Writing Like Crazy

I've been writing like crazy lately!

I'm very near the end of the second Legends of Nod story. I would have finished Friday if not for other things going on.

I'm also getting much closer to where I need to be research-and-preparation-wise for the next novel I plan to write. I hope to get to it just as soon as I finish Nod #2 and what I hope to be this year's ghost story. Meanwhile, I've worked out the majority of the characters' back stories, the settings, and I'm hopefully going to get the chapters plotted some time today. Yesterday I read over some notes for this particular novel dating back to 1998, and I loved seeing that the story in my mind has remained the same for all this time. The only thing that has changed is the time setting, since it was originally going to be set in 1999, giving me a few lines I could use to mock the then-current fear that the world would end at the strike of midnight New Year's Day. Oh, well. Good thing that's not what the novel is actually about. The protagonist, as it turns out, made it through that time period without even realizing it. Its fun writing a character who doesn't quite realize that it isn't still 1997 and that he's no longer eighteen years old but in his mid-thirties; and while he wasn't paying any attention, the world moved on without him. Fun stuff. ;)

Things are good!

Focus, Glenn! Focus!

I wrote a couple of scenes in Nod #2 today. They both went a lot further than I had planned. One of the two scenes wasn't in the outline at all, and four of the characters weren't in the outline at all. That's when I know the story is telling itself. It was like the whole thing was just passing through me onto the page. I wrote about fourteen pages of manuscript. Pretty good, considering how long it's been since I actually wrote wrote (I mean outside of research notes of course).

Yes, I had hoped to get the story finished by the end of last week, but I got hung up on just exactly how much faster a unicorn could run than a horse, and how much faster a bionic unicorn could run than a regular unicorn and...no really! I have pages of math all over the floor now, because I was that concerned over it! So I had to remind myself of the Rough Draft Rule. Just write it! Things like speed variations between steeds can be fixed in the next draft. I'm loony some times! But creating a fictional reality that allows for total escapism for the reader is important to me. I can't have weird mathematical mistakes about how fast Illium can travel a particular distance compared to a horse cropping up to make you all throw the book down, because I know you're all sitting there with calculators and self-drawn maps just looking for me to mess up!

Or not. Whatever. I'll fix it in the next draft, and no one will notice or even think about it other than me. That's the way it should be. ;)

Anyway, I'm writing again and feeling good about what's happening there. I'm loving all of the new characters in this one. Can't wait for y'all to read it. :)

Peace!

There's a Multiverse in My Head

I was up quite late with my research last night. In the process, I learned that decaf coffee with powdered cream makes me feel ill, while taking it black makes me feel nothing less than unstoppably productive. To think I've been using the cream all this time!

Today, I am forcing myself to take a break from research and get back into The Legends of Nod #2. Now that my eight years of youth ministry are behind me, I fully intend to be better about maintaining my series work. I have kept my fans waiting for so many things far longer than I would have liked to, and that is a habit I think I can actually break now that I have more time for writing in general.

I ran into someone at a rock-climbing gym just over a year ago who demanded to know how much longer she had to wait for Nod #2, as she had read the first one and been less than patiently waiting for Joryn and Illium's next adventure. I told her then that I had written about half of it and should have it out soon. Did I mention that was just over a year ago? Meanwhile, I am also juggling further Metrognomes adventures and Nightfire, Texas storylines, not to mention the long-standing demand from my earliest readers for a sequel to Cry, Wolf!

Well, I hate more than anything to be nagged, generally speaking, but the one thing I actually appreciate being nagged over is my writing. I feel energized when someone angrily demands of me, "When are going to write the next...?" I also feel troubled that I've upset someone by not getting back to their favorite story sooner. It's tough when they're all my personal favorites. If I get back to Nod today, I'll be spending half my energy trying not to think of my werewolf Daniel, or my gnomes Ak'ten and Pete, or those interesting people (ghosts, vampires, Nephilim, etc.) in Nightfire. I have a very active multiverse in my head at all times, and new stories are unfolding there much faster than I can write them. It's a good thing.

But today, I shall read over what I have written most recently in Nod, a series with a long future ahead, according to the adventures that have already unfolded in my mind. I'm setting a goal for myself to have this episode finished by the end of this week. Hold me to it!

