Weekly Update

So, to continue from last week’s revelation, I have been working on the Rookery idea. I set up a World Anvil private world for it (so, no link yet — it is very rough), and have been working in Scrivener, going back and forth among the three main areas: plot, character, and setting. I am mostly putting in stuff about the setting that I used to have, but now can’t find (thought it was in another Scrivener project, actually). It’s not a huge deal, though, since it always changes overtime anyway. So, I am not too worried about having lost it.
The plot will probably stay loose, because when I get too detailed ahead of time, I tend to end up going off track and then it’s just a waste. But having a general sense of the main points is often useful, so I know where I am going and what I need to get there. But mainly character and setting. I have five characters established so far: a female main character, the Snape/Sherlock-like character, the main antagonist, a mentor, and the main character’s partner.
For setting, I have played around with religion and government a bit, but mostly explored magic, which is entirely divine magic — that is, there are real Gods who grant aid to their followers. Some of the aid is what in video games would be called buffs/debuffs, and this is what prayer and ritual can help — though in the end it is always the God’s decision, and so prayer/ritual is never a guarantee — but it is more likely than the other type of magic, which is essentially miracles, and where a God would step in in a much more dramatic and direct way. These are rare, and entirely at the Gods’ whims.
I have not yet decided how many Temples there are. Obviously, there’s the Rookery, which worships the Twins of Twilight and Dawn, though I had thought of it being the Goddess of Darkness, but I realized that the Goddess of Darkness is about exploring the Mystery of the Dark, whereas the Rookery is about hiding in the shadows, so they are different. Just because they get conflated in pop culture doesn’t mean I need to conflate them.
Anyway, that has been my work this week, and I am planning to continue it.

Weekly Update

So, I did not get much writing done; I have been watching Sherlock and playing chess against computer bots. When I play real people, I get tense and lightheaded, so I don’t do it often, and it’s true online as well as in person, though in person is definitely much more stressful.
Anyway, that is actually rather relevant because I made a revelation this morning. You may know that I have had a world idea for some time involving what I call the Rookery. It’s a play on the word “rook” which has several meanings: the bird, the chess piece, monks, thieves… Anyway, I thought: what if there was a religious organization with multiple deities/practices that were kind of all connected, and one of them is the Rookery, which, in addition to serving the Goddess of Darkness, also functions as a secret organization of spies, assassins, and thieves? And they leave a rook chess piece when they are recruiting, but other chess pieces when they have committed a “crime” (but because they are sanctioned by the state, it’s not exactly a crime, though also not exactly legal either — in a kind of grey area).
But that is just a setting. I didn’t have a story for it, so it has just been sitting there, waiting for the right moment.
I don’t know if this is the right moment, but I do know that I finally have a character for this setting. I’ve always been drawn to unlikable, intelligent types. For a long time, my two favorite fictional characters have been Madame Defarge from Tale of Two Cities and Severus Snape from Harry Potter. We can now add Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock to that — I haven’t read the real Doyle fiction, nor have I seen any other actual interpretations, so I don’t know whether I would have the same reaction to actual Sherlock Holmes, but that is rather moot. I have a type of character I love, but have never written.
And that, my friends, needs to change. And they would fit perfectly in The Rookery world. I think I know what I am doing for NaNo this year!

Weekly Update

So, this week has been all about the torch marathon for Camp Nano. I am one of the organizers of a month-long event called the NaNoOlympics, which pits different writing groups agaist each other in different events. The last event of the month was the torch marathon, and the rules were basically this:

1. You try to “carry the torch” for as long as possible.
2. A single “leg” of the marathon is one hour of writing (or editing, or other writing activity).
3. At the end of the leg, the current writer can either keep the torch and write for another hour OR pass the torch to another writer.
4. The switch has to be visible — that is, the first writer must say they are passing the torch (either to themself or to the next person) AND the next writer must say they are picking up the torch (unless it is the same person — they don’t have to post twice to say “I’m passing the torch to myself” and then again “I am picking up the torch”).
5. The person picking up the torch must respond to the first writer (if 2 different people) within 5 minutes.
6. The actual hand off needs to occur within 5 minutes of the top of the hour (if not, the person with the torch needs to finish that hour as well).

