Rejection, hoops, more writing

So I'm in that stage of manuscript submissions where people have requested partials/fulls, and they start rejecting those. Which, honestly, is somewhat more painful then when people just reject queries. When they reject a query at least I can blame the stupid query. When they reject an actual manuscript, that means they read it and didn't like it, which also means the blame falls on the writing itself. That can be a little rough.

There are still a handful out (some with partials, some with just queries) and I've honestly seen more success with Steelgods than any other batch of submissions, but it doesn't make the entire experience of jumping through hoops any less stressful. It also is a stronger revelation on why so many prospective authors turn to eBooks: it's aggravating to have (what you think is) a quality product only to have it halted at the various stages of approval. I can certainly see why this is beneifical: the more people that see it and are allowed to make changes, the (potentially) better the manuscript will become. But the whole notion of having to jump through all these hoops just to get through the door is aggravating, and makes the whole thing seem more of an impossible task than it probably actually is.

Not that I would know. I haven't sold anything yet; as far as my personal experience goes, it IS impossible. But that isn't going to stop me from keeping on trying.

On a more pleasant topic, my NaNoWriMo inspired vacation is going to be officially over on the 1st, and then it's business as usually. And by that I mean a blitz of writing Death's Aria in one month (or less!). I've spent a good half of November not thinking about writing at all (mostly just Skyrim), cleaning the pallet more or less. Now I'm chomping at the bit to get started again. Book number eight will be finished before the year is up, to be sure. I also consider it to be the most "marketable," to be honest, which means I might push up it's editing schedule to get it back out.

Back to a less pleasant topic: the future of Steelgods. There isn't much I've decided on yet (as I said, it's still out with a lot of people, I'm just thinking way ahead) but if nobody picks it up it makes writing the rest of the books in the series pretty much useless from a financial standpoint (unless I decide to epublish them). Because I like the story so much I honestly think I'd still go through and finish out the series, but it is a thing to consider.

That's it from me. Back to killing dragons and sniping mammoths from the top of a mountain.

Alloy of Law, Beard Slap, The Future

I attended the midnight release of Brandon Sanderson's latest novel, The Alloy of Law, which is a sort of wild-west/steampunk rendition of his Mistborn world. They actually sold out of copies, but I was ok with that because I was getting it on Kindle anyway. I still stood in line for three hours to see him and have him sign my Arc of The Way of Kings as well as all my Alcatraz books for my nieces and nephews, who are getting this for Christmas (hopefully they don't read this blog and spoil it). Brandon is fun as always, as is Isaac Stewart  (who does the art and is currently out selling his middle-grade clockwork spider book that sounds awesome). So good times were had by all.

Regardless, I'm excited for this one. Mistborn is my favorite book by Brandon, and mixing that with steampunk can't possibly go bad. So we'll see how this one works out. 

-----

And now, BEARD SLAP. 

Not really relevant to anything, except that I have a beard that kind of looks like that one. Or will in a few more months. It's gettin' bushy.

-----

On a less positive note, Naught But Glass is going "not" anywhere. I haven't written in it for the past couple of days, mostly because I've been entertained by Batman: Arkham City and QI (Quite Interesting), a British talkshow/gameshow hosted by Stephen Fry. I've also just been generally disgruntled with this novel, which is making me think I might give it a guilt-free break for a day or so while I write up a Steelgods synopsis and figure everything out for all the billions of people I'm going to be sending it too.

That's it from my front. The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim comes out on Friday, which will officially be the death of my productivity. I'm considering taking this month off; I have some sort of NaNoWriMo stigma that makes it so I can't write in November anyway. We'll see.

NaNoWriMo, Naught but Glass

So it's NaNoWriMo again, and we all know how I feel about that. My opinion regarding it hasn't changed, but yet again I feel oddly compelled to participate.

So I'm doin' it. Hopefully better than last year, where I did it for like a day and fell off the planet.

But as a specification: I'm not actually doing NaNoWriMo, I'm just using it as an excuse to start my book today. I'm going to keep writing until I finish it regardless of what month I'm in, and hopefully I'll finish it before the world ends in 2012 so I'll have accomplished my goal of three books in one year.

In other news, I've been preparing my queries and also am working on both a synopsis and polishing the first chunk of Steelgods 1 to perfection. I'm hoping to start sending those out by next week.

And now...my favorite episode of "Hey Ashe, Whatcha Playing?" Also, I now say "I'm doin' it" in the same way Ash does in this show because...it's fun. Hush.

Get More: GameTrailers.com, HAWP - Fallout: New Vegas HD, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

BONUS: We'll throw the minecraft episode on for fun.

Get More: GameTrailers.com, HAWP - Minecraft HD, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

World Fantasy and Pitching

So I've been weirdly quiet about this for...I don't know why, but I am indeed going to the World Fantasy convention in San Diego this year with Jason, and we are leaving tomorrow morning. I'm very excited to make contact again with a lot of the people I met at WorldCON, as well as hopefully meet a few new faces. Last year was a good bit of fun, even though we only talked to a few people, and I'm certain this year will be even better.

I even bought a silver sharpie so I can have freaking Neil Gaiman sign my Kindle. So that means I'm serious about this, guys. 

I'm certain most people who read this blog know what World Fantasy is, but if you don't the general gist is it's a convention of authors, agents, and editors that meet together to find new talent, enjoy each other's company, and shoot the breeze. You won't find people in costume (last year's it went over Halloween and even then I only saw one or two costumes) like at WorldCON, and it is a much smaller convention, but it's still a lot of fun.

------

So in preparation for World Fantasy I've been working on pitches. There's a great Writing Excuses episode on pitches that just recently came out, and I've been using that for reference. To put it basically, you have three pitches you need:

- An elevator pitch (a sentence, quick blurb)

- A slightly longer pitch (two or three paragraphs, just a quick summery or "movie trailer")

- A long pitch that goes into the most detail

Now, I never really thought much about pitching. I always figured that, should the need arise, I'd be able to just spurt something out. However, when I was talking with my wife on the car ride home and failing completely and utterly at even a sentence pitch, I decided I should probably actually work on this.

