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WIP-it Wednesday: May 24th, 2017

24 Wednesday May 2017

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Time for a new weekly writer’s roundup of my works-in-progress and those ready to read!

My writing was interrupted by a Saturday that included a half-day of yardwork and a lawnmower that died on me. However, my inspiration never faltered. Even with an abbreviated amount of time to write this weekend, I had added 2,500 words to new chapter five of Vivian’s Last Cigarette by Sunday night.

Monday ended up being one of those rare weekdays where other projects didn’t crowd out my time to write on the novel. With my motivation in high gear by the time I got home from the day-job, a stiff dose of caffeine helped me add a thousand words to complete the chapter before midnight.

The first draft totals a little more than 4,100 words, and I got to end it on a great cliffhanger that wasn’t entirely dissimilar to this:

Overall, the chapter is quite character focused. Viv and Gronk get to have some fun at the start, a nice change of pace given events up to here, and the readers get to see their friendship develop a little more. Minor character Mike, introduced in the previous chapter, gets a touch of development too… although this is the last chapter he’s physically present in.

The big challenge for our protagonists this chapter comes in the form of a new character, Bri (Brian) Kane. He’s a local Hammerfist thug and member of the same gang that attacked Gronk and got the action rolling in chapter one. Although he wasn’t present in the inciting incident of the story, he’s fully aware of the event and serves a role to fill the reader in on how gang has reacted to it.

In monomythic terms, Bri is absolutely playing the archetype role of a Herald (specifically, of the Shadow) and the Trickster in this bit. Although not a physical threat to the orcs, he’s a crap-talking loud-mouth who is trying to taunt and goad them to violence with his anti-changeling vitriol. It’s a test that Gronk passes, but a trial that Viv fails. Her failure has several repercussions, one of which is very immediate and stinging for Gronk.

But, tested as they are, the pair’s bond strengthens for it. I got to illustrate that with some short, well-timed dialogue I’m rather proud of towards the end… And then the sh*t hits the fan.

I’ll be giving the chapter a read through and editing brush-up before handing it over to my first reader for feedback. Hopefully it will be in a second draft state by Friday or sooner so I can send it –along with the second draft of chapter four– over to reader two ahead of the long Memorial holiday weekend here in the United States.

I’m also going to crack my knuckles and try my hardest to write as much of chapter six as I can over the holiday. I have no other firm commitments, and it would be great to finish that draft and enter June on such a high note! But even if I don’t, the more work I can get done on the novel before I temporarily shift focus to finishing (and start crunch-time on) the RPG sessions for PortCon, the better. :-)

I’m really excited to start writing chapter six, too. I’ve been inspired to open it right where five leaves off: With a dozen or more skinheads hot on the heels of our intrepid (and fleeing) orcs. ;-) I’ve got this great idea for madcap chase that leads into the other scenes I have planned… And it all climaxes with the appearance of a majestic, one-horned animal that will tie the new chapters into the rest of the established book. Huzzah!

Alright, time for me to stop blogging and get back to writing some more fiction! Take care!

WIP-it Wednesday: May 17th, 2017

17 Wednesday May 2017

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Time for a new weekly writer’s roundup of my works-in-progress and those ready to read!

Steady progress was made on Vivian’s Last Cigarette this weekend. I edited the new chapter four that I finished last Sunday, and expanded it by almost a thousand words to add and improve a few things. These were focused on the chapter’s second half, particularly on the introduction of the first non-orc changeling to appear in the book, and an encounter with one of Gronk’s former friends that gets ugly.

The introduction of the new character needed refinement, mostly to get her voice consistently right. I also expanded the conversation she has with Viv and Gronk. Their dialogue now foreshadows some things that are important points later in the book, and the additional verbiage allowed me to pad everyone’s speech and give it a more natural sounding flow without packing it with filler-fluff.

The original version of the conversation did what it needed to do plot-wise, but was too short and pointed. Now it sounds like a brief, friendly encounter that drops a lot of background and upcoming story tidbits for the reader… without glowing neon signs pointing them out.

