Well, another thing. At some point, humility seems insincere since I've made a lot of things and I've busted my butt while I'm at it. Share time...
And there it is. I shouldn't have slacked off on actual making a virtual flier, but it did completely slip my mind. UnNamed was already released as well, but I may hold off on designing one until I set UnSung up for release.
Oh man, oh man, UnSung will be huge though... Now that I've stripped away all word count concerns by sticking to self-publishing, I'm still two scenes away from finishing Part One of Three and I'm at a whopping 70K words already. That's the 'minimum' word count for most adult novels already (anything smaller usually gets called a novella). Keep in mind, I'm also fairly skeletal in the beginning. When I flesh out some of the rushed scenes, that sometimes boosts my count up another 5-10K. I would not be surprised if this story reaches the 200-300K range.
It's a vague set of numbers but maybe more details will shed light on this. I've mentioned before it's a complex story to write, but that is because I labor to make these ideas much simpler to read. To give you some insight, the story starts with the bard, Aiden. He is a young man who can't speak and lived most of his life as a slave before escaping. He is running from place to place, always afraid he will be returned to his master. He meets a strange young woman named Lilith that decides she is useful to him, but to help, he has to go with her to a mysteriously abandoned city where trade once flourished. To him, literally anything is better than going back to his master.
The story also follows a girl he met prior to his escape, a fire dancer named Talia. Life seems perfect-- she's at the top of her class, close to graduating, has a wonderful boyfriend. After fleeing from a scene where she might be suspected of murder, she travels alone to a place where she doesn't know anyone but is befriended by a performance troupe. When she auditions for them, she displays a very unique trait. She is separated from them and begins to believe that maybe she is cursed to wander alone.
And the murder investigation continues. Following head investigator Corvus, we get more insight into the murder that resulted in the first two characters fleeing. Only it doesn't stop there.
These are the three main plot points, but there are also smaller scenes that carry the story involving two of the Gods. I say that this is easily its own book because I'm resolving many of these plots that lead into a very different approach for Part Two. Part Three will unify all of the ideas to resolve the main conflict.
As I did on UnNamed, I am planning an epilogue that starts in a very different region on the same world. I already have the first two characters in mind, but I hope this one will be as rich and vast as UnSung is turning out to be. I do know that UnHeard is taking place on the lightly mentioned island nation to the west of the Anders. Until I write the epilogue, I don't want to commit to any details for the time being.
I'm not terribly worried about my ideas being stolen. For one, good luck arriving at all the details beyond those short descriptions. I haven't given away anything specific enough to be pinched and plagiarized. For two, nobody talks like me. I know this. How I arrive at things is not mainstream. My voice is its own thing. I am at least keenly aware of that.
Honestly, like with any story, I anticipate releasing it to everyone! Even more so, I always look forward to the next story. Physical exhaustion aside, I'm so unblocked that I'd need a spaceship to hide from my muse. And I'm so grateful for that, really. With so much else that can go wrong in life, the best thing I can ask for is a relentless muse.
Well, I'm off, friends! Thanks for reading and, if you're one of the others, keep writing as well.
As for me, more to write, more to design. I'll keep you posted!
That's a cool little advertisement you've made. Do you have a deviant art page or somewhere else you keep your artwork?
ReplyDeleteThe best I can do are sketches, but I've purchased an Udemy course for character drawings and another for coloring so maybe I might get more proficient at it by the end of the year.
I totally hear you about the complex story, but I think that's part of the fun of it! Seeing how all these things tie in together to make the greater whole. I know I get super excited when I talk about my stories, and the only one who can really keep pace is my sister-in-law because she's been my sounding board for almost a decade.
And voice, yes! It's one of those things that can't be learned, really. You can teach tricks to tighten writing or fix grammar, but voice has to be discovered by the writer.
The Truth about Heroes--is that related to UnNamed and UnSung? Or is it a different world?
Helping my nephew with his science fair project this week so I'm a little behind...
ReplyDeleteI do have a DeviantArt page, with most of it being from my character sketches from years ago, but even then I didn't use it much. I've tried to post a few of my newer works there though. Look for me under KitaCat711!
My friends can be sounding boards sometimes, but I'm also terribly vague to save time. I often don't know how I'm going to simplify the complex ideas until I am writing them in earnest. Even once they become simple, I try not to ruin it for those friends who would like to find out once I've published it. They do help me through some of the tangles without realizing it though.
The Heroes trilogy is separate from the UnQuadrilogy. I never did give the Heroes, World or Universe trilogies, which are all connected, a cohesive name as is traditional for fantasy, but if that becomes too confusing as I keep publishing, I may have to suck it up and give it one later. While I can simplify giant ideas to make sense, I have to admit, I'm still woefully bad at trying to simplify stories into blurbs and synopses, and even worse at deciding on titles. I try to avoid the old ____of_____ naming habits in the genre, if only because it seems like the easy way out. I've been playing with calling it the Kingdom Come Chronicles since it doesn't force readers to focus on it as a theme. Once committed to a title, it can lock in (or lock out) too much if it's too specific.
I think I'll run a blog now that I'm around. It may be the one time this week where I'll have time for it. I did get a couple scenes of UnSung done too, so it hasn't been neglected either.