I haven't had the focus to write much since finishing Elevated. Real life has been chaotic and it keeps my mind boiling with real concerns.
I don't know when I'll get back to writing stories that are worth sharing (or stories at all.) I don't know when I'll get back to New Rome. When I do, it probably won't be with a weekly posting schedule.
Right now, I'm getting back to trying to write something every day. I look forward to getting back to the story-telling aspects of writing.
Friday, June 6, 2014
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Now that *that's* settled...
After a brief, but very disruptive job search, I'm now in my second week on the new job. The job search was actually remarkably easy, but it didn't really leave me time or energy to think about writing.
I've gradually started to get some free writing time back, but until tonight, I've been using it exclusively to write code. Tonight has been the first night I've really sat down and been Tom Frost.
I'd like to start working on more New Rome stories and have two at least partially structured. Before I get too deeply into them, I'm trying to clear the decks for Elevated. For now, that means aggregating the typos people found and making notes for the next (hopefully final draft.)
If anyone's interested in watching the process, you can see the growing list of typos here. It's the first piece of my "spoiler wiki" - a tool I'm using to help in my writing, but which anyone who wants to dissect my work is welcome to dig through (although, as it's named, it will probably be chock full of spoilers about existing and future work.)
I've gradually started to get some free writing time back, but until tonight, I've been using it exclusively to write code. Tonight has been the first night I've really sat down and been Tom Frost.
I'd like to start working on more New Rome stories and have two at least partially structured. Before I get too deeply into them, I'm trying to clear the decks for Elevated. For now, that means aggregating the typos people found and making notes for the next (hopefully final draft.)
If anyone's interested in watching the process, you can see the growing list of typos here. It's the first piece of my "spoiler wiki" - a tool I'm using to help in my writing, but which anyone who wants to dissect my work is welcome to dig through (although, as it's named, it will probably be chock full of spoilers about existing and future work.)
Thursday, February 20, 2014
No posting this week
As much as I wanted to post something new this week, the double whammy of finishing a novel and suddenly finding myself looking for a job hasn't left me with much impetus to finish anything. I have a number of stories open and active in the hopper, including Visions of a New Rome (a New Rome origin story,) but nothing is coalescing and I don't want to force it.
Hopefully, I'll have something ready by next Friday to share.
Hopefully, I'll have something ready by next Friday to share.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Monday, February 10, 2014
A Man of the People (maybe)
Part of yesterday's writing time was spent organizing Elevated. When I write, I use Google Docs as an ersatz version control system and one step of that is to create a release branch of my documents so that I know what I actually published before going back and making more changes. (Chapter 21 has one more round of proofing to go.)
Far more enjoyable was starting to sketch out what may end up being the outline for A Man of the People. I have so many ideas for the next book, some of the original ideas are already slipping towards the third book. (When I first started working on New Rome last year, I was originally planning on writing a novel called The Centurion in my Head, but ultimately decided it introduced too many elements all at once. It's now looking like The Centurion in my Head may end up being the third New Rome novel.)
Far more enjoyable was starting to sketch out what may end up being the outline for A Man of the People. I have so many ideas for the next book, some of the original ideas are already slipping towards the third book. (When I first started working on New Rome last year, I was originally planning on writing a novel called The Centurion in my Head, but ultimately decided it introduced too many elements all at once. It's now looking like The Centurion in my Head may end up being the third New Rome novel.)
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Re-establishing my routine
As things start to settle down a little here, I'm looking to get back into a routine of writing at least ten hours a week - mostly so that I have things to post after the last chapter of Elevated goes up on February 14.
Today I put in about three hours and wrote the first seven pages of They Move Slowly in Winter and it's starting to look like a real story. I also have the first six pages of The First Saturnalia (which almost certainly won't be called that,) but it's not feeling like a story yet. I know how it starts and how I want it to end, but not the middle bit.
Right now, my best-laid plans are to write short stories to release for a month or so while I kick around longer pieces to see which one will keep me engaged for the six months or so it takes me to write a full novel. Right now, the most likely contender is Operation Timestitch, which is also probably not going to be the final title of the story, but it's a do-over story with enough genre-breaking twists to make it interesting. If I can get five solid chapters, I'll probably commit to finishing it and start posting.
Right now, my plan is to post either Folded Too Long or They Move Slowly in Winter on February 21. The former, about a pop star who slips her handlers shortly after her eighteenth birthday, is already in draft, but I think the latter is a stronger story. It's a retelling of Vulgar Argot's Second Billing and Eve, Eventide, but with zombies. If it works out well, I'm going to look at picking up the unfinished Treaty Troops.
Today I put in about three hours and wrote the first seven pages of They Move Slowly in Winter and it's starting to look like a real story. I also have the first six pages of The First Saturnalia (which almost certainly won't be called that,) but it's not feeling like a story yet. I know how it starts and how I want it to end, but not the middle bit.
