Posts about the SONG OF FORGOTTEN STARS series.
Yesterday I finally completed the first round of The Song of Forgotten Stars, Book Five: Embers of Future Flames. This book has taken a lot longer than I expected, but this phase is finally done. Also, even though there is a lot more to be done, this entire story is now more than half told. That’s quite a feeling. I embarked on this particular journey roughly 14 years ago, after all. Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….
This weekend was Crunch Time. How did I do? Here’s yesterday’s total output: And at the end of that session, I got to type up these words: Yes, the first draft of The Song of Forgotten Stars, book five: Embers of Future Flames is finally done. I started drafting this book at the beginning of 2021. My goal was to have it done before we took off for Waikiki…a year ago. That didn’t happen, obviously. This one was a very difficult write, and I had to stop completely quite a few times just to think out what was happening and why. This book was hard.Down the rabbit hole….
The tale is in the numbers. For perspective: I count anything over 1000 words in a day as a really good day. Saturday: Sunday: I feel like I’ve finally cracked the nut that is the plot of Forgotten Stars V. This one has been giving me fits for several months now, and I’ve rewritten the same four chapters at least three times now, with two of those rewrites being from scratch. I’m not sure if this means I need to start being an outliner, or what. I just want to get this draft done. I’m also kicking myself for having decided to writeDown the rabbit hole….
I have recently finally started to unravel the plot of Forgotten Stars V: The Final Frontier (not the actual title), much to my pleasure. This one has been giving me fits, to the point that I’ve been seriously considering making the shift from Pantser to Plotter. This is because the key turns out to have been…plotting. OK, an aside if you’re not familiar with the terms ‘pantser’ and ‘plotter’. Some writers plot everything out, writing extensive story outlines of varying degrees of complexity from writer to writer, in order to get the story shaped before they ever start drafting. The ideaDown the rabbit hole….
“Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writers steal from them outright.” –Sam Seaborn, “Twenty Hours In America (part two)”, THE WEST WING I don’t know if I’m a great writer, but if that’s one of the qualities they need I’m well on my way, because I steal left and right from my betters and I don’t feel the slightest ethical qualm in doing so. The latest? I’m swiping an event and repurposing it from one of my most foundational fantasy texts. No, I’m not going to spell it out, because it’s a spoiler, and I’m just setting up in BookDown the rabbit hole….
Since I rededicated this space as my primary home online and the center of my blogging universe, I haven’t discussed my writing progress much! But first, a diversion. Someone shared this painting on Twitter the other day, and I found it captivating. It’s called “Dickens’s Dream”, by Robert William Buss, and the conceit is simple: Charles Dickens is dozing in his chair, and the air around him is full of his dreams of all his characters. Note that the ones nearest him, the ones most present in his mind, are the ones in color, while others are uncolored, hazy, andDown the rabbit hole….
Greetings, programs! Last time I checked in I was gearing up to do a burst of edits for The Savior Worlds, as part of my effort to get it release-worthy for launch in May. Well. As I’m sure you’re all well aware, a month later…the world happened. The plan was to release at Buffalo’s Nickel City Con in May, but now, because of Covid-19, Nickel City Con isn’t happening this year. And that’s not the only hiccup in the works. My wonderful cover artist got her work done and we were just starting to talk about when we could meet upDown the rabbit hole….
Greetings, Programs! I haven’t posted in a couple weeks–sorry!–but the reasons, as ever, are good (I hope). Having received feedback on the manuscript of The Savior Worlds (The Song of Forgotten Stars, book 4) from several trusted voices, it’s time for another heavy dose of revision work before I send the thing out for proofreading in March. I’ve got kind of a hard deadline going here: I need to have this draft (Draft 3.0) ready to go by the end of this month. The ultimate goal is to release Book 4 at Nickel City Con in May, and that’s aDown the rabbit hole….
So last week I wrote about the various issues that arise when writing not just one novel but a series of novels, and wouldn’t you know it! I am running up against those issues right now. In just a couple of weeks I start doing my next round of revisions for The Savior Worlds (The Song of Forgotten Stars, book 4), which is the volume in the series that kicks the larger story into real motion. That being the case, it’s suddenly clear to me that I need to really codify, if only for my own use right now, the backstoryDown the rabbit hole….
Hey all! Time for a long-overdue check-in as to what’s been going on. 1. First, and most importantly, I’ve finished the first draft of The Song of Forgotten Stars, book iv: The Savior Worlds. Huzzah!!! If you’re wondering, the manuscript wound up just shy of 194,000 words. I aim for cutting at least ten percent of the book’s length at each round of edits, which means that I’ll be striving for a ballpark figure of around 160,000 words for the final draft. But that’s getting ahead of things, as my practice is to set aside drafts for at least severalDown the rabbit hole….