to leave on Wednesday night. I dunno, maybe I'd get out beforehand, maybe not. On Tuesday, British Airways canceled the flight for Wednesday night. They had good reason, I've gotta say. See, the flight from Nassau to London is technically the return journey of the BA plane, it leaves from London, stops in Nassau, and goes on to either Providenciales or Grand Cayman, and then it goes back the same way. Understandably, British Airways didn't want to fly 400 or so tourists out into the path of an oncoming hurricane, so the flight never left London. So it clearly couldn't leave from Nassau.
So my flight on Wednesday didn't leave. Hurricane Irene turned slightly east on Thursday, so Nassau only really got a glancing blow from the hurricane's western edge. The power went out for part of a day, or a few days, depending on where on the island you were, and the internet went down for about 4 days. There are quite a few funny stories to be had about that, like relations in faraway countries getting better information about hurricane Irene online than us in Nassau were getting from the local radio.
So, my flight was rescheduled to Sunday night. Come Sunday night, I went to check in, and was informed that the flight had been delayed until 7 AM Monday morning. You see, BEC (the local power company) had not yet restored power to the airport, so the airport had been running on a generator. The previous night, the flight I was supposed to be taking left from Providenciales, on its way to Nassau and then on to London. But the generator at Nassau airport died, whether it ran out of fuel or broke, I'm not sure. But that meant all the lights on the runway went out, so the plane couldn't land. It had to return to Providenciales (gotta say, I'm glad I wasn't in that part of the journey) and wait. It flew back to Nassau as soon as possible, and all seemed to be good to go the next morning.
With all however-many of us on the plane at 7:05 AM (had to be at the airport just after 5), we sat there at the runway. And we sat there. The pilot explained that local air traffic control didn't have the proper records of their flight path for them to take off, and they were trying to deal with that. We finally left at 9:05 AM. Would've been cool to only have to arrive at the airport at 7.
Anyway, also, as we had been informed earlier but I haven't mentioned until now, the flight's catering, the food, hadn't lasted because of the delays. (As one would expect.) But there is no catering service at Nassau airport. So one of the local hotels was hired out to do catering for the flight, but of course, they didn't have the standard foil containers needed to heat the meals on the plane. So cold food all the way to London, I'm glad I sleep well on planes, otherwise I might have been quite hungry.
Then a relatively uneventful, though not completely run-of-the-mill overnight in London, and I left from Gatwick, on time, the next day, and arrived in Malaga. All in good fun, and my phone seriously saved my bacon a few times.
All in all it was an eventful trip, and despite all that, I'd definitely do it again. It was a fun visit, and I'm looking forward to another one next year.
In other news, those of you who are reading my ongoing writing works, I've just finished Chapter 28 of Songlord. You should read it.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Inspiration
There's some merit to blatantly stealing ideas that you see written in already published works. Well, not quite blatantly, but certainly taking inspiration. I'm reading George R.R. Martin's latest book in the Song of Ice and Fire series right now, A Dance with Dragons. And I've gotta say, whenever I read more of this book, it makes me think 'My book will never be this good.' It's crazy how much detail and depth he gets into these books, and how unrelentingly surprising it is. He always manages to throw in countless twists and turns, and he really, truly captures the actions of characters who truly hate each other. You can't imagine it until you've read it. The Game of Thrones TV series is a decent substitute, but the books are where it's really at.
But George R.R. Martin's brilliance aside, my own work on Songlord benefits greatly from reading such amazing work. A writer is inevitably affected by what he reads, even if not taking any direct cues from events in the book; so when I start reading a new series, or change from one series to another, I always wonder what affect it will have on the voice in my own written work. I planned to read Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss after A Dance with Dragons, but it's difficult to import books here in the Bahamas, so I'm going to read the first book in the Icemark series next. It looks interesting, and also has a female protagonist, like Songlord.
I don't know how, but I haven't written any of Songlord since my previous blog post. I'm at an epic part of the story, so it should be driving me on, but my time is divided by programming as well. I should definitely be able to pick up Songlord again soon though. Soon, as in the ephemeral tomorrow, or maybe the day after. My reticence, though nonspecific, may be because I can feel the end of Songlord coming on. It's certainly the first book in a series, but finishing the first draft means going back and editing Kosmos. Good fun, that. ;)
But George R.R. Martin's brilliance aside, my own work on Songlord benefits greatly from reading such amazing work. A writer is inevitably affected by what he reads, even if not taking any direct cues from events in the book; so when I start reading a new series, or change from one series to another, I always wonder what affect it will have on the voice in my own written work. I planned to read Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss after A Dance with Dragons, but it's difficult to import books here in the Bahamas, so I'm going to read the first book in the Icemark series next. It looks interesting, and also has a female protagonist, like Songlord.
