Writing Log 5-26-2012 (Final)

I did it. I finished writing Writ in Blood today at about 9:42 pm. I've been writing pretty much non-stop since 1:15. I'm tired. I'm euphoric. I'm doubtful. I'm ecstatic. I'm dizzy with disbelief (literally). And I'm indulging in (I think) some well earned pride at having accomplished so much.

In greater detail: I started the day off later than I wanted because I had the quidditch team party that I mentioned last week. That went really well, weather not withstanding. It was a great end to a fun year, and I was really proud of the game we played, which was one of the best games we have ever been involved with. We had fun afterwards, but I bailed out as soon as I could: I wanted to write.

Because of the party, my eating schedule was all screwy. As I mentioned above, I arrived at UVU about 1:15 and I got to work right away. After finishing one chapter (which put me over the 300,000 word mark), I went ahead and took a break, swinging by McDonald's for a free fruit smoothie (which was okay). I ate lunch, then returned to the library, saying aloud to myself that I would finish the book today.

I was back at the computer about 4:00, hammering away. The UVU library closed at 7, so I left and found a spot in the hallway to keep working. About 8:40 or so, I stood up to go to the bathroom, only to find that the access to the rest of the school was locked. I felt weird, like I'd done something wrong, so I packed up my stuff and drove home. (I still had to pee, after all.)

Once at home, I fired up the 85th chapter, turned on the music, and kept writing. I didn't stop until I had finished the story, including elements that I thought I would have to omit but, in the end, managed to fit in beautifully with a theme I hadn't realized I was developing throughout the book. There are still a lot of bumps and hiccups along the way that I will have to take care of, but that's what rewriting is all about.

This is a screenshot of all my hard work for today. Note the number in parenthesis--that's how much writing I did today, not counting this blog. The grand total of the book is 309,524 words--a total which will change a bit as the revisions come and go. I'm sure you're wondering how many pages that is, right? Well, it all depends on the formatting of the work (which is why I worry about word count instead of page number). But if I were to get this printed out (as I will next week), it would follow the following format options:

• 1" margins on all sides
• Pagination on the bottom footer
• Times New Roman
• 12 point font

Set up that way, the book is 626 pages long. That is, roughly, about as long as all three Hunger Games books are combined. It would be close to 725 pages if it were in a typical paperback format, and probably close to my manuscript length if it were in hardback. Of course, a lot of things could change the length in terms of how it was actually published, but it's basically like The Lord of the Rings. Not in content; just in length. 

But the most impressive, happy thing that I can say is that I'm done. 

I can hardly understand that statement. I finished writing this book. Finally. I didn't have this kind of catharsis with Tales of the Flame--like, at all. I was disgusted by the book and happy it was over. With Words of the Silenced, I had only been working on that for 14 months (I think? I can't remember now), which was deliberately shorter and more to the point. Before that, I wrote Terra Campaign: Impetus. That book was just over 500 manuscript pages, with 273,000+ words in it. I'm pretty sure I was stoked to have Impetus finished, because that one had festered in me throughout college, my mission, and the first couple years of being married. Impetus, then, was the book that I 'worked on' the longest--hundreds of hours of world building, different drafts, and the actual drafting. I still have a special spot in my heart for that book, of course, but I feel differently about Writ in Blood than I do Impetus. Part of it is probably because I just finished the former, and I've had a long time between me and the latter. (It'd be fun to reread that...summer is here, starting next week, so...) 

Anyway, it's the strangest feeling to be finished with a project that has consumed so much of my life. It's been in my brain for a long, long time--almost two and a half years--and it's a culmination of much of what I've thought, considered, and processed. It's a first on a lot of levels for me.

1. I've never had a story with three rotating characters before. Tales had two characters, but they would have long swaths of story for each of them, going for multiple chapters at a time, and the indication of how the story shifted was done poorly (like most things in that book).
2. I've never had the structure like I did here. The poems at the beginning--and the "Doctrines of Meleah" (a hit with the lady types in my writer's group)--provided a new way to stretch me as a writer. The flashbacks (as I mentioned before, inspired by Lost) really helped flesh out the characters in such a way that they became much more interesting. I think that the readers will be able to feel more attached to the characters because the flashbacks allow each character's motivation to show through. I find that I understand the lives of these fake people I made up much better than almost any other character I've ever concocted.
3. This is the first time that I've put so much effort into the politics. Well, I should modify that. I had created a rather convoluted method of succession in Words of the Silenced, in part because it was a major plot point, but the character didn't care about politics. As a result, we never really see it in action--it's only discussed as an abstract. In Writ, I went into great detail, devoting multiple chapters to the politics. Part of it is a reflection of my own growing interest in the politics of this nation, but also because I felt like it was a way of showing Nicomachus' strengths in a forum that fit him. In other books, the adventurer gets into trouble and has to fight his way out. In WiB, Nic is a poindexter (definitely a Marty Sue, I'll admit) who has to rely on his verbosity to get him through. So the politics and the characterization dovetail nicely.
4. I've never cared about religions in my books before. It isn't because religion doesn't matter to me; it's just that my characters were never religious types. This trickles through, as religion is a background thing for all of the characters--something I aim to change in the rewrite--but religion as a whole is much more robustly portrayed in WiB than in anything else I've done. 
5. Marriage as a foundation to the society has always been straightforward heterosexual, mainstream, 20th and 21st century marriage before. Now it isn't. I think I've mentioned this in other blogs, but the marriage of each country is pretty unique--not, like, never heard of before on planet Earth, but just different from most fantasy that I've encountered. This is, in part, a direct response to my own views on the "gay marriage" debacle in America right now, but it's also interesting to see how characters view intimacy and relationships when their world view is skewed from how ours is. It was refreshing, as I think it added an extra layer of meaning that I didn't have to paint on there; it just, kind of, appeared. 
6. Allowing my love of Shakespeare and John Milton to infuse my writings directly. It takes me a lot longer to write in Form, so it tapered off in the latter part of the book, but that's nothing a rewrite won't fix. The idea of Form (which is actually a misnomer; when the characters start speaking with 'thee' and 'thou' in the mix, it's actually the informal conjugation of the verb. In English, however, we tend to consider that elevated language as being more formal, while, in reality, it is considered informal. Taking that into account, I swapped the meaning for the word in the book) is something that I've tried to do a couple of times in the past. Form came about from a character in TotF who fished Victor, the main character, out of the river with a meat hook. The man spoke "Shakespearean" in that he used similes, metaphors, thee, thou, and other sentence modifications to vary his speech. His verbal patterns were an attempt at emulating the Bard--something I continue to do, and quite painfully at that--and created the world of Tagan's principle magic system. 
7. Letting my then-big historical interest dictate the terms of the book. Because I have only begun to enjoy history in the last four or five years, I never had the past influence my present when it came to my writing. But the tension of the Cold War really appealed to me, and I wanted to write something that tapped into the paranoia and fear that would come from the loss of Mutually Assured Destruction. Thence came the Writ--and the loss of the Writ is what kicks off the whole 300k word drama. I say 'then-big historical interest' not because I'm not interested in the Cold war--I still am--but because I had just gone through a history class in which we had studied it at greater length than I was used to. That came as an influence that I really think added a unique flavor to it--but it could just be me thinking it's better than it is.

Anyway, it's late (10:48), and I have kids to put in bed. I've been at the keyboard for about 8 hours now. I think I need a break from the glowing screen--better go play video games!

Oh, and one last thing:

I DID IT!