It was also fun to write a conversation that included talk about Chevrolet Camaros and Jackalopes in almost the same breath. ;-)

The new changeling, Cricket, is a pleasure to write because of her casual, new-age, and laid-back nature combined with a humorous side. She’s a four-foot, hippie – granola gnome girl. The teen plays a bigger role (no pun intended) as an ally in an upcoming chapter: When a chain of events has a couple of orcs seeking refuge in the Magic Moo-Shroom Metaphysical Shop (and petting zoo) that is her family’s business.

I’m looking forward to writing that bit. :-) And to writing her dad, Neil: He’s a mellow, former 60s hippie and Grateful Dead roadie. Obviously, his daughter is an apple that didn’t fall far from the tree! However, he is also a changeling, having gone dwarf from “The Change” around the same time Cricket did. Yet Neil is groovy with it… things are just pretty far-out these days, ya know, man?

Getting back to chapter four, my efforts on the last quarter of it were devoted to making Gronk’s former friend, Mike, more of a character and less of a cardboard cutout. In the first version, he’s just a flat jerk. After the revision I did Saturday, he’s a more rounded character. He’s still being rotten, but is doing so because of his fears and external pressures that eventually get shown to the reader in an ugly way.

He’s definitely being spineless and not doing the right thing, but now I think there’s a little sympathy for him. It leads to a downer moment of no winners that makes the whole scene sting a lot more than the original version as it closes.

On Sunday I got chapter four edited into a second draft thanks to Kim’s feedback. Then I edited an unrelated new short story of mine (I hope to share it here soon) before cranking-up some 80s punk and starting the new chapter five.

I was a thousand words deep before the day was over, and the opening pages of this latest chapter were pleasant writing. Viv and Gronk are goofing off, bantering and playing the Gauntlet arcade game while waiting for a pizza. Its funny stuff, and a healing change of mood compared to the downbeat end of chapter four. But because of the way that chapter ended, the reader knows that the clock is ticking unbeknownst to our intrepid orcs. Trouble is on its way, and if Viv knew of the danger she wouldn’t be playing games.

It’s subtly tense. And I was able to write right-up to where a different –and competing– sort of trouble walks in the door. ;-)

And that’s where the novel is sitting at as of today. I don’t think the rest of chapter five will take too long to write, given that what I still want to happen in it consists of about two and a half more scenes. This makes me hopeful that I might get it finished next weekend, and then I’ll be on to the last of the new chapters being added to the book’s opening!

Alright, time for me to stop blogging and get back to writing some more fiction! Take care!

WIP-it Wednesday: May 10th, 2017

10 Wednesday May 2017

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Time for a new weekly writer’s roundup of my works-in-progress and those ready to read!

I finished the new chapter four for Vivian’s Last Cigarette late Sunday night. Coming in at 4,400 words, it contains a lot of interaction between my orc protagonists and several minor characters. This chapter definitely relays a feel for the town of Buford, something that was missing until late in the book before. It also shows them dealing with several levels of ugly behavior from assorted “normals”.

Poor, friendly Gronk gets put through an emotional wringer this this chapter as his belief in the better nature of people is challenged by his first major encounter with anti-changeling bigotry. :-( Then on top of that he feels the sting of finding out that he’s lost a friend because of his transformation.

The big guy is, of course, too good natured to do anything but get emotionally bruised and quiet. But Viv silently witnesses his rejection. Having been an orc longer than Gronk, she’s grown thick-skinned and canny in dealing and (particularly) avoiding a world that usually sees her as a monster. But writing her reaction to seeing Gronk go through rejection like she did in the past was a good scene.

Her feathers are ruffled, and the display of growing empathy and protectiveness for Gronk I wrote for her doesn’t bode well for his former friend. Viv knows how to play the role of the monster many see her as, and delivers the most intimidating pizza ordering scene ever as a result.

