Writing Status, July 2012
We’ve been pretty busy behind the scenes. I haven’t been blogging about it much because I’m never sure what is interesting to other folks versus what’s just interesting to me and it feels weird to talk about writing things that you guys may not get to see for a while.
Even so, a writing update every year or so is hardly blasphemous, am I right?
Besides, some people may be wondering about the little progress meters in the right sidebar of the website: what they mean and why they keep changing.
Choose
Choose is going into hibernation. It’s not dead (Remora and crew would hardly permit that!) but I won’t be writing any more on their adventures in the Interactive Webserial format. I could see picking them up again for short stories, novellas, or novels, but the “hurry up and wait” format of the interactive webserial saps my ability to write on other projects.
The final post will go live tomorrow, which is a bittersweet feeling on many levels, not the least of which is the niggling fact that the story isn’t even close to finished. “Finished” is light-years away, however, and I need to take the lessons I’ve learned from Choose and grow with them.
Volume 3 will be subtitled “Crossroads in the Sky” and takes place almost entirely on Bespin. At 36 installments (several of the later installments being far longer than the originals) this will be longer even than Volume 2.
- Volume 1 introduced us to the world and characters, and set the crew on its journey.
- Volume 2 added some characters and started revealing answers. Why doesn’t Hank trust Jinn? Why would Remora be on this crazy quest? We see bonds starting to form between the new crew members. Remora and Jinn spend some time together and Hackwrench actually manages to earn some of Hank’s respect.
- Volume 3 complicates Remora and Jinn’s relationship with another big reveal and brings to the forefront the motivations of every character, including Snow and Hackwrench. We start to see some of the machinations in the greater world beyond their little airship. For many characters, we get a glimpse into not only the dark secrets of their past, but also hints at a greater darkness looming in their future.
Next up is polishing Volume 3, then submitting it to the Amazing Steve Hall for editing, then incorporating his edits, then getting the thing formatted for eBook. After THAT, I’ll beg Steve to format the entire three-volume series for print, because he did such an amazing job on the Saucy Unicorns Collection and I want to offer a dead tree book that’s WORTH spending the money on. Steve can accomplish that.
I still don’t have cover art for Volume 3, though. Hmmm.
Saucy Ink
My short story for the Saucy Ink Dragons collection is completed and its final draft submitted to the editor … but the book itself won’t be available for quite some time. We still have three short stories that haven’t been group critiqued yet, so it’ll probably be months before the entire collection is purchasable.
Unicorns was good, but Dragons is even better. Every returning author has improved as a storyteller and we’ve picked up a few new authors that have very strong contributions. I can’t wait to share it with you guys.
My story is entitled Love’s Champion, and follows Nathaniel Jones, a tattooed cowboy doing a favor for the fire god Hephaestus, only to find that favors to the gods are rarely as simple as they seem.
I won’t be making an “audiobook” version of this one. The last “audiobook” took me far too many hours to record and compile and I’d rather spend that time writing and planning more stories.
I do have my Saucy Ink Unicorns story out on submission to a short story magazine. Wish The Taxidermist luck!
Short Stories
Saucy Ink may not be hosting any more short story collections, but that’s no reason I can’t write a few more. One story I’d rejected for the Dragons collection is currently being reworked by Steven and myself. The new version will be very similar to the old one, but will contain 80% More Worldbuilding and 50% fewer words. The original story had been titled Wicked but the new version focuses less on dark vs light magic and will need a new title.
Once that story is done, I’d love to revisit the cut story thread and create a standalone short out of it.
As if that weren’t enough, another of the sparks I’d nurtured as a possibility for the Saucy Dragons can be modified to fit Nathaniel Jones’s world, so we’re doing the plotting and additional worldbuilding necessary to write the tentatively titled David’s Champion.
Novels
I know that the next novel I write will be Dragonspark.
I do not know that I will begin writing this story in 2012. I’m still not happy with what I’m seeing in the professional publishing landscape. Additionally, I’m quite pleased with how I’m learning and growing as a writer from writing these short stories, so I don’t feel pressured to get started being a seriousface writer and getting that novel done.
I’ve written multiple novels at this point, and I don’t feel like that particular milestone is what makes me a “real writer”.
