fantasy | Meredith Mansfield, Author

Posts Tagged ‘fantasy’

Slow and Steady

Posted in Real Life, writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Real Life, sequels, series, writing on November 15, 2015| Leave a Comment »

It’s a good thing I’m not officially doing NaNoWriMo, because I’m pretty sure I don’t stand a chance of getting 50,000 words done in the month of November.

Sometimes that’s because I’ve got a difficult (for me) part to write, like that first sea battle I’ve ever attempted. Sometimes it’s because real life interferes, like the week, almost, when my energies went more into dealing with car issues stemming from recalls. (Don’t get me started on that one.) And then, of course, we’ve got Thanksgiving coming up, too.

But that doesn’t mean it’s been a total loss. So there’ve been relatively few days I’ve made the goal of 1667 words a day. I’ve been making slow, but steady progress. And I’m now more than a third through the first draft half-way through the month. It’s been well worth it and I’m going to make every attempt to keep it up, even into December. I’d really love to finish this first draft by or in January.

WarMagicBlank

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Building Momentum

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Real Life, sequels, series, writing on November 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I’ll say this for doing NaNoWriMo–even unofficially: it’s helped me build momentum in WAR OF MAGIC.

WarMagicBlank

Especially through some tricky parts. I’d never written a naval battle–well, a battle between attacking ships and a moderately fortified city, anyway. I’m sure that my competitive spirit and trying to keep up with something remotely like the NaNo pace helped me get through that faster.

Not that I’m remotely close to the pace necessary to complete 50,000 words in a month–yet. But I am definitely building momentum in spite of a few real life issues that might have derailed me otherwise.

I’ve also got a pretty good plan–as much as a discovery writer plans ahead, anyway–for the next ten or so chapters. That should help.

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Reading Your Own Works as a Reader

Posted in writing, tagged boxed sets, e-publishing, fantasy, Learning, Reading, rewrites, writing on November 4, 2015| 2 Comments »

It’s an interesting experience. I’ve had something like it when I started the rewrite of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.

But that was something I’d first written at the beginning of my writer’s journey. A story I still wanted to tell, but had told badly the first time I tried. That was an experience in realizing just how bad those first efforts were.

After publishing the boxed set of young adult fantasies, BY SWORD, TALE, OR MAGIC, I started reading them.

At first, I thought it was an in-depth format check. But I’ve found I got sucked into my own stories–and I know how they’re going to end if anyone does. Not to say I haven’t found things I’d do differently if I wrote that story today.

Probably the biggest one is scenes I clearly remember, but didn’t remember cutting from the finished novel. Most were rightly cut. There’s always some of that in the editing of any story. Others I can’t recall why I cut. Probably trying to fit within some externally dictated length. A few, I wish I hadn’t cut. That’s an interesting perspective to carry with me into my next set of revisions.

A useful experience. And affirming. All writers need that from time to time.

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National Novel Writing Month

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, paranormal romance, priorities, sequels, series, writing on November 1, 2015| Leave a Comment »

NaNoWriMo is an annual event in which thousands of writers commit to writing 50,000 words in the month of November. (Actually, why November is something of a mystery to me. That’s a fairly busy, distractable time of year, but I’m not in charge.)

I’ve never done NaNo–and I’m not officially doing it this year, either. Mostly, this is because I know I can write that many words in a month when everything is right. BLOOD WILL TELL was like that.

I think I wrote that entire first draft (probably about 80,000 words) in six weeks. What a roller-coaster ride that was. But I also know that, for me, trying to force the words when something’s not right or the story just needs me to take more time with it won’t lead to anything productive.

But I feel like I need to give myself some more specific–and frequent–goals to really push me on WAR OF MAGIC.

(I really need to go ahead and put the title on that cover.) NaNo breaks down to about 1667 words a day, which should be totally doable.

So, I’m unofficially doing NaNo this month. I’ve committed to posting daily check-ins for NaNo on one of the writers’ forums I belong to. That should help.

Of course, 50,000 words won’t finish the draft. I’m at about 30,000 words now and the previous books in the series have run over 100,000 words. But it’d sure take a big chunk out of it.

Wish me luck.

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It’s Alive!!!

Posted in writing, tagged boxed sets, Cover Art, e-publishing, fantasy, marketing, writing, Young Adult on October 28, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

But BY SWORD, TALE, OR MAGIC is now live on Amazon (and free on Kindle Unlimited.)

Three YA fantasy novels for the price of only two. It’s like getting one for free.

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The New–Or Old–Bright Shiny

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Middle Grade, Multiple Projects, sequels, series, writing on October 25, 2015| Leave a Comment »

It’s so tempting to run after the new, bright, shiny idea. Every author knows this.