I don't know how, but I haven't written any of Songlord since my previous blog post. I'm at an epic part of the story, so it should be driving me on, but my time is divided by programming as well. I should definitely be able to pick up Songlord again soon though. Soon, as in the ephemeral tomorrow, or maybe the day after. My reticence, though nonspecific, may be because I can feel the end of Songlord coming on. It's certainly the first book in a series, but finishing the first draft means going back and editing Kosmos. Good fun, that. ;)
Friday, August 12, 2011
Time!
What do you mean I haven't written a new blog post in over a week!? That's ridiculous!
But it's true.
I've been traveling, and a lot of time was consumed on either side of that, packing up, the actual traveling, and then the adjusting with the time zones and the new (well, old) place, so different (better) lifestyle. I hadn't found myself in the right state of mind to do much writing until today, in spite of the epicness of the scene I had left myself off at.
But let me say, the epic was in no short supply when I got going. At first it was that dreaded leadup, when you've got to set up the crux of one of the most dramatic moments in your story, and you wonder if every word isn't going to betray you; that it might be the wrong one and put the reader off before they reach the big payoff. But once the scene starts rolling, the action starts pouring in, all of that gets thrown out the window. I got back into that writing zone after about a page, and it was great.
But on top of the action scenes, where you get to put in all the blood and violence, all the life-changing decisions that characters makes, there are the reveals. Oh, the reveals, that you've been waiting so long to write down. I've been waiting to do this particular chapter of Songlord (now chapter 28) since before chapter 15 at least. I've rewritten it over a thousand times in my head, but for now I'm really happy with how it worked out. Hopefully it's one of those scenes that for the reader, you see the words and realize all of your assumptions thus far have been wrong. Everything every character thought they knew was entirely misled; it's awesome.
When you all get to this part of the story, if you enjoy it even a fraction as much as I did, it will have been worth it. For those who are reading along with me as I'm writing on Google Docs, go check out the new chapters! And keep an eye out for more to come. ;)
But it's true.
I've been traveling, and a lot of time was consumed on either side of that, packing up, the actual traveling, and then the adjusting with the time zones and the new (well, old) place, so different (better) lifestyle. I hadn't found myself in the right state of mind to do much writing until today, in spite of the epicness of the scene I had left myself off at.
But let me say, the epic was in no short supply when I got going. At first it was that dreaded leadup, when you've got to set up the crux of one of the most dramatic moments in your story, and you wonder if every word isn't going to betray you; that it might be the wrong one and put the reader off before they reach the big payoff. But once the scene starts rolling, the action starts pouring in, all of that gets thrown out the window. I got back into that writing zone after about a page, and it was great.
But on top of the action scenes, where you get to put in all the blood and violence, all the life-changing decisions that characters makes, there are the reveals. Oh, the reveals, that you've been waiting so long to write down. I've been waiting to do this particular chapter of Songlord (now chapter 28) since before chapter 15 at least. I've rewritten it over a thousand times in my head, but for now I'm really happy with how it worked out. Hopefully it's one of those scenes that for the reader, you see the words and realize all of your assumptions thus far have been wrong. Everything every character thought they knew was entirely misled; it's awesome.
When you all get to this part of the story, if you enjoy it even a fraction as much as I did, it will have been worth it. For those who are reading along with me as I'm writing on Google Docs, go check out the new chapters! And keep an eye out for more to come. ;)
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Trickery
Tomorrow is a deceptive word; there are loads of great semantic arguments as to why you still did something 'tomorrow', given its relative position in time. As you might be able to tell, I didn't write that linking scene on the 'tomorrow' I was referring to in my last blog post, but instead the day after. And I've got to say, that was the most fun writing I've done in quite some time. I've gotten to a very pivotal moment in the story now, introducing a character that's been talked about for some twenty chapters but never seen, as well as leading up to some cool secrets I've been looking forward to revealing for some time.
Writing is great when you get to that part, when you're giving life to the scenes that have been rattling around your head for weeks, and everything just seems to slot perfectly into place. There's no stopping to think about specific words, about what your character should be feeling, it all just works. I made a note to myself to remember that feeling, because it had been a long time (accursed exams!) since I got there; and it's the reason why I write in the first place.
Needless to say, Songlord is going well, and I've left myself a rough edge to pick up easily enough later today/tomorrow/next week. (That flexibility probably means next week.) I'm traveling on the weekend, so no writing then, most likely, but you never know. I really want to write the next part of the story so I wouldn't count it out just yet. And once I finish my summer work placement (Friday), I plan to set myself a sort of flexible-ish writing regimen, so I should get a lot done in the weeks to come. Given where Songlord sits now, and the amount of time I have, I might very well finish the first draft. But that's being very optimistic.