Dragonspark is coming, but there’s a chance it’ll be a 2013 project for me. Who knows? Half a year still remains, and when Choose is no longer dictating so much of my writing attention, I may get antsy for another big project.
28 Comments
Short stories are an art I’m simply terrible at. I know Lauren does a lot of them, and you seem pretty damn pro at them, but I’m just too bloody long-winded. I wish I had the ability to tell a story in a 5k to 10k format, but I think I’ve been novel-drafting for so long now, I’m not sure how to go about it. Frankly, with my 40 hour a week workload and the editorial rewrites I’m currently doing, I don’t think I have the time anyway. In my “pick and choose priorities” world, short stories have fallen behind, which is a little sad.
I do, however, think that the short story format is an amazing thing. It forces people to get plot and characterization down in such a limited space, that doing it well requires art and precision. I’d argue that though it’s /shorter/ than a novel, in many ways it’s harder to write because you have such a limited window to make your point.*
Good luck with it. Short stories are a great way to hone the craft until you get around to writing your book – if you decide to write a book, even. There’s nothing wrong with opting to go with short fic/novellas as your passion.
* This is for the obvious addendum that the difficulty with writing a book is less the ability to sling words well and more the discipline to just sit your ass in a chair and /write period/. Over and over. For a year. /glazed eyes
I don’t know how “pro” I am — that’ll take an actual pro magazine drooling over my work, I’d imagine — but I do feel like I’m learning a lot from them.
You are SO right about them being more difficult to plan, though, particularly given my requirement that it sort of be a mini-novel rather than a vignette. So easy to add fun story threads, do difficult to plan something shorter.
I’d planned on Love’s Champion being about 5k, maybe 6 … and it’s clocked in at almost 8.5k.
Clearly, I still have a lot to learn.
I definitely want to branch out into books, but it’s remarkable how much I’m still learning about the craft of writing, even from these little buggers. Hopefully, that means my first seriousface novel (the one I plan on shopping) will be a lot more polished than the typical first novel.
*Fingers crossed*
You’re doing everything right on the “preparation for SRS WRITINGZ NOVEL” thing. I firmly believe every word that’s slapped down for digestion — whether it’s short fic, flash fic, poems, or even blog posts — hones the skill. This isn’t a “ride a bike once and you know how to do it for life” thing. It’s “ride the bike, then go back to the beginning, ride the same trail over, do it in less time, then do it again and ride it straighter. And then give it over to other people to analyze so they can tell you how you should ride the bike.” It’s . . . yeah. I’ve learned patience. I had to or I’d probably become an arsonist.
“I had to or I’d probably become an arsonist.”
*snorfle* I can’t wait to read your book when it comes out. *grin*
I totally agree. Writing short stories isn’t precisely like writing novels, and you can’t fully substitute experience in one to experience in the other … but it DOES count as writing experience. When you’re still learning wordcrafting, characterization, and pacing, I think short stories are a great way to skill up quickly.
I offer my doodling and ms paint services if you can’t find a professional cover artist.
I could totally see that being awesome.
unrelated tangent: my hands smell like garlic. it’s aweful.
related tangent: How serious does a person have to be about writing to get involved in the saucy ink short stories? Like, I don’t know that I could actuaally participate with any goodness, but it sounds like a fun challenge. That’s not very serious.
*jumps in, beating Tami to the punch* (But she’ll be waving pompoms.) It’s surprising just how serious it can develop. The beauty of Saucy is, the cheering section makes you care more than you thought you might. And the encouragement, advice, critiquing, etc., makes it a really great experience.
Head over to the forums, sign up, and look around. You have plenty of time to make a decision, but I think it would help to get to know everyone, too. :)
I love the smell of garlic. And basil.
Although we don’t have anything like “quality requirements” or any barriers to entry like that, we DO put each story through a pretty rigorous critique session and have deadlines and the like. The crit session would probably be a lot harder on someone who wasn’t actively trying to become a better writer.
It’s hard enough on the ego when you know you want to get better. It might be a little soul-crushing on someone who was just having fun.
Other than that, there are no requirements. =]
Kristen Sue – don’t be afraid! I’m not a serious writer (I’m not really even a writer for that matter), and I’ve had loads of fun with these story collections. The critiquing is hard, but I only cried for an hour after it was over! Seriously, the pain is short-lived, since everyone there is so helpful and supportive.