And I found some good and bad things. 

The good thing is that the sentence/elevator pitch was actually pretty easy. It took about ten minutes at most, and I never really did any substantial changes to it minus a few word choices. 

The bad thing is the two paragraph one is killing me. 

For some reason, this is really tough. Trying to find a focus with slightly more space, while still making something that is both compelling and easy to say is...difficult. It already has gone through more revisions than the actual book has, and I'm still not satisfied. 

I'm not even going to touch the long pitch. I'm going to assume (hopefully not incorrectly, like before) that I'm able to talk about my book for a decent amount of time without failing to hard. 

So now I just need some agents and editors to test this on. Hmmm....

------

A quick Naught but Glass update: I have yet to start the novel, though I've gotten a good bit of planning done. I also don't have any names yet, which is probably a bad thing (my design document has "the Hero," "the Sidekick," and "the King" in lieu of actual names). I'm hoping to start it tomorrow night before World Fantasy, however. 

-----

Lastly, I'm finally getting to read some of the indie novels I picked up on Kindle (after I finish Hogfather by Terry Pratchett). So expect reviews of The Wars of Gods and Men by Brondt Kamffer and The Black God's War by Moses Siregar III once I finish them. As always, you can track my progress on Goodreads. So far: both books are excellent, and most certainly worth the asking price (Wars of Gods and Men is only $1, and The Black God's War is on sale this week for $2)

That's it from me. Expect a World Fantasy report one of these years (about the time my WorldCON post comes up. Yeah, that turned out real good).

Hollywood Formula, Titles, Next Novel

First off, I'd like to drop a plug (again) for Writing Excuses. If you are an author, you should be listening to every episode of this when they come out on Sunday. All the panelists are extremely knowledgable regarding the publishing industry, writing, and nearly every combination of those two you could imagine. They also do well in getting excellent guests that provide even more insight into writing and how to best approach, write, and sell your story. Plus, they've been nominated for a Hugo several times, which means it's quality.

I wanted to make this plug because an episode three weeks ago, The Hollywood Formula, is probably one of the most interesting Writing Excuses episodes yet. Basically Lou Anders from Pyr books does an excellent job in breaking down the basic formula used by Hollywood to pack their stories with an emotional punch. Basically, it's a system that has been found to best resonate with viewers in terms of characters, plots, and pacing. Most movies in Hollywood follow this formula to a degree, but it's main focus is that every story has a protagonist, an antagonist, and a relationship character. These three play off each other throughout the various acts in a certain formula in nearly every Hollywood film.

Point being: it was extremely interesting, but it also made me take a look back on my books to try to figure out who was who (or if the books even had these characters or followed the formula). The general idea is that the protagonist has a goal, and the antagonist (who is not necessarily the "bad guy") plays against these goals.

-----

Humoring my own work for a second, I took a look at Steelgods 1, mostly because it was fresh on my mind. The protagonist was easy: Cevan, our viewpoint. But who was the antagonist?

(note: possible Steelgods 1 spoilers)

Well, Cevan's ultimate goal in Steelgods (and the entire series) can be summed up that he wants to live a normal life. The whole "Destroyer of the World" thing, having to always run away, the troubles with his family; he just wants it all gone and back to how it was before this all exploded. So who is the one ruining this goal?

Well, the book starts with the Peacemakers (the jerks saying Cevan is the Destroyer and hunting him down) kidnapping Devent and Rosemary, Cevan's step-siblings, and holding them ransom for Cevan's life. Cevan ends up training in a secluded town with a smithgirl named April, leaving her and getting into all sorts of trouble before confronting the Peacemaker in an attempt to save his family. Then a bunch of other stuff happens which I won't say because I don't want to go that deep into spoilers.

The thing is, when I tore this book apart, I began to realize something: the Peacemaker might not actually be the antagonist. It's true he is hindering Cevan's goal, but if you really boiled it down, the real ones who are keeping Cevan from having a normal life are Devent and Rosemary. They refuse to let him settle down, even when all three of them are given the offer at the end of the book. Because they are insistant on carting him around they end up getting captured, which also messes up the good thing he had going with April. While they are trying to keep him alive, they are basically thwarting his direct goals. Devent and Rosemary could be the antagonists in Steelgods 1.

This is further accented by the fact they are most assuredly the antagonists in Steelgods 2, but that's a different story altogether (literally).

So who is the relationship character? This is the one that is with the hero the whole time, who helps slowly persuade him/her towards a sort of final conclusion.

My first guess was April, even though Cevan leaves her, because she stays on his mind. But as I thought about it, I realized it could perhaps also be the Peacemaker (either the individual or the group as a whole). They force him to realize who he is, which is something he fights against the entire series. And at the end of the book, Cevan comes to that realization (at least to a better extent than he had at the very beginning). Maybe April and the Peacemaker are some sort of joint relationship character, tag-teaming. Who knows.

Enough self indulgence, but I found that interesting.

-----

With that in mind, I actually structured the general ideas regarding my characters for my next dark fantasy project (which finally has a title) on this three character formula. And, when I did this, I came to a realization: the person I thought was the protagonist was actually very much the relationship character, and the relationship character is the protagonist! It was actually pretty shocking for me, but it fits regarding the plot I had considered. This formula also helped me iron out a good number of details I still had in limbo regarding this plot, which is good.

Oh, and I also got a title for it (woo woo), finally. Book #8 will be...

Naught but Glass


Cool title, right? Yes? No? Well, I like it. It fits what happens, and so we'll take it.