Right now, my best-laid plans are to write short stories to release for a month or so while I kick around longer pieces to see which one will keep me engaged for the six months or so it takes me to write a full novel. Right now, the most likely contender is Operation Timestitch, which is also probably not going to be the final title of the story, but it's a do-over story with enough genre-breaking twists to make it interesting. If I can get five solid chapters, I'll probably commit to finishing it and start posting.
Right now, my plan is to post either Folded Too Long or They Move Slowly in Winter on February 21. The former, about a pop star who slips her handlers shortly after her eighteenth birthday, is already in draft, but I think the latter is a stronger story. It's a retelling of Vulgar Argot's Second Billing and Eve, Eventide, but with zombies. If it works out well, I'm going to look at picking up the unfinished Treaty Troops.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Elevated Chapter 20 is going to be huge
I just finished the last batch of edits chapter 20 of Elevated needed in order to go to press on storiesonline.net tonight. Aside from all the story content, I should also mention that it is enormous - 46 pages in PDF form. I probably could have split it into two chapters and might on the rewrite, but it's all coming out tonight.
Mandrake and Dreadflower are doing a phenomenal job catching not only typos, but weird and awkward bits that detract from the overall quality of the story. They deserve a huge amount of credit for the smoothness of Elevated as a read.
I still haven't written much new since finishing and next week's conclusion of Elevated is the only piece left in the publishing backlog. On the plus side, it appears like my career hiccup is more or less resolved, so hopefully I'll be writing again soon.
UPDATE: Chapter 20 is posted as of 9:30 PM. It should be available soon.
Mandrake and Dreadflower are doing a phenomenal job catching not only typos, but weird and awkward bits that detract from the overall quality of the story. They deserve a huge amount of credit for the smoothness of Elevated as a read.
I still haven't written much new since finishing and next week's conclusion of Elevated is the only piece left in the publishing backlog. On the plus side, it appears like my career hiccup is more or less resolved, so hopefully I'll be writing again soon.
UPDATE: Chapter 20 is posted as of 9:30 PM. It should be available soon.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Dusting off my keyboard
For the first time since I finished writing Elevated, I've done some new writing today. I'm working on a story putatively called The First Saturnalia, which spells out a lot of the details of how New Rome got its start. I've been sort of coy with the details because the founding has such a different tone than the events in Elevated. I hope I telegraphed well enough the nature of Briannus Metallicus and Caesar Mauritius's "genius" and why they were able to alter history so much, but maybe I was too subtle.
I've always found that finishing a novel as a writer is a little bit devastating. It's like ending a relationship or losing a friend. All of a sudden, something that took up a big portion of your days is gone and you're left scrambling to find something to fill those hours. New stories you're just not as invested in don't give the same high that drawing a well-written story to a satisfying conclusion does. It's hard to get back into the rhythm of it.
On top of that, I've had a professional interruption, which means that the other thing that took up big chunks of my day has been missing. Between the two, I've been a bit adrift for the last two weeks, but writing felt pretty good today.
I've always found that finishing a novel as a writer is a little bit devastating. It's like ending a relationship or losing a friend. All of a sudden, something that took up a big portion of your days is gone and you're left scrambling to find something to fill those hours. New stories you're just not as invested in don't give the same high that drawing a well-written story to a satisfying conclusion does. It's hard to get back into the rhythm of it.
On top of that, I've had a professional interruption, which means that the other thing that took up big chunks of my day has been missing. Between the two, I've been a bit adrift for the last two weeks, but writing felt pretty good today.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Elevated Chapter 19 is posted on SOL.
Last week, I needed to get some sleep and posted chapter 18 of Elevated at 10 PM on Thursday instead of after midnight on Friday as I have been and, for some reason, it got a ton of reads - more than twice as many as other new chapters have been in previous weeks.
I don't know if the timing was relevant, but I'm perfectly happy to repeat the inadvertent experiment by posting chapter 19 now. It's up and live. I hope you enjoy it.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Thursday, January 23, 2014
I wonder what I was thinking
Combing through the files in my hopper, I came across a number of unstoried titles - story stubs that are nothing but a title and maybe a couple of notes jotted down or an opening paragraph. Some of them I have no idea even what I meant to write and some are really quite evocative. Here are my ten favorite (in no particular order):
A Cold and Broken Hallelujah
Attractive Nuisance
Care and Feeding of the Wild Party Girl
Frenemy Mine
Hypotenuse Screamed
Love on the Installment Plan
Our Sins Like Ghosts
Shade-Tree Fixing Man
They Move Slowly in Winter
Nor Custom Stale
Maybe I'll take some time this weekend to play with a few of them.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Abandonment Issues
The French poet Paul Valery famously said, "a poem is never finished, only abandoned." It's equally true of prose, I think. I put the finishing touches on Chapter 21 of Elevated tonight and shared it with my first readers and editor. Already I have a list of over 100 changes I want to make to the story before I release it as an eBook on Amazon. But for now, it's done. I'll fix whatever typos my sharp-eyed editor Mandrake LXIX catches between now and then, but the story is what it is. The last chapter should be available on or before February 14, 2014.
