It's been too long.
Last time I wrote was back on the 3rd of March, apparently. I've had....things in between then and now that prevented me getting here. Next week, being Conference Saturday and all, probably means another unexpected and unwanted sabbatical. Oh, well. Perhaps I'll get a day during Spring Break when I drop the kids off at Grandma's and I come and write. It could happen.
I'm in an interesting predicament that I'm not familiar with. Under normal circumstances, I have a vague idea of what I want the final scene to be like in my story. I can then gently nude the tale toward that ending, working toward this last moment. I did that with The Terra Campaign: Impetus, Words of the Silenced, and Tales from the Flame, all of which had endings that I cooked up long before I put them on paper. In the case of Tales, the ending was ambiguous and unfulfilled--much like the story as a whole. Impetus had a happy ending, while Words was sad but not irredeemably tragic.
I have no idea what to do with Writ in Blood. There are two equally viable options, particularly if I go ahead and work on that short story that I began on the plane to Orlando. One option leads us to a 'happy ending' in which the world isn't left burning, while the other option leads us to a 'cliffhanger ending' in which the world is left burning...kinda. That's the problem. I just don't know. I realize that I have, at most, ten chapters left to write in this thing. The pacing of the story, the building up of characters being in the right place at the right time, it's all there. I just have to figure out what I want to actually have happen.
Part of me is thrilled to say there's only a handful of chapters left. Recently, Brandon Sanderson finished his first draft of the last Wheel of Time book, A Memory of Light. The day he finished it, he was tweeting the updates of each scene completed. He finished about 7 in the morning, and, looking through the feed, I got to see his progress as the night wore on. I don't much care for Robert Jordan's stuff--I read the first two books and wasn't really interested--but I do like Sanderson's work. Even though I didn't care much about the way the series would end, I felt a little thrill of excitement to see the ending of a book occur essentially before my eyes.
I'm kind of getting that feeling now.
I suppose that part of the reason that I'm reluctant to knuckle down and actually decide what I'm going to do with the ending stems from an inherent desire to avoid a duology or trilogy. I'd like the story to be what it is and not have to, as I mentioned above, have a 'cliffhanger'. I'm not at all opposed to writing a second book in this world--I think I've pointed out before that I'm really keen on keeping my mind free of other possible books or world ideas while I'm working on this one. In fact, I'm almost to the point where I'm looking forward to the revision process, which is a new feeling for me. So it's not that I don't want to spend more time in Coratha. It's that I don't like the idea of being just one more fantasy author who can't get the entire story between two covers.
Of course, if this were to become a successful franchise, things might be different. But the idea of that seems to be fading as the months click by, if only because of the speed at which the publishing industry is being upended.
Anyway, I'm going to have to decide--and soon--just what to do with this big* old story. For now, however, I think I'm going to relish the fact that I took the peril that I mentioned two blogs ago and actually managed to stretch it through this chapter, too. Important things have happened in these last few chapters, and I'm excited to see how it all pans out.
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*I just passed word 255,000 today. I'm anticipating between 275,000 and 285,000 words. For context, Moby-Dick has over 212,000 words........Yeah.
Last time I wrote was back on the 3rd of March, apparently. I've had....things in between then and now that prevented me getting here. Next week, being Conference Saturday and all, probably means another unexpected and unwanted sabbatical. Oh, well. Perhaps I'll get a day during Spring Break when I drop the kids off at Grandma's and I come and write. It could happen.
I'm in an interesting predicament that I'm not familiar with. Under normal circumstances, I have a vague idea of what I want the final scene to be like in my story. I can then gently nude the tale toward that ending, working toward this last moment. I did that with The Terra Campaign: Impetus, Words of the Silenced, and Tales from the Flame, all of which had endings that I cooked up long before I put them on paper. In the case of Tales, the ending was ambiguous and unfulfilled--much like the story as a whole. Impetus had a happy ending, while Words was sad but not irredeemably tragic.
I have no idea what to do with Writ in Blood. There are two equally viable options, particularly if I go ahead and work on that short story that I began on the plane to Orlando. One option leads us to a 'happy ending' in which the world isn't left burning, while the other option leads us to a 'cliffhanger ending' in which the world is left burning...kinda. That's the problem. I just don't know. I realize that I have, at most, ten chapters left to write in this thing. The pacing of the story, the building up of characters being in the right place at the right time, it's all there. I just have to figure out what I want to actually have happen.
Part of me is thrilled to say there's only a handful of chapters left. Recently, Brandon Sanderson finished his first draft of the last Wheel of Time book, A Memory of Light. The day he finished it, he was tweeting the updates of each scene completed. He finished about 7 in the morning, and, looking through the feed, I got to see his progress as the night wore on. I don't much care for Robert Jordan's stuff--I read the first two books and wasn't really interested--but I do like Sanderson's work. Even though I didn't care much about the way the series would end, I felt a little thrill of excitement to see the ending of a book occur essentially before my eyes.
I'm kind of getting that feeling now.
I suppose that part of the reason that I'm reluctant to knuckle down and actually decide what I'm going to do with the ending stems from an inherent desire to avoid a duology or trilogy. I'd like the story to be what it is and not have to, as I mentioned above, have a 'cliffhanger'. I'm not at all opposed to writing a second book in this world--I think I've pointed out before that I'm really keen on keeping my mind free of other possible books or world ideas while I'm working on this one. In fact, I'm almost to the point where I'm looking forward to the revision process, which is a new feeling for me. So it's not that I don't want to spend more time in Coratha. It's that I don't like the idea of being just one more fantasy author who can't get the entire story between two covers.
Of course, if this were to become a successful franchise, things might be different. But the idea of that seems to be fading as the months click by, if only because of the speed at which the publishing industry is being upended.
Anyway, I'm going to have to decide--and soon--just what to do with this big* old story. For now, however, I think I'm going to relish the fact that I took the peril that I mentioned two blogs ago and actually managed to stretch it through this chapter, too. Important things have happened in these last few chapters, and I'm excited to see how it all pans out.
-------
*I just passed word 255,000 today. I'm anticipating between 275,000 and 285,000 words. For context, Moby-Dick has over 212,000 words........Yeah.
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