I also realized this book is extremely political. It's a good deal different than any of my previous books (though it might be more in like with Where Gods and Mortals Dance; both have very little magic and focus primarily on political conflicts), especially considering this is my first book ever where the deities don't directly have any influence on the story. Yes, I'm finally going to actually attempt writing a book where some god doesn't play a major role in everything. Granted, I thought Effulgent Corruption was going to be that way (I even killed the stupid gods so they wouldn't show up) and the jerks somehow managed to creep their way back into the story.

I'm also going to try my damnedest to make sure this book stays short; I'm shooting for between 100-150k at the most. The good part about this it it means I might actually finish it before the year ends. The bad news is...I'm going to have to try really hard to keep it short.

-----

Aside from that, I'm currently plotting the basics, re-reading Steelgods 1 and hopefully submitting it soon, getting ready to attend World Fantasy in San Diego, and working. So here's hoping everything turns out for the best.

That's all from me.

Editing: When a Character Changes

I finished my overall edits for Steelgods yesterday, after about a month and a half. I'm going to go back through it again just to be certain I didn't totally ruin anything, but first I'm going to blab about something that came to mind during my editing process.

For those who already know, I can find editing difficult at times. Not editing sentences or even scenes, to be honest; those are easy. The edits that are the hardest for me, I've found, are character edits. You know, where that one guy you really liked when you were writing the first draft just isn't working, so you have to either completely change or cut him. Or that guy you still like, but everybody in your alpha reader group said you'd better change him or they'll burn your manuscript. Those edits.

And what is surprising is that, for me, this is really hard. 

Before?

This is probably more of a personal issue than anything, but I tend to get particularly attached to my characters. Plot? A little, but not enough to know when it needs to be changed. Scenes? Those are easily malleable. Setting? If the story dictates it be tweaked, I will willingly oblige. But when it comes down to my characters, I get stuck in a quagmire. What is it that makes changing a character's personality so difficult? Even if I know full well it is for the better?

Take for example, Cevan, our viewpoint character in Steelgods. In the first book, my idea of Cevan was he was a spoiled little twit with lots of potential. His viewpoint was meant to be endearing in a way a puppy is: always trying his hardest, but he's a puppy so he can't exactly save the world. Cevan made a lot of really, really stupid mistakes in the first draft, but I felt that was a part of his character. It was who he was, and in a series about massive character growth, Cevan had to start pretty low in order to become the "Destroyer of the World."

The problem is, while this works good in theory, in execution it can be aggravating. With the exception of George R. R. Martin fans, readers tend to get really pissed off when their favorite characters (especially a viewpoint character in a first-person viewpoint) makes really, really awful decisions. While Cevan isn't a total moron, he came close at times, making decisions any rational person wouldn't make. His incompetence, while helping to show how much he improved by the end of the book, was more of a literary crutch than an actual character trait.

AFTER?!

So now we have new Cevan. He still makes stupid decisions. He still makes rather glaring errors. However, he isn't convinced he's stupid. He still manages to react to situations rather than being a passive observer. His improvement is still obvious, but he now has things he's good at to counterbalance his fallacies. He may be awful at swordfighting and generally being brave, but at least he's extremely determined and can...sing?

The other problem with Cevan in the first draft was he was an empty shell, much like Sam in Paradise Seekers. I'll make no excuses for that: our viewpoint in Paradise Seekers is not very well developed. He fell into "Cevan-syndrome," which basically means he was there to advance the plot, and not to actually be a well developed character in the book. This was something I hoped to remedy after a billion drafts, but it never reached the point I'd hoped. He's halfway there, but doesn't quite reach a point where you care about him.

This has also been changed in the new Steelgods to fix Cevan. As I changed his reactions, that also means it changed how he thought about the situations he was put into. Cevan is (this is not really a spoiler) thought to be the Destroyer of the World but a malevolent group of magicians/lunatics called the Peacemakers. As an added bonus, the Peacemaker's counterpart, The Gears of Anbar, also want Cevan for some reason. So he basically is going to run his whole life, safe nowhere, until he gets captured and killed. Great life, huh?

Well, first draft Cevan never really addressed the stresses that would come with that kind of thing. Well, he does, but it's near the end of the novel. He just never reacted appropriately to situations, which made him both unbelievable, an unreliable narrator (even though the book is technically first-person omniscient), and unsympathetic.

All of these issues were (mostly) resolved in The Gears of Anbar, which is how I knew how messed up Cevan in Steelgods was. The juxtaposition of these two characters was in such contract I couldn't help but see all the problems.

What was the point of all this? Um...what was I talking about before? Oh, right, why it's hard.

So all these edits sound like worthwhile things to Cevan's character, right? I also had to make substantial changes to his stepsiblings, Devent and Rosemary, to make it so they actually had motives and personalities and the reader actually cared about them. The problem was, I've read Steelgods 1 probably 5-6 times since I wrote it. I re-read my novels frequently, picking them apart without actually using a red pen (I read them on my Kindle), digging through them in attempts to identify flaws to address when I begin later projects. This is a good technique, and I stand by it, but it has one fatal flaw: I get really connected to my rough drafts. Even with all their problems, this is the way I now see my characters. So when I go in to change them, I feel like I'm killing somebody I know.

This is a problem.

I swear this had a point, but I totally forgot it. So we'll go with whatever I think up first, which is: changing characters is hard, probably the most difficult part of editing for me. It's amplified by the fact I discovery write the majority of my characters, so they really need to be fixed since usually every character's personality in the first 3-4 chapters is completely off from who they are in the rest of the novel. Still, reaching that distance required from a story is something I need to work on, at least for characters.

Anybody else have this problem? Are character edits harder for you, or other forms of edits? Or are you editing fiends and everything is really easy?

Terry Pratchett is pretty awesome

This cover doesn't really fit the book, but whatever.

