Category Archives: Updates and Information

News and information.

This blogging, it’s getting out of hand, you know.

I’ve been busy over the past few days. I’ve published two chapters of my book in two days, which feels kind of crazy, and I think for myself as much as anyone else I need to cut it back a little bit. My original New Year’s resolution (remember those?) was to write a chapter a week. Well, it’s the end of the fifth week, and I’ve caught myself up. So, here’s the plan.

I will attempt to post one new chapter from my book each Saturday, if I am able to complete it. The chapters are aimed at being around 4,000 words in length (± 400), and I think over five days (Fridays and Sundays are for movies, come on!) this should be doable.

I will also try to commit to a shorter, less prosaic post mid-week, on…well, randomness, I guess. I don’t really have much of a theme going on here, other than writing. Maybe just little updates, thoughts, musings – you know, that kind of stuff.

So that’s where we’re at; I’m very pleased with my progress so far, and here’s to it continuing in much the same way. If it does, I’ll have two of the seven books finished by next year, and that’s very exciting!

Happy reading!

Back at it again

I know, I know…I haven’t posted for almost two months now. After a furore of writing in November, I’ve taken something of a break, and done frankly nothing at all except lounge around and play games on my iPhone.

But, I’m here to say that I’m committing to my New Year’s resolution (some twenty days late, but never mind) to work for at least some time each day on my story, The Redemption of Erâth. Having completed the history of my world during the NaNoWriMo last year, I now feel that I need to start tackling the story itself, or it will never get off the ground.

So here we go. I am committing to myself to write at least a little bit each night (okay, most nights), with the aim of finishing a chapter or two each week. I still have the intention of reading this to my son as a bedtime story, but we’re only on The Prisoner of Azkaban, so we’ve got some time!

For those of you who were kind enough to leave comments or follow me, I’d like to say thank you – it’s surprisingly heartwarming to know that someone else has read what you have to say (whether they like it or not).

Finally, I’d like to point out that I have a secondary mission as well, which is to avoid semicolons and parentheses as much as possible. Still, I have a few sentences that are so long I can’t make head or tail of them when I read it back through.

So thank you all for sticking with me, and look forward to more regular updates from now on!

It’s All Done…But of Course It’s Not

So…

In case anyone hadn’t been aware (or considered it), the frantic, massive and often poorly-written posts concerning the history of a world called Erâth have been the result of my participation in this year’s National Novel Writing Month endeavor. This was something I first became aware of last year, when my good friend Ben suggested that we pool our ideas and write a book.

It never happened. I moved to the United States, he stayed in England, and November came and went without a word being written (at least by me). So when Ben sent me an email reminding me of the NaNoWriMo this year, I thought, hell – I might as well give it a damn good shot.

I spent virtually every night (okay, not Thanksgiving…or Saturdays) of November typing crazily between the hours of 10:00 PM and midnight, because of course this is the only time I really get to think about writing at all. My son is in bed, the dishes are done, a cup of tea is steaming beside me, and the words are flowing onto the page (the screen).

Except sometimes they wouldn’t flow, of course. Countless hours were wasted in desperately trying to think of what to write next. How to expound a single sentence into five hundred words. How exactly my world was going to grow, and what the people who lived in it were going to do. I had an idea of where it would end, but as often happens in the creative process I got sidetracked, and the results didn’t always line up with the finished product.

But…and it’s a big but: it’s done.

I have penned exactly fifty one thousand, one hundred and ninety-nine words in the last thirty days (according to Scrivener, whose word count I hope is fairly accurate). This is not the length of a genuine novel. But then, what I’ve written isn’t a story; it’s an Appendix. Appendix A, to be exact. It’s the background to the ridiculously monumental tale I have brought upon myself for the sake of reading a bedtime story to my son. I hope he appreciates it!

I have so, so much more to do. I need to flesh out the races of Erâth. There will be many, and their cultures, habitats, histories and destinies must be written. There are languages to be created, and many of the names in my world may change as a result. Then I will need to create my characters, develop their personalities, their weaknesses and their strengths.

And then…only then…when I have finished every one of the Harry Potter books and there is nothing left to read…can I start on the story. I will hope to write a chapter every few days. The chapters will be short; I have discovered that I can read something in the region of 2,000 words in half an hour, so that will be the goal for each chapter. They will be simple; one idea, one chapter. There may be many chapters, but that’s okay.

Because the story now needs to be told. I can’t abandon it, having created the history of  an entire world. I can’t leave the people of Erârün and Kiriün to wither under the forces of Darkness. I threw them into the fire – I have to rescue them.

So I have accomplished my goal of writing 50,000 words in November, and I am proud of that. But for my sake, my son’s sake and Erâth’s sake, there is still much, much more to do.

Wish me luck!