I’ll stop talking now, before I start dropping spoilers. ;-)

I’m at a point where I can start to judge how much of a gap remains to be bridged to weave the old chapter two back into the new narrative. I’m thinking it will take me an additional two chapters to do that, making what was once chapter two the new chapter seven.

Once that’s done, minor edits, additions and reworking will need to be made to most of the other old chapters (3-17) to get them in line with the new events. Chapters nine and seventeen will require more extensive rewrites, but I’m not expecting any big migraines. If anything, I’m excited to be putting in some revisions that will tie in the new part of the book that I’ve grown.

I also worked on my blurb for the novel. This was actually quite a bit of work, —because blurbs are hard, man— and I devoted my free time on Friday and half of my day Saturday to the task. Some of you may remember that back in November I spent about a month coming up with this version.  I got multiple feedbacks on it last week that were less than stellar, so I tried a different approach in a new version:Thoughts? Impressions? I like it better than the old one, and those that disliked the first version felt this was much better.

Over the weekend, I also had a new idea for the book: I’m strongly considering ending the novel differently. What is currently last chapter would remain, but it would be followed by a short epilogue of a few thousand words closing the story. This epilogue would call back to the new material I’ve written in expanding the opening of the novel, and unify its new whole. It would end the book on a stronger note, and set up a possible sequel much more definitively. Not quite a cliffhanger, but I defiantly think that those reading it will want to find out what happens next. :-)

In summation, a good weekend of progress made. Outside of my efforts, Lauren completed her feedback/notes on the new chapter three said she really liked it. And my second beta reader Jessica finally finished the last of her notes on the second draft after many tumultuous months that required her to delay. So now I have those chunks of editing to work on as the book keeps shaping-up!

Alright, time for me to stop blogging and get back to writing some more fiction! Take care!

WIP-it Wednesday: May 3rd, 2017

03 Wednesday May 2017

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Time for a new weekly writer’s roundup of my works-in-progress and those ready to read!

Not much movement on the novel to report this week. I edited the 1,700 words I wrote on Vivian’s last weekend, and then added about 500 more to get the fourth chapter to the point of introducing a new character.

This character will be the first (non-animal) changeling the reader encounters that isn’t an orc. Although Cricket is only present in chapters four and five, she’s being inserted into the book in revision, so I think it is well worth my effort to weave her in aiming to make her presence as seamless as possible. Exploring options on how to do that siphoned writing time, but it was worth it.

Beyond that, Lauren has started her annotation of the new chapter three. She hasn’t been able to finish it yet, but as I’m still buried under the need to write new chapters, I’m content to wait for her feedback while I dig myself out. :-)

And as far as the novel goes, that’s it. Why so little progress? My short answer is… Side Quests.

My creative focus over the weekend became divided between several other projects I’m involved in. However, unlike the situation a couple weeks ago, these are creative projects I’m involved with willingly. So devoting time to them isn’t unsatisfying, even if they do sap momentum away from getting my book done.

The biggest of these side quests involved the PortCon convention where I’m running 16 hours of tabletop role-playing games from June 22nd to the 25th. I’m authoring all of the sessions myself, using the Five by Five rules system. Unfortunately, the unexpected task of adding new chapters to the book has lead me to ignore my responsibility to finish getting them ready, even after beginning with a good start on them early in the year.

Things came to a head Saturday, when a plan to run a multi-game master mega game was abandoned. This created a scheduling gap, and necessitated that I create an additional RPG session to fill a 6 to 10pm slot.

From scratch.

And get it submitted in five hours’ time.

Fortunately, I had a prior idea that I’d thought-up as a contingency plan… the efforts to make the mega-game a reality were always lackluster, and I’d lost confidence that it would happen. So I fleshed out my notes, submitted my pitch, and low-and-behold The Great Dragon Escape is now on the convention docket! :-)

The rush to get that done illuminated my need to get these games ready. A big part of that is providing my wife with the info she needs to design the handout materials for the sessions, which we hadn’t done. It’s always fun to collaborate with Kim, and before I knew it most of my weekend was gone after we were done brainstorming.