Writing is great when you get to that part, when you're giving life to the scenes that have been rattling around your head for weeks, and everything just seems to slot perfectly into place. There's no stopping to think about specific words, about what your character should be feeling, it all just works. I made a note to myself to remember that feeling, because it had been a long time (accursed exams!) since I got there; and it's the reason why I write in the first place.
Needless to say, Songlord is going well, and I've left myself a rough edge to pick up easily enough later today/tomorrow/next week. (That flexibility probably means next week.) I'm traveling on the weekend, so no writing then, most likely, but you never know. I really want to write the next part of the story so I wouldn't count it out just yet. And once I finish my summer work placement (Friday), I plan to set myself a sort of flexible-ish writing regimen, so I should get a lot done in the weeks to come. Given where Songlord sits now, and the amount of time I have, I might very well finish the first draft. But that's being very optimistic.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Linking Scenes
You know, those scenes that join the action between two relatively major locations, where the character is walking/riding/driving, those are quite challenging to make engaging. Often it's useful to skip them with chapter breaks, but sometimes that can't be done because of their placement in the narrative. And it would look very artificial to skip over them entirely every time you run into one. So what I find myself doing is diving into the character's mind, whoever's point of view has been taken, we see their thoughts on the page, as they considering where they're going and how they got there. This lets you connect with the emotions of the character, true, but I'm also running the risk of disengaging from the current series of events.
I say all of this now because one of these in-between scenes has been next up in Songlord for a few days now. It links together two quite action-heavy sequences, which makes personal reflection even more of a strenuous step for the reader. It's natural for the characters involved to have fierce emotional responses, but not necessarily to carefully reflect over them. Tomorrow, always a great prospect. Tomorrow I'm going to write that scene, piecing together what I've written already with a couple of other scenes that I'm eagerly anticipating.
This issue of connecting scenes was less prevalent in my previous novel, Kosmos. (*Minor story details for Kosmos to follow*) In Kosmos, the characters could transport themselves from one place to another with a thought, dragging parties in their wake and easily linking together any scenery of setting I wanted. Very convenient, but reflecting myself it makes the story feel somewhat disjointed. I rush from one crux of the story to the other, without taking the time to fill in the necessary character building for the ancillaries. That's something that can definitely be solved in a further draft, since the lack of detail isn't a lack of vision, there are already backstories for these people that I've come up with and drive their decisions, but it turned out to be quite difficult to impart that information to the reader without it feeling like a simple info dump. To be improved, most certainly.
So, in the end, this has been quite a circular point. The linking scenes are difficult to write, and I worry that they pull too much away from the crux of the issues being dealt with in their surrounding chapters/paragraphs, but missing them out is clearly a mistake. If I come up with any magic ways around the quandary, I'll let you know.
I say all of this now because one of these in-between scenes has been next up in Songlord for a few days now. It links together two quite action-heavy sequences, which makes personal reflection even more of a strenuous step for the reader. It's natural for the characters involved to have fierce emotional responses, but not necessarily to carefully reflect over them. Tomorrow, always a great prospect. Tomorrow I'm going to write that scene, piecing together what I've written already with a couple of other scenes that I'm eagerly anticipating.
This issue of connecting scenes was less prevalent in my previous novel, Kosmos. (*Minor story details for Kosmos to follow*) In Kosmos, the characters could transport themselves from one place to another with a thought, dragging parties in their wake and easily linking together any scenery of setting I wanted. Very convenient, but reflecting myself it makes the story feel somewhat disjointed. I rush from one crux of the story to the other, without taking the time to fill in the necessary character building for the ancillaries. That's something that can definitely be solved in a further draft, since the lack of detail isn't a lack of vision, there are already backstories for these people that I've come up with and drive their decisions, but it turned out to be quite difficult to impart that information to the reader without it feeling like a simple info dump. To be improved, most certainly.
So, in the end, this has been quite a circular point. The linking scenes are difficult to write, and I worry that they pull too much away from the crux of the issues being dealt with in their surrounding chapters/paragraphs, but missing them out is clearly a mistake. If I come up with any magic ways around the quandary, I'll let you know.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Progress!
University exams take their toll, and I hadn't written any of Songlord in a few months, but now I've gotten quite a bit done for two days running! I'm not entirely happy with everything I've written since taking up again, but such is the way with a project that's been left to gather dust, along with my skills, for too long! I've had some really good ideas regardless of my current standard of execution, everything can be edited and improved later, it's important with this first draft to get the bones of the story itself down onto paper. (metaphorically)
And let me tell you, writing when you're tired is extremely difficult. I'm currently working at Apple, a summer work placement, and I have to get up at 7 AM to arrive into work on time, so needless to say, I am very tired on weekdays, but still, Songlord now sits very comfortably on 76,882 words, a significant 4,000 or so words in the last two days. I'm building up to a scene I really want to write, so that's kept me going for longer individual sittings than usual. That's fairly common for me, when I really like a certain scene I have planned out, key story moments and character arc conclusions.
