Where Does the Week Go?

It's easy for an entire week (or more) to pass in a blur. It's not that I don't feel the strain of the day to day, often a mix between making sure the kids eat, making sure I eat, making sure my Sims eat, and also writing. As much as I enjoy the ups and downs of writing, it often leaves breaks down to a couple hours of gaming when I'm struggling to stay awake longer than 9 PM, cleaning the fish tank, housework-- you know, the fun stuff.

Because writing is no walk in the park even when the muse is good. Each phase is a different challenge. I'll run through that real quick so you can compare it to your own ups and downs.

First draft: Dive right in, creative bursts and discovery, realizing my 'planning' left something to be desired, accumulating side notes to make sure I'm not contradicting my own story, resisting the temptation to edit as soon as I realize I want to change something I've already written because of a better idea. Getting tired of looking at a screen all day. Yeah, first draft discipline-- it's about the flow, blah, blah, blah.

First edit: Glad I lacked discipline and did correct things while writing the first draft. Realizing it wasn't nearly enough and what the hell was I trying to say there? No, no, now I'm going to have to rewrite that whole scene because I liked that one better. Ending up printing off the draft so I can use my new red markers and not look at a damn screen. Why is there so much red?!

Second draft: Okay, I got this... I probably should've just edited the digital file though. Getting whiplash from looking between the draft and the screen. Okay, fine, it could be worse; right now I'm just plugging in corrections... This isn't so bad...

Second edit: I've recreated Frankenstein's monster... It's a jigsaw puzzle where I just kinda crammed things where they don't go! Is anything in order? I mean, yay for all grammar goofs and punctuation fixes being a thing of the past, but it should probably make a lot more sense...

Final draft: I scrapped the print-out editing after the first one so this is just... sewing the monster back together. I'm so glad I use the scenes method in Scrivener... Hey, this... this is even better than I thought it would be! I can release this!

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Enjoy the first draft phase, they say-- just get it down, they say. Thing is that I often start with a handful of ideas covered in cheese dust. The fantasy genre, for me, is one of the most difficult because it is often a simple idea that is complex as it grows. I don't mean complicated to READ (although I can't say it doesn't happen)-- I mean that the build is complex. Who knows what for example? If the reader already knows something, you can't just keep the characters in prolonged ignorance either. You ever been to the theater, watching a movie obviously, when some guy in the audience yells out "You idiot, he's the killer! Get away from him! How do they not know this?" On occasion, yeah, it makes for a moment of suspense if only one scene before, the nice guy is discovered to be the killer and some unknowing victim is happy to see him in the next. That's momentum, but sometimes it's just aggravating filler beyond that.

Back to the complicated to read thing, it's the glossary thing that kills a lot of stories for me. Now, some books have it and don't need it, so the presence of one isn't a red flag. If you're rereading a book and just want a refresher before analyzing it again, no big deal. I've read some books that make you look for a glossary almost immediately and never ever stop with the constant technicalities. I can be forgiving if your context game is good. Before reading an excerpt for Loni Townsend's ongoing series (no spoilers), she warned me concerning some of the details of races and magic systems briefly inserted by name might be confusing without the story. However, I didn't have a problem with this-- because of context. It was clear what the unique vocabulary was hinting at and it was also clear that whatever questions I had weren't just overlooked but something that would be revealed at some point later. They weren't throw-away ideas meant to sound deep; they were all connecting to the characters already. A glossary shouldn't be a necessity. Even with epic fantasy, skimping on the importance of natural introduction to your world shouldn't be overlooked. Describe it as if to a tourist-- be wary of being too infantilizing but don't toss someone into a pit of foreign concepts. Some mystique, good; word vomit, bad.

In the Fight Like a Girl post I went into this, but some fantasy fans are all about the naming and info-dumping and there are also readers that puff up with pride because they 'get it'. Also, have you ever heard these fans actually talk about what they're all reading? It's a hilariously confusing mess and it sounds like they're not really reading the same thing. They also start arguing over the feasibility of how well this or that sword would be in this or that kind of combat. Don't worry-- this isn't all of fantasy, but traditionalist medieval fantasy fanatics. I used to run with the D&D crowds, never as enthusiastic about this subset, but then I got a hold of more psychological, diabolical, humorous and even romantic takes on fantasy, some through gaming, some through reading. Tolkien got a whole generation of people thinking it's all dwarves, elves and dragons-- again, traditional norms. My own forays into fantasy tend to dive into supernatural, mythological, magical and even sci-fi territory.

I can't speak for all writers, but I use my writing to communicate my own struggles and interests in a setting that often amplifies them. This doesn't mean I ever Mary Sue a character that represents me. I don't include 'me' in any story. Given the temptation to do so, I find a way to ditch that character (not necessarily kill them since that's a cheap way out if you don't use it well). It means that my interests in mythology, culture, human struggles, psychology, even playing an instrument inevitably leak into the pages. I wouldn't say, over time, that I've come to prioritize either the characters or the world building as more important. Done well, they will both make some sort of impression. I don't try to make lovable or unlikable (hatable/hateable should be a word) characters so it's interesting to see which ones people might prefer. I do have personal favorites but I labor NOT to show any favoritism. I will say that some of my favorite scenes to write continue to be the ones where the environment and character play perfectly together.

Hmmm, no idea what I was going to write about going into this, but I do want to run some updates:

• Each Endless Universe: Close Encounters was released today (June 15).
• UnSung's first draft passed the 140K mark, putting the second part at about the 2/3 done mark. At this point, it's largely down to, again, wrapping up the plots to streamline them into the main plot. I can make sure the details don't contradict later-- substance first.
• Each Endless Universe: Dual Decisions will be released on June 29th.
• Each Endless Universe: Original Sin, the final book, will be released on July 11th (my birthday), as well as the final trilogy edition. You can net all nine books in trilogy form for $15 or the very thick trade paperbacks for $75. If you're in it for the cover art too, each paperback in single novel form is around $15. The first two might be at $20, I believe, but have the illustrations.
• Possible plans for redoing cover design for the first two or three. I want to unify the first cover, do some reorganizing of the elements on the others. The last two trilogies I was far more cognizant of what I was doing. I may redo the cover art on the first altogether. It was a sentimental choice because that drawing was first done years ago, but it doesn't stand up to the others.
• Webcomic! Unfortunately, I haven't been on that just yet. I do plan on working on that more once I've wrapped up part 2 of UnSung, even if it's just concept sketches. I want to at least finish UnSung, maybe take a hiatus on novel writing while I at least nail down a few episodes of the webcomic, see how it does.
• The UnQuadrilogy? This may be too far ahead to plan, but I'd like to have them out before 2020 is up. It's a huge series and giving myself a year for each one is challenging but I think I can swing it.

That's it for updates. My next blog post will be a gripe I saw about another Quora comment. This time, the commenter asserts that the problem with too many fantasy novels is that the writers are using it as a medium to write what should be a video game or a movie. I'll dissect what I agree with and disagree with sometime soon.