I don't know how I managed to dodge Terry Pratchett's books for the past who knows how many years, but now that I'm finally sitting down and reading them I'm really enjoying myself.
So far I've read Going Postal and Small Gods, and am almost done with Mort (which is my favorite so far). Mort was an earlier book than the other two and I can sort of tell: Small Gods was a very biting satire of religion (and I'd think Catholicism, though I'm not going to make any assumption) but isn't very high on the "jokes per page" quota. Mort, on the other hand, a story of Mort who becomes the apprentice to Death, is consistently goofy and is throwing jokes out left and right. If I had to prefer a style, I'd say I like Mort better, though Small Gods made me THINK more than Mort did.

Going Postal was straight up weird. I don't know what else to say about it.

This isn't the first time I've tried Pratchett, to be completely honest. I got about 50% of the way through Good Omens, which is him and Neil Gaiman doing their thing. I honestly thought it read more like a Neil Gaiman book than a Pratchett book, though maybe they switched off chapters/characters because stuff frequently goes from weird to somber to weirdly somber as we bounce around viewpoints. I enjoyed the book a lot, but when it started focusing on characters I didn't care about at all (the witch-hunter) I sort of lost interest. I should pick it back up.

Granted I had the same problem with American Gods, so maybe it's Gaiman's fault. Though I can't fault the man for being extremely clever, which he most certainly is. He and Pratchett seem like a really odd mix, though.

Point being: check these books out. They are very entertaining. The best part is they are fast and light (unlike A Song of Ice and Fire, which I am stuck on the fourth books of) and I can finish them in a few days if I'm quick.

This is where I'm supposed to put notable quotes, but I can't think of any offhand. Needless to say, any book where Death quits his job and finds more job satisfaction in being a chef in a backwater restaurant is 10/10 in my book.

In personal writing news, Steelgods 1 is finally near finished after nearly a month and a half of pain and whining. Once it's finished I'll start submitting, while I write my next book.

And as a special bonus for all those who bought Paradise Seekers on the Kindle and liked the Steelgods snippit: since the odds of me posting it on Kindle are substantially lower than when I first put Paradise Seekers up (though I'm still keeping my options open), if you'd like a free, maybe-badly-formatted Kindle copy of the third draft of Steelgods just shoot me an email or a comment (or a Facebook harassment). I figured I'd reward you for being nice and buying my book. :) Though if I do sell it YOU'D BETTER BUY THE HARDCOVER. :P

 I'm getting excited to write again - anything at this point, I'm going crazy - so expect some more exciting posts hopefully soon. In the meantime, go read some Pratchett.

October: Things Fall Apart

What's going on in Nathan land, you ask? Wait, do I know you? How can you ask me such personal questions?!

Ahem.

Well, let's get life updates. I bought an 02 Toyota Camry. It isn't in the best condition, and it ended up needing new brakes, rotors, a passenger-side axle, and to be realigned. However, even after all those repairs it was STILL cheaper than the lowest price we could find from any dealership anywhere by a good $2000. So, while still over our budget, it was still UNDER the normal price, so I guess I'm going to just roll with it.

Point being: we have a car that can go places now. Vs our Saturn, which can go for about 20 minutes before one of the cylinders starts misfiring and I start to worry if I can actually get home. I think the fuel injector is doing something wonky (am going to clean it with gas cleaner), but we needed a new car so...now we have one. Yay.

Driving a Camry vs a tiny Saturn is like driving a boat. It's hardly a large car (I guess it still files under "compact?") but it is still bigger than a small car, and so trucking it around feels weird. The plus side is it drives really nice (especially now since the alignment isn't totally off) and everything seems to be in good working order. Plus it's a Toyota, those last forever, right? Knock on wood.

The downside to all this is that we hadn't decided on whether we were keeping it after we bought it. Despite being atrociously cheap, I didn't want to have to deal with repairs (even though our mechanic said we should because it was a good car, it just needed a little love) on a car I just bought. So we tried to resell it, and learned that everybody who wants to buy a car is a total jerk. They'd make promises and break them, try to lowball an already extremely low price, lie, harass me over texts and phone, and generally be despicable people. I can't count the number of times I was promised people would get back to me, demanding I put the car as "sale pending" so nobody else would look at it, and then never bother contacting me again. How is this socially acceptable? I'm a person too, you know. Stop wasting my time.

Also, since I'm a neurotic wreck, I constantly think something is going to be wrong with the new car, despite my mechanic insisting there isn't. So that unnecessary stress (it's genetic; thanks mom :P) has been killer to my productivity as well.

NOW ON TO THE GOOD STUFF: WRITING.

So I'm editing Steelgods still because all this stress ruined my productivity. I'm doing a minimum of a chapter a day, though I'm hitting the point in the book where I'm basically going to have to actually rewrite entire chapters. That might actually end up being easier than trying to edit, but we'll see. The last chapter I rewrote I had to rewrite again shortly after because the new version was awful. Hopefully this isn't the case here (the chapter I'm on I knew I'd have to rewrite when I wrote it, but I'm glad I waited because now that Gears of Anbar is finished I have a tighter grasp on the world, meaning things will piece together better).

I'd estimate I'm about 60% through the book, near the end of Act 2. I'm not setting any goals, but I'm hoping to have it done soon so I can start the next book. Also this would be when I'd start submitting it to people, hopefully people I will also run into at World Fantasy. :)

Now, Untitled Fantasy Project. It was actually getting hung up because I hadn't figured out any magic for it. After looking a the light color wheel (what happens when you mix different colors of light together) I actually figured something pretty basic out. I wanted the magic in this book to be very light but still there, enough to impact society but not enough to completely dominate how the entire world is run. What my wife and I figured out seems to work pretty good: it's simple, the benefits are small but enough to be "magical," and it also is (I hope) interesting enough to be a sort of a hook.

I actually printed off a light color wheel and modified it for the book, so hopefully that'll help. There are still a few parts of the book I need to figure out (it takes place after a hero goes and saves the world, so I need to know the details of that story before I can start this one) but aside from that it's basically waiting on Steelgods at this point.