I hope it's a satisfying ending for all of you. Corvus, his friends, enemies, lovers, family, and slaves will be back in the next novel, which no longer has even a tentative title.
I'm going to take this week to decide what I'm writing next. Some possibilities include The Paphian Way (the origin of Lucretia Octavius/Tullius/Gallicus,) a series of short stories called The Truthspeaker and the Oracle set in the first century of New Rome including one called Saturnalia in Rio which is told from the perspective of Caesar Mauritius shortly after landfall in the New World.
There are other possibilities not from New Rome as well. I may need a break from exploring that world every week before I plunge back in. Watch this space for details.
I hope it's a satisfying ending for all of you. Corvus, his friends, enemies, lovers, family, and slaves will be back in the next novel, which no longer has even a tentative title.
I'm going to take this week to decide what I'm writing next. Some possibilities include The Paphian Way (the origin of Lucretia Octavius/Tullius/Gallicus,) a series of short stories called The Truthspeaker and the Oracle set in the first century of New Rome including one called Saturnalia in Rio which is told from the perspective of Caesar Mauritius shortly after landfall in the New World.
There are other possibilities not from New Rome as well. I may need a break from exploring that world every week before I plunge back in. Watch this space for details.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Elevated Chapter 20 is off to my first readers.
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Saturday, January 11, 2014
Chapter 19 is ready for proofing
Chapter 19 of Elevated has gone to and been reviewed by my First Reader and now just waits for proofing and final edits before it's ready to go. It's the most information-dense chapter in the whole book, but I think I managed to keep the pacing accelerated and the tension high. It should be posted on SOL January 31, 2014.
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Monday, January 6, 2014
Reaching the end
I have just now reached the end of Elevated.
This does not by any stretch mean that it's done. Chapters 19-21 are in rough draft form and, in the case of the last chapter, it's still incoherent in places. Chapters 16-18 also need proofreading and last-minute touch-ups.
Still, it's a milestone. I finally got to the point I wanted to reach when I started this story back in August - more or less. After 400ish pages of plot and character development, the ending actually wound up must stronger than I originally envisioned.
That being said, it's not the story I imagined - even as I was writing chapter 15, the latest one currently on storiesonline.net. There have been hints since the first chapter of what's coming, but it's not a mystery novel. The reader isn't supposed to have enough information to solve it and feel intellectually superior to the brilliant protagonist who manages to be smart about everything except all the things that are essential to the story unfolding around them.
This isn't meant to be a tease, although it sounds like one even to me. I just want to commemorate this moment and promise my readers that what's coming is even better than what they've already read.
Maybe that's the definition of a tease.
Either way, the conclusion I've written is a bit daunting. If it's not pitch-perfect, the whole story falls apart and starts to feel disrespectful. I sincerely hope I can do it justice.
This does not by any stretch mean that it's done. Chapters 19-21 are in rough draft form and, in the case of the last chapter, it's still incoherent in places. Chapters 16-18 also need proofreading and last-minute touch-ups.
Still, it's a milestone. I finally got to the point I wanted to reach when I started this story back in August - more or less. After 400ish pages of plot and character development, the ending actually wound up must stronger than I originally envisioned.
That being said, it's not the story I imagined - even as I was writing chapter 15, the latest one currently on storiesonline.net. There have been hints since the first chapter of what's coming, but it's not a mystery novel. The reader isn't supposed to have enough information to solve it and feel intellectually superior to the brilliant protagonist who manages to be smart about everything except all the things that are essential to the story unfolding around them.
This isn't meant to be a tease, although it sounds like one even to me. I just want to commemorate this moment and promise my readers that what's coming is even better than what they've already read.
Maybe that's the definition of a tease.
Either way, the conclusion I've written is a bit daunting. If it's not pitch-perfect, the whole story falls apart and starts to feel disrespectful. I sincerely hope I can do it justice.
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Days of the week (Chapter 15 is up!)
Finally went back to work yesterday, then promptly forgot how the days of the week work. Fortunately, before I went to bed, I remembered the whole Friday-follows-Thursday thing and posted chapter 15 of Elevated.
Chapter 19 is in draft and so are the first twelve pages of chapter 20. I still have a lot more story to squeeze in before the wrap-up, but it's getting closer.
Chapter 19 is in draft and so are the first twelve pages of chapter 20. I still have a lot more story to squeeze in before the wrap-up, but it's getting closer.
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