However, a lot of my anxiety about being unprepared for the con was gone too, even though I’ll need to devote a good block of man-hours to be finally finished making the games.

And that’s the biggest reason why work on the novel was in a low gear this week. Barring any surprises, next weekend I hope to focus on writing the book exclusively and get back up to speed.

So what is the final lineup of games I’m running at PortCon this year, you may ask? Read on…

Toys Against Darkness

You were won. All of you were. Taken off the shelf behind the crooked carnival game where you have sat for so very, very long. But even as you are given to an overjoyed child, you can feel HIM watching. Held in the car by sleepy hands, you and your fellow teddy bears from the stall know that HE is coming to claim HIS prize tomorrow night. He always does: You’ve all witnessed it powerless and inanimate before. But now you have been given the duty to protect your children. You know what is at stake. And when HE comes tomorrow at midnight, you MUST find a way to STOP HIM FOREVER!

Chaos at Camp Changeling

August 11th, 1989, 9:30 pm: Almost three years after “The Change” began, a group of young teen “changelings” trek through the moonlit woods near Moosehead Lake, Maine. Variously labeled as elves, dwarves, orcs or goblins, they’re an oddball group. Having snuck away from the Camp Changeling summer event for “special” youth, they approach a supposedly haunted cabin they’ve been dared to spend the night at. Their plans for the evening include junk food and an all-night game of D&D… But before dawn, they’ll find out that not all monsters are imaginary.

NOTE: Chaos at Camp Changeling is set in the same universe as my novel Vivian’s Last Cigarette. ;-) None of the characters in the book are present in the adventure, but there is some crossover in terms of themes. My inspiration on this one are The Goonies, Stand by Me and a mélange of horror movies. ;-)

The Great Dragon Escape

Madam Maggda’s dragons are by far the greatest attractions of her traveling menagerie. Captured before they had even hatched fifteen years ago, the only life they’ve ever known has been spent in magical cages. But the dragon younglings are as intelligent as any human their age, and have been plotting an escape from their cruel mistress for years aided by the ghost of a cowardly knight only they can see. After befriending a pair of sympathetic young jesters and pickpockets, is tonight the night when the dragons will make their daring breakout and escape to freedom?

Godzilla: Invasion of Monsters

The members of recently defunded A.D.I.A. –the American DaiKaiju Intelligence Agency– are reactivated by emergency order after MOTHRA destroys Air Force One and kills the President mid-Tweet. As a handful of agents answer the call in Washington D.C., none other than GODZILLA himself wades ashore and attacks the Capital! With Congress and the White House leveled by nuclear fire, the government is thrown into chaos. But when a mysterious psychic child appears, the agents uncover signs of a sinister extraterrestrial conspiracy that threatens all of humanity. Unsure of whom they can trust, can a small team of heroes turn the tables and overcome titanic odds to save the Earth?

Alright, time for me to stop blogging and get back to writing some more fiction! Take care!

Origin: Stories of Creativity #2 – Author Jason H. Abbott

29 Saturday Apr 2017

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Last Saturday, I was interviewed for a writing podcast that blogger and author Bryan Aiello is trying to launch as a series. Bryan has posted these on YouTube for any to enjoy, so if you’re interested in listening in to the great conversation we had you can check it out above! In it he asks me a lot of questions about my background and creative process, and we manage to walk a funny path at times that ranged from Tolkien to McMuffins…

WIP-it Wednesday: April 26th, 2017

26 Wednesday Apr 2017

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A super friend was inspired to make this from a quip I wrote in my latest chapter. ;-)

Time for a new weekly writer’s roundup of my works-in-progress and those ready to read!

After all the roadblocks I encountered last week, this week was a lot more productive! Getting much of my blog work done ahead of time granted me bonus hours to write on Vivian’s Last Cigarette, and with that added time I finished its new chapter three early Friday evening.

At 6,750 words, it ended up being the second longest chapter in the book so far. The number one spot still belongs to the climactic chapter of the novel, if only by 20 words. However, like the climax, there’s a lot of action and thrills so it reads quite quickly. Combined with the revised first and new second chapters, they form an exciting short introductory story arc of about 15,000 words.