This will be standalone, and I am going to do my very best to keep it shorter than 150k. Mostly because I don't want another Effulgent Corruption, and also because I don't have the time to write something longer. Plus, that's still in a range that pitching it would be feasible. Considering I thought of the idea for this book while I was reading A Game of Thrones and listening to The Way of Kings, it should prove...weird.

In other news, my wife and I have been playing Eternal Sonata (review on the Backlog Blog), and I recently discovered The Binding of Isaac, which is a really messed up zelda+roguelike+duel stick shooter. It's pretty addicting, and has a wonderfully creepy soundtrack. I'll have to play it while I'm writing something that's supposed to be scary.

It's October, Steelgods isn't edited

It's been a rough couple of weeks, but I'm almost finally done with personal problems which means I'll have more time for editing.
The downside is I'm probably only 50% done with editing Steelgods, a project that was supposed to take two weeks now passing a month.
It's frustrating. I have no idea why this is so much harder than just writing. I can usually average 5k words a day easily in about two to three hours. With editing, I spend an hour editing and get maybe 2k if I'm lucky, and then I'm so burned out I just quit.
This is probably something I should figure out how to fix.
On the plus side, the book is improving dramatically in my humble opinion. Most changes are minor, but I've helped both smooth out the worldbuilding, make Cevan less incompetent, and tone down stuff that's over-the-top. Overall, I really like how it's turning out.
On the negative side, the fact I haven't written anything new in about a month is driving me crazy. This is the longest I've gone this year without actually writing (the previous being two weeks after I finished Effulgent Corruption). I need to start a new project.
Untitled Dark Fantasy project is sort of planned, except I'm trying to figure out the magic system I want to use. I can't really start the book until I know the magic, because it plays a key role in the main character. I really want to write something, especially since it's a great cure for depression (which I've been dealing with on and off over the past few weeks). So it's time to get on that.
This Fantasy project is more of a thing I figured would be fun rather than something I'd sell (but Steelgods stared that way, so who knows). Basically I take a traditional fantasy story (young hero with a rebel group overthrows evil empire warlord) and jump ahead thirty years to see the aftermath. Hint: it isn't pretty. Rebels make good leaders of small, extremely loyal groups, but rulers of nations? Maybe not. Plus, what would killing tons of people do to the psychological stability of the "hero?"
See, stupid things I think would be fun to mess around with. I just need some magic.
That's about it from me. I'm trapped at work on a Saturday, which is great at melting my brain. Here's hoping I get Steelgods finished soon.

Steelgods September - Self Imposed Improvements

So my car issue might finally have reached it's resolution...or rather we made a decision but still have to finish it up. Which means I (hopefully) can finally put a full week of frustrations and general stress behind me and just accept whatever happens. While I'm still having difficulties transferring back from being stressed every second of every day to actually relaxing again, I'm glad this has finally reached some sort of resolution (even if it wasn't the one I was necessarily rooting for).

What does this have to do with writing? Nothing at all. I just felt like mentioning it.

Steelgods 1 has suffered immensely from my almost mental breakdown, but I'm still hoping to get most of the edits done ASAP. That will require three-ish chapters a day if I want it finished by the end of September, which actually might not be possible, but either way I'm going to try. I want to start my next book at the beginning of October (which currently has a basic premise and a few ideas but no title, actual plot, or magic system yet) and I'll need at least a couple of brainstorming days before I leap headlong into it.

I've been re-reading lots of comments on my previous books as well as current feedback for Effulgent Corruption and The Gears of Anbar. From all this I've been pinpointing things I can work on in my upcoming books. I've actually been doing this the entire time, but I felt it might be beneficial for me to actually write them down this time so that I remember. Some of these things are also things I've been working on for a while and apparently failing at, so they'll still get a mention.

- Decreased Melodrama - This is a big one for me. In attempts to make scenes more "powerful" and "emotional" I draw it out too far and instead beat the reader over the head with how I want them to feel. It's a big problem, the root of which probably has something to do with me distrusting my reader, but the point is that subtlety is both hard to accomplish but a masterful thing when you actually pull it off. This is going to be a major focus in my next dark fantasy novel.

 - A Focus on Voice - Voice is another big difficulty for me, at least based on most feedback I receive. I have an "author" voice, and I have a "Nathan" voice. One of these is good, one of these is funner to write than the other. I need to eliminate the "Nathan" voice (I have the Steelgods books to go all hog-wild with that) and instead try and refine it down to be a consistant tone.

 - Tactful Adult Themes - Another one I've been working on. This includes all types - violence, sex, language, etc. - but the one in particular I have issue with is violence. There's a time when violence can be used to evoke certain emotions, usually shock or horror or disgust. But when violence is overdrawn and overused it makes the reader desensitized and comes off as tasteless. This is actually another big one for me, as I enjoy writing detailed battle/fight scenes but really should be cutting down the content.

- Restraining My Overactive Imagination - This one isn't exactly what you think it is. I'm not saying I shouldn't brainstorm crazy things or invent interesting ideas; far from it. What this means is that, as Pat Rothfuss says frequently, "Everything must be in service to the story." Too often I find myself adding things because I think they'll be "cool," or "interesting." This is a darling that must be killed. It doesn't matter if my specific character as this great quirk; if it doesn't provide any service to the overarching narrative it is just a dead end. It doesn't matter if I think this section of dialogue is funny and entertaining, if it isn't adding to the plot it is just wasted words. I discovery write, which usually results in me adding tons of crap that should ever make it to a second draft. If I can find a way to identify the crap before actually committing to it in the rough, then I'll save myself a lot of time editing (as well as grief in the future when I look back and wonder what the heck I was thinking when I wrote it, and regretting showing people my rough drafts).

