July Update

You know, I've noticed something that could, you know, be aggravating. You know what I mean? Because, you know, my brain tends to get stuck in a rut sometimes when talking and, you know, I regurgitate the same stupid words or phrases a few times. It drives me crazy, you know. AAARRRGGH!!

Anyway ….. I've been working on brainstorming through some things for Taloner: Wekthusia to try and hammer out and refine issues that are bothering me. I already mentioned this in my last post, so I won't go into more detail on that today. The other thing I've been doing lately is working on world lore, particularly for the world of Gaia. When I say lore, what I'm referring to is miscellaneous things like how certain types of magic work, detailed pieces of history for races or areas found in Gaia, random bios for individuals who appear throughout the world's history, things like that. It helps kind of stretch my creative muscles at the same time it maintains sanity for me, as well as giving me stronger bases to build story elements off of. I'm someone who enjoys history, and I'm a detail-oriented person. I like having material already developed which I can reference while writing, rather than being halfway through a paragraph and having to go, "Oh well, this character is descended from … Greg the Great, who um, was known for …. I mean, he ate lots of …. pancakes …"

Yeeeeah. I prefer to have things that are already a little more fleshed-out to draw upon when I'm writing a story. It's kind of like anchor points for building a web, in a way. If there's no anchor point for X details, then you have to hurry and make something up, and on-the-fly isn't usually my favorite method. But if I took the time beforehand to create some lore, then oh! Look at these handy anchor points I can use to help build the basis of some of these ideas I'm writing. Yeah, you get the point.

I haven't done much art of any kind for a while, and I'd like to start sketching out a few of these non-canonical characters I've been coming up with, just for fun. We recently found a channel on our television that sometimes has a competition show on blacksmithing/forging, and it's helped kind of rekindle some flame for me in working on ideas for both smithing characters and different types of weaponry that appears in Gaia. Seeing some of the unique (and sometimes just plain wicked) weaponry that really does exist in our world is amazing to me.

Okay, back to work. Stay cool!

Mandatory break

So, I'm pretty sure that anyone who reads this can already tell that I've been on a writing break for a while. It's kind of a huge "duh" at this point. But nonetheless, here I am making the announcement.

I didn't want to go on a break right now, but I didn't have a choice. Between various things in my personal life and the fun stress that comes with them, I was burning out pretty badly. I can tell you from experience that trying to force yourself to keep working on something while burned out is one of the worst mistakes you can make. So rather than ruin a book, I chose to back off for a while. And as it turns out, my brain is slowly beginning to rejuvenate (yay). 

I've had a number of ideas for story concepts, plot fragments, character profiles, and other things like that trickling through my head while on break. Imagine, if you will, the late night scene: We're finally getting to bed after a long day, the lights have been turned off, and then I pop up like a wild woman and grab my phone to make a note before it's gone from my head. I'm sure you can hear my puzzled husband's sleepy questions as to what in the world I'm doing, because we're finally going to bed.

It's not all been for Taloner:Wekthusia; much of it has been for other projects. With that being said, I plan to make time and sit down to go over a few things in the T:W plot and re-work a few details that have been bothering me. I'd like to resume working on this book before the year's out, and while right now it seems like I still have a whole six months to worry about that, that time does tend to disappear quickly. As the manuscript currently sits, I'm roughly 80% of the way through drafting it.

This story has been more challenging than I anticipated it would be, as a couple of the characters have really started feeling like empty cardboard cutouts. And that is something that I do not want. These characters are their own people, with unique personalities and strengths and flaws, and I want to convey that to anyone reading about them in the best way I can. My aim as a writer is very much to help transport you, the reader, into another world that you can experience and enjoy with me. Nobody enjoys staring at a cardboard box. Or reading about one.

As an aside, I'll also try to update this blog a little more, even if there's not much going on with my writing. I'd rather that it not just become a vacant outpost.