The Beauty of Being Your Own Boss

So it has been a while since I posted and I figured I would remedy that with a nice general update on how things are going.

My new project is coming along pretty well. It is still going a little slower than I would like, but I have been better the last couple of weeks at finding smaller chunks of time to write. It is clear to me that I will never get a book done if I only write on those nights when I am able to set aside 2 or 3 hours. One of the benefits of this is that I am getting faster and thus am able to crank out more words in a shorter time. I have finally started to embrace the fact that I am doing a first draft and it does not have to be perfect. This is allowing me to write a little looser, which is fun. It also helps to know exactly where I want to go with this story from beginning to end.

I am really enjoying writing this new book. So far I have been focusing on two of my main characters and it has been a lot of fun getting to know them and helping them get to know each other. The next chapter I write will be throwing another character into the mix, and then from there things are really going to take off.

Anyway, I just wanted to put out there that things are going well and I am not stuck in the proverbial mud like I was for most of January and February. Things are looking good and I am enjoying myself. Anything on top of that at this point is just a bonus.

Changing Course

I had a breakthrough this weekend. While doing work in the yard on Saturday I had an amazing moment of clarity and inspiration in regards to one of the story ideas I have had in my head for a long time. It really was incredible to experience. After finishing the yard and showering I sat down with my laptop and outlined 95% of a book in less than an hour. It was the most fun I have had writing in quite a while.

So what is the long-term impact of this? Well...

Imildurin Tales has not been progressing as quickly as I had hoped recently. There are a lot of things I could cite as reasons that contributed to this, but I am not in the business of making excuses. The bottom line is that I was banging my head against a wall with that story and I just couldn't get myself to power through it. Now I have this lightning-in-a-bottle moment from Saturday and I can happily say that I am setting Imildurin Tales aside for now and starting a new project.

Starting tonight I will be working on a new book. I am REALLY excited to start writing this. I told my wife this morning that I feel like I could write this whole book in one sitting if that was possible. That is probably a bit of an exaggeration, but I feel like I have a strong grasp on this entire story from start to finish and I think I will be able to put together a first draft pretty quickly.

Without getting into too many details I will say that this will be a middle grade fantasy book. This is one of the things that has me excited because I feel like this is something my kids would all be interested in reading once it is done, and the thought of writing with them as a target audience is awesome. I don't want to say any more right now, but I will say that the thought of sitting down to a fresh Word doc tonight puts a smile on my face.

Get ready page 1, I'm coming for ya!

Silver Linings and Such

So my plan of hitting the ground running in 2013 and writing like nobody's business has not been much of a success thus far. I have gotten some good plotting work done on Imildurin Tales, but I have been thin on actual writing. Basically, Chapter 5 is kicking my butt at the moment. I had a pretty good idea of how I wanted it to go at one point, but I shifted some pieces to be in later chapters and that left me a bit unsure as to how to proceed with it. This is a less than ideal situation and I even considered shifting focus a bit to start a new short story just to get the writing juices flowing again. I did not do that, and now I am very glad I didn't.

During lunch today I had a moment of inspiration and it was just what I had been needing. In reality, it was just a thought on a relatively minor detail in the story, but it grew into something more and ultimately was the key to unlocking Chapter 5. At least I hope so.

So, my message here is one of positivity and perseverance. The last couple weeks have not been nearly as productive as I had planned, but things are looking up now and I think I will get some good momentum going in the coming days.

On a side note, Amazon finally made Keepers of the Tallath free this week and the response has been good. It already has almost half as many downloads as on Smashwords and it got as high (that I saw) as #31 on the Amazon chart for free Science Fiction short stories. I know that is getting pretty specific but I will take what I can get.

Play Time Is Over

So, 2013 is a week old already eh? Time to get down to business! My writing trailed off dramatically at the end of 2012 (I could blame it on visiting family, but that would not be fair at all. Totally my conscious decision), and now it is time to get thinks cranking again.

I would not say that time spent not writing was a complete loss. I made a lot of mental progress and have a lot of new ideas I am looking forward to writing. I made some decisions in regards to Book 2 of Imildurin Tales that I am very happy with. I am really looking forward to writing Book 2, but I know I have a long way to go on Book 1 before I get there, and I am excited about that too.

I also made a great deal of progress on a series of short stories I am planning to write. I have had a firm grip on the first story in the series for quite a while, but I now have a pretty solid plan for where I want the series to go beyond that first story. As focused as I am on Imildurin Tales right now, I am also looking forward to starting this other series on the side in the coming months. It is quite a departure from the other things I have written or am currently working on and I think it is going to be a lot of fun.

So what does all of this mean? To be short; it is time to get to work! I have a lot of pages to fill and only myself to look to to fill them. I plan on spending tonight working on a map and outlines for Imildurin Tales. From there it is all about writing. And then writing. And then writing some more. My goal is to have the first draft of Book 1 done by the summer and I think that is a very achievable goal if I put in the work. So like I said, it is time to get to work.