- Consistant and Proactive Characters - I've been doing better at both of these, I hope. And honesty, sometimes your main characters just aren't very proactive. Someone doesn't always have to take charge all the time; that doesn't happen in real life. But that doesn't mean I should let my characters slouch about, making half-assed attempts at being proactive before other characters take care of business (unless the plot directs it, which the Steelgods books do in certain instances). Characters need to press on and be interesting and compelling, not slothful. They also need to stay consistant, which is an issue that seems to plague my side characters more than main ones. This one is a bit harder, since I never think my characters are inconsistant, but when readers get a hold of it they are quick to tell me otherwise. So it's going to be tricky, but it's something I'll keep in mind. As was brought up in writing group today: what's the difference between a character you think is acting against their nature, and a character who is developing? How do you know this action is just a change in character rather than an inconsistency? I suppose that's the $10,000 question.


There are other things I've worked on in the past (eliminating modern dialogue and references, creating better act 2's of my books, keeping a pace consistant) but these are my current big issues. We'll see how well I can accomplish them with the next untitled novel.

Stress: The Death of Productivity

Without going into too much detail: we've been trying to buy a new car. Our current car is unable to pass inspections next April without $1000+ worth of work on it, and after paying double what I originally paid for the car in repairs in just the last three years, I'm going to say I'm willing to let it die.

So we've been car shopping. And we ended up in a bit of a mess, one I'm currently trying to remedy. It isn't a huge mess by any means (in fact my parents think I'm silly for being so worried about it), but it's enough to be a nagging itch on my mind.

Which makes it almost impossible to focus, which means Steelgods editing has entered the backburner. The fact I'm sick with a rough cold probably isn't helping this.

If I were to estimate, I'd say I'm 25% through Steelgods. I can get 2-3 chapters a day, which means I only have maybe a couple weeks left for it, but this whole situation and brought it to a grinding halt. I'm hoping against hope that the issue will be resolved tomorrow, so that tonight I can trick myself into being not stressed and actually write the "bonus" chapter I've been needing to add. We'll see how that works out.

In other (more positive) news, I'm now on Goodreads. After much foot-dragging by myself I've finally jumped on, and promptly added reviews for the boatloads of books I've read. My list is pathetic in comparison with my wife's, but that's just the way it goes.

In other reading news, I have now read A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, and A Storm of Swords. All of them are fantastic and probably one of my favorite fantasy series ever. Seriously, they are great.

As a break before A Feast for Crows, I'm reading A Night of Blacker Darkness by Dan Wells. The odd hilariousness of this book is also helping with my stress, so we'll keep on it for now. I don't think George R. R. Martin is the best thing to read when you are trying to not feel down.

So, apologies for disappearing for a few weeks, but hopefully I'll have more updates very soon. I'm also doing game reviews on the Backlog Blog which also has been neglected (I have boatloads of them lined up: I play a lot of video games), but I'm hoping to start putting a review up every other day as a minimum.

Keep it real, I'll try to keep from pulling my hair out.

Steelgod September: Slow Going

Due to life, I've been struggling getting through the Steelgods edits. The "rewrite" idea works but it is also time consuming; I spent most of yesterday rewriting a fight scene (which I actually rewrote last week, so that dumb fight is now officially in draft 3) and then doing the next chapter. I think that puts me on Chapter 4, which is where the plot really starts kicking in. I'm hoping to do one or two chapters a day from here on out, assuming my mood (and schedule) allows.

So that fight I was referring to is actually the first one in the book (which happens right away in the second chapter). My first write of it was decent but there are things inconstant with the rest of the series. The second was more in line but the fight itself was just awful. I finally gave up and actually outlined my first fight (first time doing that...actually it was just half the fight, but whatever) which was what made it work. Finally.

I'm read A Song of Fire and Ice and am on book three (A Storm of Swords). I don't know how I managed to ignore this series up until this point; it's fantastic. Expect reviews of them soon.

Other than that, I'm not doing anything particularly exciting. I'm considering doing a switch off: edit one day, write something the next. I have an idea for a (probably awful) urban fantasy called Half that would be worth a shot. It has no plot and only a basic premise. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

Steelgod September - Let the Edits Begin

This isn't going to be a very exciting post, but this isn't a very exciting blog, so you get what you paid for.

Basically I'm going through the edit of Might of the Steelgods (which is actually The Destroyer of the World, but I haven't got used to calling it that yet). This is a big, major, serious edit, which also means it's going to take a large chunk of time. This is basically the edit I'll be pitching and (should push come to shove) the edit I'd ePublish should pitching completely fail me. Still undecided about that latter part, but we'll burn that bridge when we get to it.

So hey, I have a system. I've actually never done an edit this extensive before (Paradise Seekers had a pretty intense edit, but even it wasn't as in-depth as this one will be) so I've been trying to wrap my brain around how I'd do it.

Here's the points I rested on:

- I am confident when actually writing from scratch. I'm able to get into the story and the writing comes easier.
- On the flip side, when I just go in and edit pieces/parts it can be difficult. Sentence edits are easy, as are dialogue edits, but when I'm changing a small part of a larger scene, the lack of flow can throw me off.

So here's what I'm gonna do. I already re-read Steelgods once over the weekend, and now I'm going through it again at work. I'm breaking it apart by chapters, and then writing snippets of what I want changed at work. So that's fine and good.

Next, in the evening I'm going to pull of the original document on the Macbook, and then do a transcribe edit to my desktop (the Mini). That way I'm still writing, I still have the scenes, and if there are particular words/pacing bits that I liked I can keep them, but I'm intending to mostly write it as if I was re-writing it.

I'm going to try and do 2-3 chapters a day (I can type about 90-100 wpm if I'm blitzing, and so I'm assuming this'll go pretty quick). If I did around that amount I'd be done in ~2 weeks, which would be ideal. I'm allowing a buffer for when I don't get my chapter notes down at work, but those are going pretty quick so I'm not too worried.