*Just be careful of “Very Serious” Bre (or Tami), she can be scary*
Secret for Kristen Sue only: the best part is getting to read some great stuff by some really great writers, seeing the stories in draft phase, and then when reading the awesome final product, getting to say “I helped make that!”
<3 And you totally do help, Bill. *drops eaves*
You know me so well: Flattery will get you everywhere, my dear. :)
<3<3 Every ounce of it well-deserved, Mr. Hall. You're a wizard.
“Love’s Champion” is amazing. I loved it even in its first draft form. I can’t wait to see what you’ve done with the edits.
Best of luck with the Taxidermist. Let us know if you get accepted and where we can support the magazine that pubs it.
I’d love to see you do a blog post on what you are talking about when you say “still not happy with what I’m seeing in the professional publishing landscape”.
Dragonspark sounds interesting. Whenever you get to it, I’m sure it’ll be fun.
I covered most of the “professional publishing landscape” stuff in this post a while back > http://tavenmoore.com/2011/when-worlds-collide/
And thank you for the praise of Champion! I’m very very pleased with that one, and I’m hoping that if Taxidermist is rejected, it’s not because Saucy counts as previous publishing, because that would mean I can shop Champion out as well.
Thanks, I remember that now that I read it again. This is how I’m dealing with it. http://tedthethird.com/the-glorious-irrelevance-of-ebooks/
I wrote that over a year ago, but for the most part it still holds true.
Aha, and I remember reading that one. I totally agree.
Write a good book.
Worry about the rest of it AFTER you’ve accomplished step 1.
Tami, you know that I think your writing is amazing! After all, I believe I initiated the Tami Moore fan club! I can’t wait to read whatever you write next. Please let us know your progress with Taxidermist, they’d be foolish to turn it down!
*Saucy Ink may not be hosting any more short story collections*
SADNESS! Could this be true? Taking too much time from other, more serious writing? (that’s NOT supposed to sound sarcastic)
Unicorns was the first story I’ve written and allowed anyone to read. I think my dragon story, though much more painful, shows improvement. Therefore, I owe EVERYTHING I’ve written to the group at Saucy Ink, with special mention to Tami.
Without a Saucy story collection to work on, I’ll have to rely on my own drive to get something done! Let’s face it, if I haven’t let anyone read anything of mine until after I turned 40, my own drive is clearly insufficient. Also, I obviously need the critiquing phase!!
I didn’t mean to turn this into a selfish pity party; hopefully we can put together a couple more collections, but either way I’ll survive. I’ll still have the great group of friends that may even remain friends after I ask them to read my drafts.
*lovemuffins*
Saucy will ABSOLUTELY be hosting more collections.
We just don’t have any planned until probably early next year (giving time for revising and editing and NaNoWriMo). No worries, good sir. I just meant there weren’t any others planned right now, and I still wanted to keep writing shorts. ^_^
<3
*WHEW*
barely averted panic there
So glad you spoke up instead of panicking off in a corner by yourself!
Word on the street (totally unofficial in any capacity) is that the next theme MIGHT be “fairies”.
Everyone is super excited, not just you!
The office pool was giving good odds it would be ‘elves’!
*grin* Hey, I voted for “horses” or “cats”. At this point, it could end up being “puffins in tophats” as easily as “fairies” or “elves”.
^_^
*So glad you spoke up instead of panicking off in a corner by yourself!*
lol – like I ever keep anything to myself!
There are many in the group who wish you would take away my commenting privileges!
I’ve heard no complaints. ^_^
Ha! I had to reread that twice to figure out she meant “at the moment.” Having just survived the pain and horror of my first proper critique/revise/critique/tweak/hand-over-for-editing session, I’m in a happy place where doing this again sounds more like fun than torture. :)
No I need to go learn more about that “I’m still not happy with what I’m seeing in the professional publishing landscape” thing, because that caught my eye too.
*hugs* I am SO glad to have you on board the Inkers, Laura!
@Laura – I’m so glad to have you on the team too! You were VERY helpful to me personally with fixing my story. Your insights have been very valuable, not to mention your great story!