Juggling Three Projects...Still

I remain in the midst of pulling my life back together after an unequivocally traumatic summer. I feel that I am making progress, thankfully, as two blog entries within a week should reveal. :)

I have spent my writing time since the last entry researching for what I intend to be my next novel. Every day, I start out rebelliously, having to force myself to get back into it. When all one wants to do is write, the necessity of pre-writing research can be tedious, especially when it is clear that a novel will require a great deal. Still, every time I finally run out of excuses and get into the rhythm of my note-taking and organizing, I can only stop when my vision begins to blur and my eyes feel as though they are on fire, no matter how many times I try to blink the tired away. I am very much enjoying preparing the way for this novel.

I still hope to finish my two open short stories this month as well, even though for the past week this research has consumed me. I hate to walk away from a piece of fiction before I have finished a rough draft, because I get out of the story's rhythm. In order to get back in, I have to re-read what I wrote however long before, which leads to editing as I go, and then reviewing the outline of what's to come and imagining how I intend to tackle it, all of which takes a great deal of creative energy and leaves me unwilling to start writing new scenes until I am fresh again. So, it takes two days for me to get back into a project I've left waiting, and I always feel that I've wasted my time on that first day just getting reacquainted with the material, so I usually put off getting back to the project longer, because I don't want to have a wasted day. Of course the time spent is not a waste, but if I would just stick with a project from the beginning, I'd never have to refresh myself on what I'd been doing at all! I frustrate myself to no end as a writer.

Nevertheless, I do intend to get back to both of these stories this month, before I begin writing in earnest on this new novel, which I will very much endeavor to stick with beginning to end, without any of my usual self-afflicted interruptions. :)

Updates on Everything!

It has officially been over two months since my last blog entry. Sorry! I've been completely out of it, off and on, since then. My life is in the dumpster at the moment, but these things happen, and we artists get through them and use them as fuel for future creations. I will survive!

Meanwhile, I am way overdue to give you an update on things. Let's start with the Metrognomes movie efforts.

I heard back some time ago from the ten producers that I met with. Nine of them thought the pitch was effective and highly original. One of them was insane, but I could only laugh at his feedback. I remember thinking he was sort of off when I met with him. He thought it was exactly like Gnomeo and Juliet (just because it had gnomes in it I guess), unoriginal, and would have made a better stage play than a film, if anything at all. I could only laugh at this response! Not that I'd prevent anyone from attempting a stage play, if we worked something out; it's just that the scenes I threw at him would never in a million years have worked "better" on the stage than on film. Well, maybe in a million years. Who knows what we'll be able to pull off live by then? But we still have a ways to go. Anyway, the other nine all felt it was better suited to either the big screen or television.

The thing is, whether they found the idea original and effective or not, nine of the producers (including the barmy one), also passed on the concept, because it simply wasn't the sort of project they were looking for , which was a possibility I had anticipated from the get go.

One producer, however, is taking a closer look at the possibility of developing Metrognomes as a feature film, having their people read the book before deciding if the project is for them. That is the latest that I have heard, and for all I know it may be the last. From here, the production company in question will either get in touch with me to make an offer, or they will not, and there is no set timetable for this. Either way, it's been a great ride! :) Just let me say plainly, there are no offers on the table at this point. The company in question is simply exploring the possibility, which means only that. I'm thrilled by the fact we're still in the game, of course! :D

Now, as for what else I'm working on, I have two short fiction projects in the works, and I'm actively researching for my next novel. We are also still working to get the rest of my work onto the Kindle; the only titles left to convert are Cry, Wolf, Metrognomes: The Shaman's Apprentice, "Metrognomes: Worse than a Gremlin," and "The Escapist." Major delays have come up with all but "Metrognomes: Worse than a Gremlin" for various reasons, but all are still coming as soon as we can get them out. If not by the end of 2013, then hopefully by early next year.

The short fiction projects that I'm currently working on are the long-awaited second installment of The Legends of Nod and a ghost story that's so weird I almost stopped working on it permanently several months ago, even though test readers flat out demanded that I finish it. It's one of those stories that will haunt my mind forever if I don't get it out though, so I have resolved myself to the fact that I am going to finish it. Every story is like that for me, once it's taken hold. My stories possess me, and I have to exorcise them in order to regain control of my mind. Hopefully it will be ready in time for a Christmas Eve release, as I'd like to continue the tradition of publishing a ghost story on that day each year.

So there you go! I will make an effort to keep this blog more up to date, as I pull my life back together over the next several months. Wish me luck.