Also, this means I'm going to be actually writing, which I need. All weekend I kept thinking I was forgetting to do something important, that nagging in the back of my brain, when the itch that needed scratching was me writing. I'd go crazy if I didn't actually write this month, but instead of trying to write a whole new project and edit Steelgods, we are going for the best of both worlds here.

After that I may spend another month writing (October) and then hit the edits. I also plan on spending that month submitting Steelgods to every place in the whole world. So hopefully it doesn't suck by that point.

That's it from me. Oh, and I'll also be doing minor Gears edits since it's going through writing group. And I'm playing Adam's Pathfinder game. So I'm going to be busy, big surprise.

Here's some Freddy in memory of him. If you don't know how Freddy Mercury is, you are a bad person.

Anbar August - Passing Steelgods, and a new month

On the last day of August (yesterday), The Gears of Anbar passed the length of The Might of the Steelgods (soon to be renamed The Destroyer of the World) by 1000 words. Unfortunately, those weren't the last 1000 words of Gears, so I didn't finish the book in one month. Too bad.

My new goal is the end of the week, which is still going to take a considerable amount of work. I have four chapters and an epilogue left, basically the climax of the story, which is probably going to be another 20k. This book is also going to need a touch of trimming to drop it down to "YA" length, though one could argue it's between a young adult and adult fantasy novel.

So that means Anbar August is over and we are back into Steelgods September, which means it's been a year since I started the first book. It also means this is the month I'm doing my hardcore edits of Steelgods 1, since I decided it's actually worth trying to sell after mulling it over for a year.

In other news, aside from editing Steelgods and Effulgent Corruption, I have no idea what my next writing project will be. It isn't for lack of options (James and I went over all my potential ideas and sequels and figured I have 13+ books I could work on), it's more a matter of indecision. After writing a YA I'm in the YA mood, but I also could use another fantasy novel. I probably shouldn't get involved in such a massive task again (we saw what happened with Effulgent Corruption), but I don't know how many more options I have.

Maybe I'll finally write that stupid Canyon story I wrote for a writing prompt over a year ago. That thing was supposed to be third person YA, I think. Except it has no plot.


Well, hopefully the next blog post (or the one after) will be me announcing the completion of my seventh book. It's going through writing group starting next week, and I'm actually excited about it. It's a much tighter novel than Steelgods (Destroyer) was, which is probably Effulgent Corruption's fault. Not complaining.

That's about it from me. We are inching into ending spoiler territory with Gears, but here's a safe quote follows by an awesome Within Temptation song. I don't usually do the whole "this song is my book!" but the first time I heard this song I thought of Cevan for whatever reason, so here you go.

Plus it's a badass song.

“Let’s see,” he considered. “Steelgods’ Day is in a moon’s time, so you’ll be needing to come back here at least an hour every day if you plan on finishing it before then. And there’s also the issue of payment…”

I nodded, reaching into my pocket and pulling out my bag. Anbar looked at me close, then gave a wide smile.

“Eh, two-hundred should cover it. Two-fifty and I’ll watch you the hour you are here and help you to not ruin it. Money well spent, I’d say.”

I blinked. “Two-fifty? That seems…a bit low, to be honest. For silver, I mean.”

Anbar laughed, slapping me on the back again. “Blood an iron, boy, don’t go into business. You can’t barter for piss!”

            I made a mental note, adding that to the ever-growing list of careers that I wasn’t suited for. 

Anbar August - Still not a WorldCON post

Yeah I know I should be blogging about WorldCON. But I'm at work and my brain is fried, but I still feel obligated to blog about something, so here goes?

I'm applying for a graveyard shift full time call-center job. This has both pros and cons. Pros include being able to write since probably nobody will call in, a $5 an hour pay raise (substantial!), doing in-house support rather than distributor support, and full time benefits. The cons are that I won't ever see my wife, I'll have to sleep during the day (ruining any daytime activities before 4 or 5), and I'll become a hermit.

So we'll see how that works out.

Gears is going well. The Steelgods series is also doing quite good. I've been struggling how exactly Cevan, his purpose, and all that fits into the story. I've also been basically stalling the ending of the series, since we all know what happens thanks to the prologue/epilogues, but how it resolves was still...well let's just say I had a good dozen ideas, and the majority of them were terrible.

Luckily, I managed to squash all these stupid problems (or most anyway) so I can sleep easy. Also it means I can do proper foreshadowing in these books for how everything will end, assuming I ever get around to writing four more books past this one.

I also have a tentative fourth book title: "The Wanderer of Shattered Blades." Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but I'll figure something out if it needs changing.

Well, my brain is breaking. I've been writing a fair amount; we'll see if that continues tonight. I've been playing Age of Empires Online, the sort of awful online "free to play" version of Age of Empires that is way overpriced if you decided to pay to play it.

In any case, that's it from me. Here is some Gears.

“Hmm.” Ashe nodded, though I thought I saw a splash of disappointment cross her face as she returned to her tidying. “So you slept through the big news.”

“Big news?” I asked, sitting down on the bed. Ashe finally finished and then plopped down next to me, hands on her knees.

“Last Washington is sending troops to aid Spoke Boreous. Steam-machines, weapons of war. They’ll be marching through London tomorrow in some sort of parade. They cancelled morning classes so we can attend.”

My eyes widened. “Spoke Boreous…you mean Divine? He’s getting weapons from Last Washington? So there is going to be a war?”

Anbar August - WorldCON, sequels, monster-averse

Wrote a large amount last week, which makes me happy. Unfortunately, Jason wrote like freaking 8k on Saturday which mean on our stat sheet he now holds the record for most words in a day.

UNACCEPTABLE.

In other news, WorldCON is this weekend, and we are leaving tomorrow night. I still have to do literally everything to prepare, including getting a haircut (boo!), deciding my schedule, and figuring out where the crap we are staying Tuesday night. I'm also going to do most of the driving, which means I'm putting Way of Kings audiobook on the iPod.