This new opening puts the focus right on the two protagonists for some time. It also makes me confident that readers now will have enough investment in the characters by the time the story shifts into a different gear and terrain during the mid-book chapters.

My weekend hit, and Saturday was a full day. I started by editing the first chapter notes of Lauren L. Garcia, my ever awesome 3rd reader, into a sixth draft of chapter one. Thereafter I got Kim’s feedback on the new chapter three, and after making a second draft of it from that I sent the third chapter over to Lauren.

I then started work on editing the new chapter two into a third draft. Once again this was based on feedback from Lauren, and with around a hundred and eighty items to review and take action on, the edit took the rest of the day. However, I did finish it by the evening. And between editing, I was also interviewed for a writing podcast that blogger and author Bryan Aiello is trying to launch as a series. I don’t know what will come of it, but we had a good conversation all the same!

Sunday was entirely about getting the new fourth chapter started, and I got a bit more than 1,700 words done for the day. That’s a decent showing for me, given that I had to stop and think-out several parts along the way. I discovered that, although I have a good idea about what I want to happen in chapter four and have done some planning with that… I didn’t have its opening plotted very well.

This proved particularly tricky, because the chapter features a big shift in setting and tone. Some themes that have taken a backseat since the first chapter are entering center stage again. The initial opening I had in mind was far too abrupt, and a jarring change of gear.

And it really is a radical transition. Going from an abandoned deathtrap of a paper mill –where the focus is completely on the orc protagonists on their own– to interacting with “normals” (some with biases towards them) in a small mom and pop convenience store. That’s quite a shift, and my initial idea to open with them literally walking into the store just didn’t cut it.

So I took a different approach. Instead of the abrupt open, everything I wrote on Sunday was a segue to bridge the change from three to four.

I think it turned out well. I say this because I also used it as an opportunity to highlight and show a few things along with doing a longer and gentler transition. It gave me a chance to illustrate some signs of improvement and a couple of stumbles involving Viv and Gronk’s growing friendship. I also found some opportunities to show more details about protagonists, ideas that I’d had in my head as parts of the background, but hadn’t found a place for in the novel until now.

Lastly, I worked-in some foreshadowing of themes that get more attention later in the book and some that are just about to play out.

All-in-all, I think it’s a good start. It does make me concerned that the material I wanted to cover in two chapters may require a word-count more fitting of three instead. That doesn’t bother me insofar as making the novel too long (I could fit-in several more chapters if I had to), but it would mean a little more work and time needed to finish the revisions.

I’m content to see how things unfold with the storytelling, and modify my plans from there.

Even after the weekend, progress on the novel continued in the form of getting the feedback from my second beta reader on the climactic chapter of the novel (formerly chapter fourteen and currently chapter eighteen). Then I received a check-in email from my book cover artist, advising me that we’re still on schedule for her to start shooting me ideas and cover sketches this weekend.

That’s some news that has me SUPER excited! :-)

Alright, time for me to stop blogging and get back to writing some more fiction! Take care!

WIP-it Wednesday: April 19th, 2017

19 Wednesday Apr 2017

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Time for a new weekly writer’s roundup of my works-in-progress and those ready to read!

A combination of events derailed my creative writing this week.

Last Monday, the writing subreddit I help to run encountered some turbulent waters. I don’t believe the details behind the drama are relevant to relay here, but its effect on my time is. As a member of the moderation team, I think that we handled a situation that could have easily gotten out of control in a very deft manner.

However, it was a skillful response that required a lot of group effort to formulate and implement.  As a result, the time I would have otherwise used preparing content for my blog was co-opted by the needs of the FantasyWriters group. That work got shoved to the weekend, a time I try very hard to block off to work on the novel exclusively.

Compounding things further, my income taxes needed to be prepared and submitted this week as well. That added stressor devoured a good chunk of time throughout the week too, and half of my Saturday was gone before I could finally be done with it.