Any Songlord spoilers on my blog will be marked clearly before they pop up, so any readers out there who are also working their way through the manuscript need not fear. It's great getting back into the writing, and we'll see if I do anymore tomorrow! I've got loads more to talk about Kosmos, the National Novel Writing Month, old parts of Songlord, and even how I write in general, but I'll save that for when I don't have any immediate content to write about. ;)
And let me tell you, writing when you're tired is extremely difficult. I'm currently working at Apple, a summer work placement, and I have to get up at 7 AM to arrive into work on time, so needless to say, I am very tired on weekdays, but still, Songlord now sits very comfortably on 76,882 words, a significant 4,000 or so words in the last two days. I'm building up to a scene I really want to write, so that's kept me going for longer individual sittings than usual. That's fairly common for me, when I really like a certain scene I have planned out, key story moments and character arc conclusions.
Any Songlord spoilers on my blog will be marked clearly before they pop up, so any readers out there who are also working their way through the manuscript need not fear. It's great getting back into the writing, and we'll see if I do anymore tomorrow! I've got loads more to talk about Kosmos, the National Novel Writing Month, old parts of Songlord, and even how I write in general, but I'll save that for when I don't have any immediate content to write about. ;)
Thursday, July 21, 2011
A Bright New Day
Quite literally, today was a bright day, and that's somewhat unusual in Ireland. But that's not the point. The point is welcome, reader! Whoever you might be. I'm Stuart Holland, and I'm an author, or at least I think I can be. I've read in numerous places that keeping a blog is good for an author, both to reach out to his fans and to give himself some sort of structure, an expectation to continue so there's something to update about. I've also been considering it for a while, and now, in the midst of summer vacation, I've got a chance to get started and maybe integrate it into my routine somewhere.
I write genre pieces, mostly novels, though I have done a few short stories. Fantasy is easily my favorite, followed by science fiction. This blog's name, "The Lyrum Vaults" comes from my latest fantasy novel undertaking, titled "Songlord". I've had some great new ideas for that piece, which I'll hopefully be putting down into words on a page (well, a Word document) in the next few days. But you'll hear more about Songlord in later posts, I've got plenty of time for that, and a big backlog of info to ground myself with.
My previous writing project before Songlord was "Kosmos", another novel but science fiction this time. I wrote it during the National Novel Writing Month in November 2010. If anyone out there is an aspiring writer, or just enjoys writing in their free time, whether to be published or not, check out www.nanowrimo.org and join me and whole load of other people writing your own 50,000 word novel in 30 days! It's on every November, so no pressure. I feel I should mention, since this is my first blog post, that I've got nothing to do with the National Novel Writing Month in any official capacity, nor the Office of Letters and Light who coordinate it. Again, there will be more on that another time!
I've worked on many personal writing projects before these two, most notably my first novel "Alignments Clash". I should mention that none of these are published yet, so don't go scouring your bookstore (or Amazon) for them just yet. But with time, I'll be up there on the shelf somewhere, and hopefully a lot of you people out there will enjoy reading my work as much as I've enjoyed writing it.
I write genre pieces, mostly novels, though I have done a few short stories. Fantasy is easily my favorite, followed by science fiction. This blog's name, "The Lyrum Vaults" comes from my latest fantasy novel undertaking, titled "Songlord". I've had some great new ideas for that piece, which I'll hopefully be putting down into words on a page (well, a Word document) in the next few days. But you'll hear more about Songlord in later posts, I've got plenty of time for that, and a big backlog of info to ground myself with.
My previous writing project before Songlord was "Kosmos", another novel but science fiction this time. I wrote it during the National Novel Writing Month in November 2010. If anyone out there is an aspiring writer, or just enjoys writing in their free time, whether to be published or not, check out www.nanowrimo.org and join me and whole load of other people writing your own 50,000 word novel in 30 days! It's on every November, so no pressure. I feel I should mention, since this is my first blog post, that I've got nothing to do with the National Novel Writing Month in any official capacity, nor the Office of Letters and Light who coordinate it. Again, there will be more on that another time!
I've worked on many personal writing projects before these two, most notably my first novel "Alignments Clash". I should mention that none of these are published yet, so don't go scouring your bookstore (or Amazon) for them just yet. But with time, I'll be up there on the shelf somewhere, and hopefully a lot of you people out there will enjoy reading my work as much as I've enjoyed writing it.
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