Bonus Round: Nathan can't sleep.

You probably follow this blog because you want to hear about writing. Now you get to hear about how I can't sleep, and I have school at 8:00 tomorrow morning. Yay!

Actually, this is just me rambling about writing and stuff, so unless you have some sort of an emotional investment in my writing career, you might prefer to not trouble yourself.

Quick Hits:

- Got my final back from Brandon Sanderson's class (hooray!). More details later, needless to say it was extremely helpful with WGMD ideas.
- On WGMD ideas: I've decided to edit it in October. And by edit I mean rewrite a good 1/3-1/2 of the book. It's a big task, but I think it would be worth it.
- More on WGMD: Tonight Bec and I did one of our famous "we should be sleeping, but instead we are talking about books" things, and I managed to figure out a lot of things to do to fix WGMD. This includes almost completely cutting a side-character's story arch. While certainly a "darling" (as Writing Excuses would call it), this guy's gotta go. He just overly complicates and already complicated plot, and axing him actually makes lots of things fall into place. There are lots of other bits as well, but knowing that, at last, I have a goal with editing makes it much easier.
- Steelgods Book One - As part of the previously mentioned brainstorming, Bec and I figured out the general gist of the rest of this Steelgods book. I also am going to make a timeline for ideas I've had and which books (in the series) I want them in, so I can stop wanting to put ideas I need to use later into this one. Bad. But knowing where I'm going is extremely helpful, and will accelerate writing, to be sure.
- Steelgods is also suffering from a problem Lacrymosa had: sitting on that line between epic adult fantasy and YA. I'm certain the series will probably transform into more adult as it progresses (as our protagonist ages at least six years over the course of the books), but as for what I'm writing now, it is hard to say. But, I figure there are worse problems one can have with a book, so I'm going to bite my lip and move on.
- Starting next week, I'm upping my minimum daily count from 2k to 3k. I had to work long hours last week (and this week) due to school starting and my job being understaffed, but after that it should calm down and I'll be back on track.

On a side note, a few things I've noticed/learned while writing Steelgods:

- I'm trying harder to make my sentences flow better, as well as make them shorter. I have a big problem with this.
- A few alpha readers mentioned Paradise Seekers starts slow. I am doing my best (or have done my best) to remedy this in Steelgods.
- I'm trying to be less wordy, i.e. use one word instead of two whenever possible. Brandon actually mentioned this in my WGMD bit I sent him, so I'll double my efforts.
- Less passive voice. This has been a weakness of mine from the very start (Lacrymosa is like...90% passive voice). I've been slowly getting better, but it creeps in from time to time.
- Less "ly" words. This is a big one, and one I still struggle with a lot. However, now that I'm aware (and cutting sentences usually involves cutting "ly" words anyway), this should help reduce editing once it gets finished.

I don't know what the point of all this is. I'm tired and I still can't sleep. Maybe I'll write more. I'm pretty sure 1:30 am writing from me won't exactly be the top of my game. Maybe planning is a better idea. Whatever.

*has Brain Stew by Green Day stuck in his head...it's strangely applicable to my situation*