I tried to get the blog work done Saturday evening, but not long into my efforts the wireless internet on my router experienced a severe failure. The remainder of my night was spent troubleshooting and fixing that.

So what was the net result of all this? Basically, I only had Sunday this week for any personal projects.

Of that available time, getting content for my blog ready took most of the day. By the late afternoon, I was able start edits on the additions to chapter three I made last Sunday. I completed those and reworked the flow of it into a better format than before, but finishing it and starting the next chapter weren’t in the cards.

It’s all very frustrating. Yet thanks to a very rich plate options and thinking ahead, I did manage to get two weeks’ worth of blog content (well, all the content I can do ahead of time) done on Sunday. That will free up more time than usual for me to refocus on the book this week and next, and I hope to make-up lost ground then.

So, as far as edits and writing new chapters for the book goes, it was a bad week.

Outside of that however, there were a bunch of challenges thrown in my path, and I overcame or helped to overcome them all. The forum is on a healthy path and moving in a positive direction. My taxes are done, and for the first time in years I didn’t owe anything (in fact, I’m expecting a modest refund).

I even fixed my internet and got it running better than before.

I’m accepting this as a week where all the non-book stuff ganged-up and jumped me. Now that things are under control, I’m looking forward to refocusing on the novel in a big way.

Alright, time for me to stop blogging and get back to writing some more fiction! Take care!

WIP-it Wednesday: April 12th, 2017

12 Wednesday Apr 2017

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Time for a new weekly writer’s roundup of my works-in-progress and those ready to read!

I added 3,000 words to the new chapter three of Vivian’s Last Cigarette and almost finished it this weekend. Although I estimate I’ll only need another 300 words to wrap it up, I simply ran out of steam after a long day of writing Sunday.

All I need to do is tie down a few loose ends adrift as the chapter closes and set-up the next chapter. The next bit will involve meeting a gnome, playing video games, lots and lots of angry skinheads… and pizza.

It’s going to be fun. I’m eager to write it. :-)

The major point getting highlighted as I close chapter three is that Gronk has earned Viv’s trust. I feel that this has been illustrated quite well as they’ve worked together to at first hide from, and then escape, some very deadly peril in the mill for chapters two and three.

Now that they’re out of the mill, chapter four and five will be about their growing friendship as they overcome additional challenges and meet some more characters. The tone will be different as they interact with others. The last pair of chapters have been seen Viv and Gronk almost totally on their own, which I think in hindsight is great way to cement them as characters and protagonists early on. Now the reader will get to see more of how society views “changelings”, and orcs in particular.

I’ll certainly finish chapter three next weekend, if not before. I’m unsure of how far I’ll get into chapter four, however. I need to get my taxes done, and that’ll be a disruption at least for one of my weekend days.

On the beta reading front, Lauren has gotten back to me with complete notes for the new chapter two. She said it was fun… and if she liked that, then I think she’ll get a real kick out of chapter three. :-) Jess also provided feedback on the second drafts of chapters ten through thirteen so far this week, so there’s some good movement there too!

Almost finishing the new chapter has me assessing how far I’ve come with the changes so far. I’ve written over 11,000 words of new material since starting the revisions and additions to the book almost a month ago. That brings the novel’s current word-count total to something over 82,000.

As I’m halfway done with the additions, I think it’s fair to speculate that a final tally will be over 90,000 and under 100k… and that’s a good sweet-spot word-count for Vivian’s to land in.

The novel will likely be considered New Adult cusping on Young Adult as far as that broad genre is conserved. Like a lot of New or Young Adult fiction, Vivian’s is a multi-genre story. As a coming-of-age love story, it’s got the romance and drama that’s typical of NA/YA fiction. It’s also got liberal doses of humor, and several chapters where exiting physical action is key, so there is that as well. Then I go and top all of that off with a retro 1980s semi-urban fantasy setting. ;-)

The strongest two genres of the book –or at least the two that I’ve settled on as the most effective to pitch the novel with– are New Adult and (urban) Fantasy. A romance element is often a given with NA, so that gives me the added bonus of hinting at the love story within.