I was a participant in one of the competing groups, and we had some extremely dedicated writers (I was 4th on the list, but in terms of actual time, the two at the top did an INSANE number of hours). One of them regularly did 5 hours every days, and on at least two occasions, did 11 hours. Because of this, we were never really in any real danger of dropping the torch, so I ended up helping out when I could, and, according to the posted stats, wrote 20 hours during that week, mostly one hour, then a break, then another hour or two, but I did have a couple of uninterrupted 2-hour legs.

The problem with this is that my Camp goal was revision, but I got swept up in the excitement and ended up writing instead. Part of this was due to the earlier Weekend of Writing Wildly, which was a similar event, except done as streaming on Twitch, and when I am streaming, I prefer to write because people can hear my typing and see words appear, even though they are very tiny. So, anyway, I’ve been writing and I have started a new novel/novella (thinking it will be shorter, but too soon to tell), which is a paranormal ghost story. It may end up paranormal romance, but not typical paranormal romance, and it will probably be a lesbian romance at that.

So that’s this week.

Now that we are in May, I am focusing more on the “business” side of things, which I have been completely neglecting since January. I am also planning to organize my life better. Then, June and July will be revision months again, and maybe August, too… As long as I can avoid the temptation of writing lots of new words!

Optional Monthly Question

May 5 question – Has any of your readers ever responded to your writing in a way that you didn’t expect? If so, did it surprise you?

Yes, but I actually can’t remember it. It was a long time ago, and I remember thinking it was really cool, that they got this thing out of my story that I could see, now that they pointed it out, but did not deliberately put in. It was very eye opening. It made me realize how alive our stories are, and how they can grow and change with each reader, while the actual words remain the same. It made me question authors who tell their readers that their reading is “wrong”. I’m not saying they are wrong, but in my case, it was clear that the reader was right, that I can’t decide what the book is actually about, that I can’t tell a reader they are wrong for seeing something that IS there, even if I didn’t put it there. But I also think there are readers who see what they want to see, and maybe it isn’t there. I haven’t experienced that personally, but I could believe it could happen.
Anyway, this is the number one reason I will not be upset about any fan fiction that might occur. I’ll be flattered and curious to see the different ways people see my world and characters… if that even happens. Of course, I have to finish stuff first, and that means NOT writing new first drafts, and instead finishing the revision of Cipher.

Happy writing, other insecure writers, and I look forward to seeing you all next month!

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Weekly Update

Work is getting better. I did scheduling the Friday before last, and it really helped, so I spent a lot of time scheduling again this Friday, and things are starting to settle.

That means I am expecting my non-work time to begin to settle again, too, and I can get back to some of the things that I know are good for me. And I can get back to doing some writing in the evenings again, too. Which in this case, is revision. I am working on revising Cipher.

Technically, that is also my Camp NaNo goal and my general April goal, but I haven’t been doing it much, so, well, it hasn’t been happening. I’m in a bit of a rut, actually. But hopefully with the job solidifying, the reast can, too.

I have been watching TV lately. I watched The Irregulars, which I really liked, and I am almost to the end of Cursed. These are both on Netflix. On Amazon, I am watching Scott and Bailey, which I am really enjoying. I like that it is a little shorter than Cursed, even though I like them both. After Cursed, I am thinking about watching The Woman in White. I will see.

I’ve also been reading. I’m currently reading The Eight by Katherine Neville. It’s about a powerful, mystical chess set hidden over the years. I haven’t read The Da Vinci Code, but I suspect it’s similar to that. It’s not much of a surprise that I picked this one to read as the TV thing actually started with The Queen’s Gambit. I love chess, and I love France and Russia, so both that show and The Eight go into all three quite a bit.

Anyway, I guess this is a little longer than usual, and I don’t have much else to say. Next week, I hope I will be done with The Eight, so I can give it a proper review.

Until then, happy reading!