So, officially, I’m working primarily on the final book of the DUAL MAGICS series, WAR OF MAGIC.

And I am.

But, when I took that short break to refresh my enthusiasm for this project, I was working on the first draft of the first book of another epic fantasy series, BECOME. And that file is still open on my computer. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If, for any reason, I get temporarily stuck on WAR OF MAGIC . . . well, I can still be productive by getting a little work in on BECOME. Just as long as I don’t mix up the characters’ names. I prefer it when my second project is in revision phase, but this can work, too. I’ve done it before.

Now, in my brain-idle time–you know, all those times while your walking the dog or washing dishes or . . . well, you fill in the blanks. Those times when your mind doesn’t have to be completely engaged in whatever you’re doing and you can let your imagination run a little. That’s when a lot of the creation of stories happens–at least for me. Often, that’s when I figure out what happens next in a story I’m working on.

But I already know that for both WAR OF MAGIC and BECOME. So, in those idle times my subconscious has been chewing over another story of mine. One that had been written a few years ago but needs a complete rewrite. And Friday, my subconscious threw up several opening paragraphs to the newer, more epic, version. Which, of course, I put in a new file for this story, MAGE STORM.

So, now, I have three works-in-process. Plus, of course, the final steps to get BY SWORD, TALE, OR MAGIC out there.

Yeah, I’m probably crazy. But, I’m still going to focus most of my attention on WAR OF MAGIC.

And all you other stories in the back of my head clamoring for attention, please, please go to sleep. I don’t want you to go away. I’ve jotted down notes on all of you. But I just can’t, right now. Okay?

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The YA Boxed Set Has A Cover

Posted in writing, tagged boxed sets, Cover Art, e-publishing, fantasy, marketing, writing, Young Adult on October 21, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I’m over the major hurdle. I have a cover.

(Ha! I love that I finally figured out how to do boxed set covers.)

Just a few more things to do before I set this one loose in the wild. The files were already formatted for the stand-alone books, but there are a few tweaks for the combined file, of course. I’ll need to work up a blurb for the set. And I may just throw in one of my short stories as a bonus. We’ll see.

I expect to have this one up by the end of the month, possibly with a short pre-order period at a special price.

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Log Jam Breakthrough

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, revisions, sequels, series, writing on October 18, 2015| 1 Comment »

I hadn’t been making much progress in WAR OF MAGIC.

I can’t even tell you why. There wasn’t a good reason I couldn’t make progress on the scene I was trying to rewrite. I just couldn’t find my way into the newer version. Until yesterday.

Whew. Now that scene’s done and the next one, too, and I’m well on my way to having this revised beginning in good enough shape to let me move forward again.

Sometimes these things happen. But they’re extremely frustrating.

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YA Boxed Set

Posted in writing, tagged Cover Art, e-publishing, fantasy, marketing, writing, Young Adult on October 14, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Progress is being made. I actually have a cover demo I like. It’s been really hard to think of–and therefore to search for–images that have any relationship to all three stories. I finally had to broaden the concept.

I can’t share it yet because, since I haven’t finally decided on it, I haven’t bought the right to use the images.

I’m hoping to get this boxed set out in the next month or so–plenty of time for Christmas.

And then, before you know it, it’ll be time to start thinking about a boxed set for the DUAL MAGICS series. I don’t think I’ll have nearly as much trouble with that cover design.

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Projects

Posted in writing, tagged Cover Art, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Multiple Projects, revisions, sequels, series, writing, Young Adult on October 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »

As I posted (sort of) on ~~Wednesday~~ Thursday, I’m working my way back into WAR OF MAGIC, the fourth (and final) book in my DUAL MAGICS series.

Having decided on a title, I guess I can go ahead and finish the cover now.

I’m redoing the first couple of chapters because I just didn’t feel they were doing what I wanted or needed for the beginning of this book. This dissatisfaction may have been part of what was keeping me from making progress before. This is where taking a short break can really help.

It doesn’t help much with the other issue, though. Which is that I really think I’m going to have to kill off at least some of my characters at the climax of this one. It’d feel like cheating to get to this huge war and have everyone survive unscathed. But . . . I really don’t want to. Writing is hard, sometimes.

Meanwhile, I’m still tossing around the idea of putting together a boxed set of my three stand-alone young adult novels: FIRE AND EARTH, THE BARD’S GIFT, and DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING. But I’m still stuck on a cover image for these three disparate stories. So, I thought maybe coming up with a title would help. Right now, I’ve got:

BY SWORD, TALE, OR MAGIC:

Three Girls Who Changed Their Worlds

(Referring to the different weapons used by the heroines of these stories.) Not sure about that yet, though.

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