Posted in Real Life, writing, tagged fantasy, first drafts, Real Life, rewrites, writing on October 17, 2018| Leave a Comment »
I have made very little progress on finishing this chapter of MAGE STORM.
I was sure I’d get that done last weekend, but . . . nope. Just one of those weeks. Too many other things to do. Managing a couple of overdue promotions, starting the search for next year’s health insurance.
Nothing to be done about it but set aside some specified time for writing and stick to it.
Posted in writing, tagged epublishing, fantasy, first drafts, revisions, rewrites, writing on October 14, 2018| Leave a Comment »
The first of the critiques on BECOME: TO RIDE THE STORM is back.
And, of course, there are a few revisions I need to make–some that will be easy, others that will require careful thought. I’m eager to get back to finish off that story. I really want to publish it either the last week of December or the first week in January.
So, now I’m working on finishing up the current chapter of MAGE STORM and making any notes that come to mind so that that story will be ready to pick up once everything’s in place for BECOME: TO RIDE THE STORM.
Also, FIRE AND EARTH is currently free, but just through October 15th–tomorrow.
Posted in writing, tagged characters, fantasy, first drafts, rewrites, Writer's Block, writing on October 7, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Taking a break–meaning stepping away and not even staring at the words or the page–for a couple of days was the right decision. That little bit of distance allowed me to see just what (tiny) element was really holding me up. A very minor change in the least important of the characters involved in this scene let me move forward–and actually is making the scene much better.
I find that very often, that kind of lack of progress is an indicator that something–often something minor–just isn’t working. A little change, or, sometimes, a big change, will fix and unstick things.
I wouldn’t say I’m roaring along just yet, but I am getting words down, which is a vast improvement. MAGE STORM is back up on four wheels and starting to roll.
Posted in writing, tagged Cover Art, fantasy, first drafts, rewrites, Series Branding, writing on October 3, 2018| Leave a Comment »
So, I did take the time to go work up the cover art for MAGE STORM. Here it is:
I made a conscious choice to stay away from lightning this time, since the covers of the DUAL MAGICS series feature lightning, smoke, and fire:
And the BECOME series also feature lightning:
The plan with the UNBALANCED MAGIC series (subject to change), starting with MAGE STORM, is that I’ll use that same stylized dragon image against a different background–suitable to each individual story. There are dragons in the story–little dragons, big dragons, water dragons. And since this is a rewrite, I can easily work that symbol in and make it, if not important, at least recognizable. I think that will work to brand the series as belonging together.
Oh, and yes, I intentionally left the series number off. While individual stories may build on what went before, they should still work as stand-alones, too. This shouldn’t be the kind of series where it matters immensely in what order the books are read.
Now, back to getting the story written.
Posted in writing, tagged characters, fantasy, first drafts, rewrites, Writer's Block, writing on September 30, 2018| Leave a Comment »
I’m having trouble getting traction with MAGE STORM. Not really sure why. I know the story. I have an entire previous version to use as an outline, after all. I know what should happen in this chapter. I’ve done the character backstory. But . . . it’s just not flowing at the moment.
Probably time to drop back and do something else for a bit until whatever’s stuck comes loose. Maybe the cover art. And, of course, studying up on keywords.
Meanwhile, here’s the backstory of the character in question, Katria:
Sixteen. From Sawyers Oaks. Three brothers, two older (Darin and Ferd), one a year younger (Natan). One younger sister, Rosella.
Her family does not have deep roots in Sawyers Oaks. Her father had been a young child there, but his family had moved to Marketown after the Great Mage War. Before that, they had owned the sawmill in Sawyers Oaks. After the recent death of his mother, Katria’s father has brought his family—and his elderly father—back to Sawyers Oaks. His older brother is now managing the carpentry shop his father started in Marketown.
Katria’s first magic is fear-based, trying to save family members from the mage storm. After this, Katria’s family is attacked by villagers afraid of the return of magic. The father of the young man (Jeld) Katria had begun to have feelings for leads the attack and Jeld joins him. Her father and Ferd are injured. Angry, Katria uses magic to drive off the attackers—which only makes matters worse. Knowing that she could only cause more trouble for her family and guilty about what she’d done, Katria slips out in the middle of the night and starts west, drawn by Mastan’s Calling. She and Rell meet on the way.
She is best at fighting, reasonably good at healing (when in the right mood), only okay at Calling.
Posted in writing, tagged characters, fantasy, first drafts, Point of View, rewrites, writing on September 23, 2018| Leave a Comment »
I’m still doing some research to help me with my keywords problem. I did make a couple of changes to the keywords. I haven’t seen any impact so far, but then I only made the changes yesterday. My chronic impatience aside, it probably is too soon to tell. Wait and see. More on that when I’ve had a little time to assess it–and, hopefully some data to assess.