I’ll admit that Vivian’s isn’t typical of Urban Fantasy in the way that its setting is constructed. And I have my doubts that a mill-town in southern Maine is all that “urban”. However, it’s definitely a fantasy story and even plays with classic epic fantasy staples like orcs, elves and more. Being set in an alternate 1989 certainly makes it more “modern” than your typical medieval-ish fantasy settings like The Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones in the public imagination. Therefore, I think “Urban Fantasy” is the best moniker to use because it evokes initial imagery that is the closest to what I have and what I am creating with the story.

Nearly all of those genres overlap with 90-100k being a competitive word-count size for a first novel, so I’m excited to be hitting that range. I think it bodes well for my book. :-)

Alright, time for me to stop blogging and get back to writing some more fiction! Take care!

WIP-it Wednesday: April 5th, 2017

05 Wednesday Apr 2017

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Time for a new weekly writer’s roundup of my works-in-progress and those ready to read!

I write this while it’s just a few degrees above freezing outside, pouring rain falling on melting snow. I like it. I’m happy to have it. I’m ready for the snow to leave and for spring, –or as we call it in Maine, “Mud Season”— to start.

My goals for Vivian’s Last Cigarette haven’t changed or grown from last week, and my focus was on writing and editing it this weekend. I added 2,500 words to the new chapter three, reaching 3k total when I stopped on Sunday. At this point, all hell is breaking loose in the story… Viv and Gronk are running for their lives to get out of that creepy old mill, and the worst is yet to come! I should finish the chapter by the end of next weekend.

I didn’t get in as much new writing as I had wanted to. My desire was to get 4,000 words done and perhaps finish the chapter. Instead, my efforts got divided between that and editing, which proved fruitful if not exactly what I’d planned.

Kim did a read through of the reworked chapter one and the new chapter two. With her notes, I revised the former into to a fifth draft and the latter into its second. Then I sent them along to Lauren, who’s been the catalyst for the changes and new chapters.

Lauren agreed with my gut feeling about the revised chapter one; that it’s far stronger than the third draft version and a good opener. She provided some minor notes and editing suggestions, — Lauren hates my use of interrobangs, but I keep using them like some bratty punk ;-) — but nothing major.

I’ll put together a sixth draft of the first chapter soon. Lauren, who is also hard at work on her sequel to Catalyst Moon while being so kind as to beta read my work, hasn’t gotten back to me on my new second chapter yet. But I’m sure she will, and likely well before I’m done writing the third and fourth new chapters.

And that’s all there is to say on the novel writing and editing front this week. However, over on Reddit’s r/fantasywriters where I’m a moderator, this April marks my first turn running a monthly writing challenge in 2017. My challenge prompt for this one is Blue-Collar Fantasy:

Gnome Engineering by Sacha Angel Diener. Click here for more of the artist’s work!

Your Challenge this month is to write a story containing fantasy elements in a modern or 20th century style setting focused on working class, blue-collar characters. These folks may be as ordinary or exceptional as you want to write them. However, they must pay their bills with skilled or unskilled manual labor. Submissions will need to be five-thousand words or less in length to be eligible to win.

This event will be open to submissions from April 24th to April 30th, with a winner being announced on May 1st. There are already a few authors saying they are excited to participate, and that’s always a good sign.

I considered entering it myself. I have a fun idea for dwarven plumber in a short story (no pun intended) where he and his girlfriend are having a bit of a crisis. It would take place in the same setting and town as Vivian’s, probably even during the same summer. But I’m so busy writing and editing the book proper that it would take a minor miracle for me to find the time to finish it before the contest ends.

Instead, I’ll save the idea and explore it later. I might make it bonus material for the “Fanzine Editions” of the novel I’m planning. If nothing more, it’s additional “worldbuilding” and background for my fictional sister-towns of Summersvale and Buford, Maine… They’re kind of becoming like my own Lake Wobegon at this point. ;-)

Alright, time for me to stop blogging and get back to writing some more fiction! Take care!

