Waiting and Writing

I'm just sitting here, staring at a blank page of a new story. It won't be featuring any of the characters from Skies of Madness. Just something that I wanted to write after a Walking Dead marathon. 

It has--you guess it--zombies, some ghouls, vampires and one nachzehrer. There are so many types of undead that get overlooked and they are interesting folk tales that definitely flow with a fantasy story. Its main protagonist will be a former monster hunter.

Also, I'm waiting anxiously for my copy editor to finish going through my manuscript for Skies of Madness. It might not be until tomorrow. Oh well. Patience is meant to be practiced.

Final Edits

Well, my edit of Skies if Madness is finally over. Whew! I put it off for far too long. This makes it exactly 3 months since I penned the first word. Hopefully the sequel won't take so long now that I've got the ball rolling.

I'm having someone else edit it for me as well as to catch things I might have missed. Once I've read over their suggestions, I'll make the necessary changes. Then it will be truly finished (I hope).

I think I'll take a week off before I start writing the sequel. It's exhausting.

A Wordle of Skies of Madness

I thought I would paste all of Skies of Madness into a wordle generator and see what it came up with. What do you think? I kinda like it.

Rising to the Challenge

As I go through the process of revising and editing, I'm faced with a few dilemmas. What do I keep? What do I get rid of? Is this part slowing the story down or is it necessary information? If it is necessary, am I writing it in the best way possible? Is dialogue better than info dumping? Should I just have my character observe all these things? I have to answer all these things so that the story will be the best that it can be. Not just for me, but for the people that will read it. Someday I hope that number will be a million, but for now I'll settle for anyone that I haven't met in person. (That means you Kyanna Kitt!)

Each time that I rewrite this book it seems I have more to learn from the process of what makes a good book. I suspect that each time I write a book in the future that I will learn a little more. It's a good thing. Every writer should always be challenged and learn new things even if he/she are writing in the same genre for decades. It's a comforting, changing consistency.

At Novel's End

Well, the novel is finally finished, but far from done. Now I begin the tedious process of editing, revising and adding to flesh out the characters. 

I settled on the title SKIES OF MADNESS after about four more changes since my last title I wrote on here (WARLOCK?). It explains the basic summary of the book without giving anything away.

I'll hopefully be posting more on here now that the bulk of the novel is done. I'm thinking of writing a novella and a couple short stories to tie into the book about some of the minor characters, but that'll be after this one is done. Wish me luck.

Oh, and I also found this super interesting article how being tired can make you a better writer, and how incredibly important it is to write no matter the distractions. Great read!

Show Me the Glint on the Broken Glass

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint on the broken glass.” -- Russian author, Anton Chekhov

I was looking for some advice on how to write the perfect ending (nearly there!) when I came across this quote. I loved Lady With The Dog which is a brilliant showcase of what a short story should be. It came as such a surprise that this quote of Chekhov's was one I had never seen before. Facebook usually assaults us with quotes from famous writers but not this one.

In this quote is everything that I have ever thought was important in anything I wrote or read. Showing is better than telling. 

ALWAYS.

It draws me in and creates that tangible world around me. I can only hope my own book will do the same.

New job

I would love to be able to write on here that my new full time job is writing, but sadly that will remain my second job. At least until I finish the first book, a novella and a short story or two.

No, the new job is working graveyard shift. Not hard work so far but there's a lot of downtime. Maybe it will give me some time to write a little.

The novel is at 40k words. My writing has slowed but I will finish it soon. Having to change some subplots so it won't have holes in it takes time.