Words on a Screen

A Small Celebration Is In Order

Words on a Screen /

I wrote ‘The End’ yesterday morning.

It’s not really the end: I’m actually only a third of the way through the story arc. But it is the end of a 110k word fantasy novel that has been months in the writing.

It’s a good feeling, but it leaves me feeling a bit lost. Yesterday, after I wrote those words, I didn’t do anything. I futzed around and thought about what I should write next. I worked on the tool flow that I use, I dug up some references, I moved my ideas file to a new place… that sort of thing.

This morning I’m back at it.

I’ve chosen to call this one The Hanged Man. I don’t seem to be able to come up with titles easily: the writing flows most of the time, but I find titles hard. In one respect, I think that a title centers a work – if you start with a clear idea where the story is going, a title can really solidify that. All this time, I’ve been writing this book as ‘Novel One’, which doesn’t inspire anything.

Part of my problem in this regard is that I like to use something from the story, something that will tweak the reader to say, ah, so that’s the concept from the title! But I’m a seat-of-the-pantser, as they say, and so I don’t know all of the things that will be in the story until I get near the end. It’s a circular logic trap. I don’t know what the title will be until I’ve written the things that would have been informed by the title.

I do need to get better at this. I need to learn how to develop a plot, and how to work to it. This novel started with a developed plot, and about thirty thousand words in, I discovered things about the characters that weren’t in the plot. I liked those things, and so those things stayed and the plot I’d developed went out the window. I suspect this is likely due to an insufficiently developed plot document, and I am going to try to rectify that with novels Two and Three.

Although Novel Two now has a title: The Eye of Esheen Khor.

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A Christmas Break

Life Itself, Words on a Screen /

I seem to take a Christmas break whether I want one or not.

Part of me suspects that the reason that northern hemisphere societies favor a winter solstice festival is the recognition that this is a dark time for the soul. As the light diminishes, human energy goes with it. Some people are more affected by this than others. I am certainly one of those. For example, this simple little blog entry, the one you are reading right now, took me three days to write.

It almost goes without saying (as he says it) that this year has been particularly challenging. I’ve not felt the weight of grey, sodden skies as heavily as this in many, many years. Some years, here in the northwest, the winters are colder, skies clearer, snow more frequent. Other years, like this one, are a seemingly endless train of flat grey storms pelting water, where a rare day of watery sunlight is a thing to be celebrated. These years do dump a lot of snow in the mountains, the better to enjoy my favorite sport, but this year my ability to enjoy that sport is strictly limited.

I have generally found that I fare better over the solstice if I have something outside myself to keep me focused. Usually, the best thing is employment. I’m less productive there, too, as are many people, but at least I have the structure of a prebuilt social environment, and a set of tasks that must be performed. If I leave me to my own devices this time of year, I tend to fall into counterproductive patterns of scattered thinking and half-finished miniprojects.

Given that the goal of my current writing project, now entering its second year, is to replace my day job income with writing income, I will need to establish some better rituals around writing production. If I’ve learned anything about this craft in my sixty years of life, it’s that you can’t wait for inspiration.

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