WIP-it Wednesday: March 29th, 2017

29 Wednesday Mar 2017

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Time for a new weekly writer’s roundup of my works-in-progress and those ready to read!

Last week, I started my plan to add two new chapters to Vivian’s Last Cigarette. These are going in-between the reworked chapters one and two from the prior drafts, with the goal being for them to fill-in some character development gaps and smooth the abrupt start of the story as it stands now.

I got two-thousand words into writing the first new chapter last weekend. This Sunday I finished it, and started the new third chapter thereafter. It was an unusual start for the next part of the book, largely because I hadn’t realized I’d begun it…

Let me back up a bit.

The new material I’m writing seems to be hitting its stride right off the bat. I’ve gotten Viv and Gronk into a creepy, old, wet and drippy abandoned mill. They’re bantering, and between arguing they even overcome a couple of challenges together. The new second chapter hinges on a scene that starts tense, gets tenser, and then collapses into a comedy of errors that ends up working out for the best.

I got some really good laughs writing all that. And amid the laughter, I even managed to plant an emotional seed between the protagonists that will strengthen a critical scene that’s coming right up. All of that is great, but it also leads up to me saying:

Alright… the real thing that happened at this point is that I’d reached where I could start unleashing this important scene in the story. It’s something that’s really needed to cement a change and turning point for the characters. It’s a major reason why I’m adding these chapters in the first place. And I was happy with how I got there.

And by the time I got through all the buildup and fun, it had taken 4,000 words…

There I was, about five hundred words into launching this scene, and I’m looking at the word-count and thinking: If I squeeze all of this into one chapter, it’s going to crazy long! I’m talking longest-chapter-in-the-book and twice-the-length-of-the-chapter-preceding-it long.

I really didn’t want to go from adding two new chapters to adding three, but in analyzing the situation it was the only good option. So, I sat down and expanded on my ideas, plotting the second half into a chapter in its own right.

And that’s how I started the new chapter three. ;-)

This will give me more room to execute that critical scene too. I’m already excited about having more space to pull that off, and I’ve plotted a few additions to make it more memorable.

In writing chapter two, it certainly had tension and stakes, but not of the life and death variety… Resolving its major crux was done mostly with comedic effect. In comparison, chapter three does have life and death stakes that come into play. This shift in tone is shown to the reader suddenly, and at the very end of chapter two. But although the reader knows, Viv and Gronk remain unaware of the impending danger they’re in. Yes indeed, it ends on a cliffhanger.

That’s not to say there aren’t humorous gags in the next bit, because there certainly are. But the chapter’s main focus will be on action and suspense as the protagonists try to get themselves out of a deathtrap situation. Having more elbow room to write that seems like a good deal to me.

All of this also made me take a realistic look at what I have planned for after this new chapter thee, and I’ve decided to make a change there too.

Basically, there are two more major scenes I feel need to be added to segue and connect the newly expanded narrative into the latter chapters I’ve already written. Initially, I thought I could accomplish these in a single chapter. But a more grounded assessment makes that look like a pipe dream. I was already semi-dubious before that I’d be able to cover all the ground I need to in one chapter. After my experience on Sunday, I decided to bite the bullet and plan to do things right from the start.

With that in mind, I’ve proactively split my remaining ideas for the two major scenes into two chapters of allotted space. This means I’m now adding a total of four new chapters of material instead of the original pair I’d planned. On the downside, that’s more new material to write than I had expected. However, the writing is going faster than expected as well, so it’s hard to say how the timetable will be affected.

Even if the new material adds 30,000 words –an amount that I speculate is unlikely— the book would only barely surpass a word-count of 100,000. That’s still in an average range for a novel, in general, and perhaps a little on the lean side for one in the fantasy genre. It’s not something I’m worried about. These new chapters are fun: They’re exciting reading that is going to add a lot to the novel. :-)

Alright, time for me to stop blogging and get back to writing some more fiction! Take care!