March Progress Update

3/15/2017

Looks like it's time for a progress update. Two big projects are occupying my time and (limited) brainpower and energy right now. The major revision of Heir of Tanaris is under way; I'm about halfway through. As always, scenes I thought didn't need a lot of work are getting totally rewritten (just finished a long one that I decided at the last minute to change from Davreos's point of view to Isamina's). But I'm really happy with how this is coming together so far. The soundtrack for this book is mainly the album Haven by Kamelot. Give it a listen if you want to get a feel for this book, the next book in the Tehovir world.

I've also started the triage phase of revision on the Defenders of the Wildings series, the follow-up to Daughter of the Wildings. I was going to wait until the big revision on Tanaris was done, but decided I couldn't wait that long. And I think (hope!) I've got readers waiting for it too. So I started that, revising the whole series like it's one big book (which it basically is, much more than Daughter, which divided itself up neatly into separate novels), and I was going through book 1 and it was going fine, highlight these characters more, move this to this other scene, combine these two scenes, dum de dum, HEY WHERE'S THE PLOT???

Yes, I forgot to put a plot in book 1. Which probably explains why this "novella" is only 38 double-spaced pages long. My excuse is that I decided that what was originally book 1 needed to be book 2, so I took some stuff from the original book 2 and wrote some new material and stuck all that in front to make the new book 1, just so I could get the general scaffolding of the story in place. I know what the plot is supposed to be; a thing happens, as often does in novels, and this thing has potentially dire consequences for Silas and Lainie and their livelihood, and they talk about doing something in response. Well, then, other things happen and we get to the end of book 1 and they never did the thing they talked about. So doing the thing they talked about is the plot of book 1, and now I just need to actually write it. Fortunately, it fits in well with the other stuff happening that I wrote.

There are writers who claim they can write a complete, organized, well-structured story in one draft, with only needing to clean up the typos to make it publishable. I am not one of those writers. :P

So, anyway, that's where things stand. No idea yet on release dates; to make sure you don't miss out, sign up for my email alerts to get release news, special offers, the occasional freebie, newsletter-exclusive sneak peeks and trivia quizzes, and other fun stuff when I can think of it.

One more note: a very talented young writer named Cristian Mihai is in dire need of dental work that is far beyond his means to pay for. He has a condition that leaches all the calcium from his teeth, with the result that he has a mouthful of crumbling teeth, which causes him a great deal of pain and makes him unable to eat or speak normally. His writing is best described as literary fiction, which you may know is usually not my reading material of choice, but his stuff is really good. Anyway, if you can make a donation, or buy a package of reblogs on his site if you have a Wordpress blog, buy one of his books, or even just share on social media, every little bit helps.

2 Comments

Catrin Lewis link

3/26/2017 03:06:40 am

"There are writers who claim they can write a complete, organized, well-structured story in one draft, with only needing to clean up the typos to make it publishable. I am not one of those writers. :P"

So you, too, have been reading the advice of Dean Wesley Smith (by way of Robert Heinlein) lately? He insists that's all it takes, and I suppose when you've written hundreds of books like he has, sheer practice enables you to get away with that. Me . . . let's just say that I don't understand the connections in my own books until I've gone over them a time or two. Or three?

(Anybody for four or five?)

I'm sorry to hear that about Cristian. I haven't been keeping up with his blog lately and I wish--- I wonder--- if, broke as I am, there's something I can do.

Kyra

3/26/2017 12:41:21 pm

Well, yes, DWS is kind of the godfather of the writers saying that, but I've come across a lot of others. I'm like you, I have to have the whole book in front of me to be able to start shaping it the way I want it to be (and to spot those missing plots and other problems!). I kind of turn Heinlein's advice on its head - I revise and edit only to MY idea of what the story should be without worrying about what anyone else would say is the "right way" to write it (another point DWS makes, which kind of seems in contradiction to Heinlein's advice), keeping in mind feedback from beta readers who spot problems I might not be able to see, but only if what they say agrees with my creative vision. I do agree with DWS that creative voice needs to have the final say, and also it's important not to revise the life out of the story.

Concerning Cristian, when I run across something where there's nothing else I can do to help, or even if I can contribute, I share it on Facebook, Twitter, my blog, etc, to help spread the word and hopefully reach at least one other person who can also share or do something else.