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Archive for March, 2019

I’m late getting this posted. Another habit I need to work on. In my defense, now that things are finally drying out, there’s an awful lot of yard work to be done.

Bad habits may be hard to break, but good habits are just as hard to re-establish. Prioritizing my writing will be a process, but I am writing.

I know I’ve said before that I only really get ideas when I’m writing. Bit of a Catch-22, that. But I proved it again today, when I had an idea about what may be at the root of at least some of the writer’s block on MAGE STORM

Mage Storm

I’d been trying to just expand on the story I already had written, but I’m very much afraid that’s not going to work. I think part, at least, of what’s been bothering me is that my characters–Rell, who was the only POV character in the earlier versions of MAGE STORM and Katria, whose getting almost equal POV in this one–aren’t matching up the way they should, based on where the story is going to go.

Katria is way more mature than Rell. In part, that’s okay. She’s the oldest girl in her family and, when we first meet her, has the responsibility of looking after her younger siblings. And Rell is the youngest in his family. So some disparity at the beginning is all right. But . . . yeah, I think I’m going to have to really do a rewrite, not just a very heavy revision. Just, start with a clean page–allowing myself to go back and look at what I already wrote, of course, but doing it fresh.

Well, DAUGHTER OF THE REBEL MAGE is on deck, now. And I need to just keep working, rebuilding those writing habits.

 

 

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Not much progress to report. Partly, that’s because I’ve had other things that needed to be done. But, partly, it’s because over the course of this writer’s block, I’ve lost the habits of prioritizing my writing.

However, recognizing the problem is the first step. So . . . forward.

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Well, at least a little. Too soon to tell if I’ll be able to build up any momentum, since I’m still on the Prologue. Fingers crossed.

This is the Cinderella retelling (sort of) recast in the same world as DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING.

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Current title: Daughter of the Rebel Mage.

Wish me luck.

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Um . . . kinda, sorta.

I haven’t actually started on any novel, but I have been writing out a bit of the backstory for Daughter of the Secret Mage. It’s mostly stuff that will likely never make it into the novel, but that I need to know so I can get to the starting point.

Also trying to think out at least some of the major plot points. Not an outline. I’m a discovery writer. More of a couple of sign posts so I don’t go wandering off too far into the weeds.

Maybe, maybe something will break loose, soon. Sure hope so.

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Map

So, I decided I needed to re-read DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING.

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(Is it bad that I enjoyed it?) And make a map before I could move forward with thinking about a sequel.

 

Children of Power Map

This map isn’t perfect. And you can see I haven’t gotten around to putting the names on it. But it is as good as it’s going to get for now, because anything more would just be fooling around with the map instead of trying to write anything.

We’ll see if this breaks the log jam.

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I’ve been thinking about that different take on the Cinderella story that might just fit into the same world as DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING.

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I might just be getting ready to take a stab at writing it, because, at this point, that’s the only way the rest of the ideas are going to flow.

But, I’ve realized I’m going to have to do a map. I didn’t have one for DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING, but I’m going to need one now. And, before I can make a map, I need to reread DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING so I can remember where everything is supposed to be. And how many days by coach it was supposed to take to get from one to the other.

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I’ve been doing some thinking about that Cinderella story potentially set in the same world as DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING. I think it might be titled DAUGHTER OF THE SECRET MAGE or something similar, if it works.

If it works, this will become a series centered around saving the world–or this corner of it–but not around the same cast of characters. The main characters of DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING would be only side characters, perhaps mentors, in this book. And so on for, perhaps, three or four books.

Also, I think I may need to reread DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING before I actually start anything.

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But thinking is all I’m doing right now. I have several things to figure out if I hope to make this work. Also, there is just too much real life stuff going on. I thought March would have to be better than February that way. Sometimes, when you hope for something like that, the universe laughs evilly and sets out to prove you wrong.

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I’m a day late posting again. This week has been . . . one of those weeks so far. But in part, you know, it’s really just more of the same.

I haven’t pinned down yet what’s really holding me back on MAGE STORM.

Mage Storm

I just know that for this one, powering through, as I’ve sometimes done before, isn’t going to be the answer.

I don’t know if it’s something about the story. That sometimes happens. Something could be wrong and I just haven’t identified it yet.

Or it could be that life in general has been kicking my . . . well, you know for the last month. Except that this block started before that. Still, recent real-life stuff would not have been helping.

Or it just might be that the creative well has not been replenished sufficiently lately and I need to do something about that. Read more widely. Watch a movie I haven’t seen before. Take a day trip or two.

Or maybe I just need to switch to another story. Maybe another sub-genre, not sword and sorcery or epic fantasy. Not Meadowsweet. That one just isn’t calling to me right now.

I’ve had an idea on the back burner for a different take on a Cinderella story in which the step-mother is not actually the villain–though Cinderella would think she was. That story might fit into the same world as DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING.

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Maybe I’ll even try getting on a writer’s chat room and brainstorming that one. The interchange of ideas itself might help break the log jam. Who knows?

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I’ve started writing the prologue to WILD MAGE, the sequel to MAGE STORM.

Mage Storm

I’m not sure yet if this is actually going to resuscitate my enthusiasm for MAGE STORM, but at least it’s writing.

I’m pretty sure what I’ve written so far is going to turn out to be more like an extended outline that I’m going to have to flesh out more, because right now it’s just back story. And if that’s really needed, then at least some of it is going to have to be SHOWN, not TOLD.

But, like I said, at least it’s writing. Maybe it’ll get me out of this writer’s block. Or else, I’ll have to try writing something else entirely. There are other stories waiting in the wings. One of them just has to start scratching at the back of my brain for attention. None of them have done that yet.

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