Meanwhile, I’ve gotten restarted on the rewrite of MAGE STORM–a chapter from the point of view of another character. One I finally have enough of a feel for to write from her perspective after doing the character backstories. It’s not that I didn’t know who this character was in the earlier version of the story. But she never had point-of-view chapters and so she was mostly seen from the point of view of the only character who did. The original version of MAGE STORM had only one point-of-view character.
Usually, when I write from multiple points of view, I start out that way from the beginning. Coming at it from the other direction, I needed that dive into the other characters’ backstories in order to do them justice. It will be a much better story now.
Posted in writing, tagged fantasy, first drafts, maps, series, writing on September 16, 2018| Leave a Comment »
I finished (at least for now) the map for the series that will start with MAGE STORM. I really need to come up with a good series title, too. Well, there’s time for that.
So, here it is:
I’m not entirely thrilled with it, yet. It feels a little busy. But it’s enough to go forward with, at least. I’ve done a black-and-white version, too.
Right now, though, I’m working my way through the transition of all of my paperback books from CreateSpace, which is closing, over to KDP Print. As soon as I finish that, I’ll be ready to start–again–on the first draft of MAGE STORM.
Posted in writing, tagged background, characters, epic fantasy, fantasy, first drafts, maps, sword and sorcery, writing on September 12, 2018| Leave a Comment »
I decided to start with character profiles/backstories for the principal characters in MAGE STORM. This isn’t something I usually do, but I thought it would be useful in this case since I’m trying to get a new start on a story I wrote some time ago. Also because I’ve changed the roles of a couple of characters–actually switched the competencies of the two principal allies. I needed to give them better and more extensive backstories to support their skills.
I’ve almost finished that. I need to do a very little more research into a certain personality type for my antagonist/villain. So far, I’ve got a much better feeling about those two characters in particular and–unlike the last attempt–I actually feel ready to write in their points of view.
I’ve also decided to go ahead and create a map for this series. I’ve had a really basic hand-drawn . . . thing . . . that I used as a writer’s aid for the first version. Believe me, this is even less ready for prime time than my usual hand-drawn maps. But, it’s been a while since I last worked on a map with this software, so I’m having to go back through the tutorials.
Then, when that’s done, I should be ready to start writing/re-writing this story. I still haven’t decided on the sword and sorcery vs. epic fantasy question. This story sort of lives in the grey area in between. But, that doesn’t have to stop me from writing the first book. The question will only come up in how I build–or fail to build–the greater arc in the later books.
Posted in writing, tagged fantasy, first drafts, POV, read-throughs, revisions, writing on August 26, 2018| 2 Comments »
That went faster than I expected. I finished the read-through of BECOME: TO RIDE THE STORM yesterday.
This is just my process, but in a read-through, I’m looking for several things–some of which I can fix as I go.
Sometimes, I described the same thing slightly differently in different places, written at different times. I need to reconcile those descriptions. Some places that was easy and I’ve already fixed it. Others will take a little more thought–and maybe some deletions.So, now I’ve got those things–at least the ones I found on the first read-through–marked up. The next thing to do is to go through and try to deal with as many of those as I can. That can take multiple passes because some things are a little more complex to work out than others. Then another read-through and I think it will be ready for my critique partners to take a look at so they can find the things I didn’t even see because I’m too close to it.
Posted in writing, tagged epic fantasy, first drafts, inspiration, revisions, sequels, series, sword and sorcery, writing on August 19, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Originally, the plan was to work on MAGE STORM through August and then switch back to the revisions on BECOME: TO RIDE THE STORM in September.
But, I haven’t been getting any traction on MAGE STORM. Beyond the initial issues I had–deciding on a ground-up rewrite–I’ve discovered some other things that need to be considered.
See, the original version was conceived as a sort of open-ended series, with each book being a separate story–building on events in the previous books but not creating a greater world-saving arc. That’d work fine if I decided to make this sword and sorcery. But I don’t think that’s what I want. The idea of the rewrite was to make it epic fantasy.
Now, as I said before, this story has an epic problem. But the sort of open-ended series–that doesn’t have an arc building to the epic climax just doesn’t work very well for epic fantasy. That world-saving or world-changing conclusion is as expected in epic fantasy as a happily-ever-after is in romance. Favorite characters can get killed along the way. The quest can even fail. But there has to be that big bang at the end.
So, I’m going to have to rethink, not just the first story, but how all the others fit into a larger, more epic arc. I think I can see a glimmer of how that might work. Or, at least a little of it. But I need to have a better feel for that before I start the rewrite.
Therefore, I’m going to go ahead and start the revisions on BECOME: TO RIDE THE STORM. It’s been three weeks. And, as distracted as I’ve been lately, revision–using the critical side of my brain–is probably a better fit than trying to write from scratch–or nearly–anyway.
And, in the meantime, maybe I can figure out how all the pieces of MAGE STORM and it’s sequels fit together into an epic arc. Or what has to change to make them fit. Or, of course, whether it’s just better suited to being an episodic sword and sorcery after all. There’s actually nothing wrong with that. It’d just mean a change of perspective and expectations for this story.
Meredith Mansfield, Author 