So that will be fun and hopefully I'll make some good contacts. If not, every awesome author in the history of the world will be there, and I'm going to make them sign my Kindle. ALL OF THEM.

In Gears news, I've already decided on the title for the third Steelgods book: A War of Blood and Oil. In a not-so-massive spoiler, Gears ends with the inevitable war between the Gears and the Peacemakers starting up, which encompasses the rest of the series. So that should prove interesting. I actually also have titles for the last two books as well (The Tips of Creation and The Destroyer of the World). So Book 4 remains the only one current untitled. I'll get to these when I get to them; we'll see.

I also stumbled upon another revelation about my writing. I tend to avoid a rather large fantasy staple: mystical creatures. With the exception of Lacrymosa (which has a big flying nasty thing called a Zentapox), none of my books have any sorts of weird animals or creatures in them. Corrupters in Effulgent Corruption are close, but they are still technically people, just coated in Gangrene. None of my other books have any sort of weird animal life, and I only rarely have a different fantasy race (Lacrymosa has Ala and El, Harbinger has the Seraphim, and WGMD has...the gods?). It's almost as if I weened it out of my novels intentionally. I don't even plan stuff that has weird monsters (though The Tips of Creation will have weird monsters because that's one where they actually go to the Blight that borders the world. But...eh).

Anyway, I just thought that was interesting. Now I really want to write something that has fantasy monsters, but they always have seemed so contrived and trite. Honestly, my least favorite part about Mistborn was the shape-shifting monsters and the Koloss (though the Koloss...well, it's a spoiler, but if you've read it you know why I might be more forgiving of those). It just seemed really out of place in a book about humans. I dunno, maybe I'm just super biased. I also tend to prefer my sci-fi without aliens, and that's pretty much the same thing. Huh.

Anyway, there you go. that's what has been on my mind. Now, a bit from Gears.

“Yeah, about that,” I muttered, raising the sword. That only resulted in me wincing and crumpling down slightly; I took a long, stabbing breath and forced myself back to my feet. “I kind of met him yesterday. And got punched by him. And…retaliated.”

“Wait, really?” Ashe looked at me in surprise, and then glanced over to make sure Tartonus wasn’t watching us. “What on earth did you do?”

“I kicked him in a…sensitive area. Sensitive to males. If you catch my drift.”

I was trying to be tactful, but I suppose I shouldn’t have bothered considering who I was talking with.

“You rammed your foot into Gregor’s nuts?” I didn’t know Ashe’s eyes could get that big. “Gregor Halbicus? The son of – “

“Yeah, Stewart and Pitronus already told me about how I pretty much signed my death wish, thank you.” I grunted. I was starting to feel a little better; I could stand straight, at least.

- The Gears of Anbar, Chapter 11 - Assessment

And here is some AWESOME CHIPTUNES from an equally awesome game. It was for sale with the recent Humble Bundle (pay your own price) so if you didn't buy it YOU ARE A FOOL. 

Paradise Seekers and Effulgent Corruption - Now with 90% less whining

So the last post was a bit...obnoxious, so I'm remedying it with this fantastic one.

Except I have little to say.

Paradise Seekers aka The eBook Revolution now has a glorious five reviews, and only two of them are from writing group (hey, nobody said that was against the rules!). If you bought the book or were an alpha reader, please review it! And my offer still stands to any other indie authors (or authors in general): if you review my book, I'll buy and review yours. Even if you didn't buy mine but pirated it, so long as you write a review the deal still holds. I'm just that generous.

But if you did pirate it, you are a cheap jerkface because it was freaking 99 cents. Just sayin'.

Effulgent Corruption is going well, if slowly. I finally got some writing done (Persona 4 and stressful work has been taking a chunk out of my motivation, as well as trying to get the word about Paradise Seekers out) and I am really liking the direction the novel is going. I realized this is probably the longest I've spent on a novel since my first, which again is motivation to get the dumb thing finished.

I'd estimate part 4 is half way finished already. As I said before, these ending parts are going to go fast, which means I'm going to have to substantially trim the earlier ones. In either case, I'm really enjoying watch pieces come together, especially since stuff you learned from the other characters directly and indirectly apply to what is going on here. Educating the reader in one situation, then testing their education in another. I really dig this when I'm reading books, and it's been a downright blast to do it in my own work.

After EC, as I mentioned, I'm going to Gears of Anbar to wind down. I'm also considering what to do with Steelgods. It needs an edit, but beyond that I'm torn between throwing it up on Amazon as soon as possible (having a large register of novels on there would almost certainly help with publicity), or actually submit it for traditional publishing. While it isn't the strongest of my novels I really enjoy the story (especially since it's my first fully-plotted series) and would like to at least give it the change for traditional publishing. We'll see how that goes.

I also am going to need an edited/sharable version of Effulgent Corruption by August for WorldCon, so that's another goal for the near-future. Man, I am not a huge fan of editing. But I'll do it anyway!

Back to Paradise Seekers, if you happen to review it and post it on your blog, again I'll return the favor. I don't require much to be happy, and having people read my books makes me happy. Also, doughnuts. Those make me happy too.

That's all from me today. Going to try and blaze through Part 4 this week. Hopefully CONduit motivates me.

Steelgods vs Shadow Mountain

I've decided to do a Steelgods edit and submit it to Shadow Mountain.

This will be done during my free time at work, since I can't write at work it seems better suited for editing. There are a few edits that  I'm going to do.

- General edit. Language clean up, fixing all the left over "discovery writer" bits that cause the book to be disjointed, and fix sentence structures.
- Plot edit. I can think of an entire chapter that needs to be rethought, as well as significant parts of the plot. This will probably be the biggest edit.
- Language edit. Shadow Mountain is part of Deseret Book, an LDS publishing house, so I'm pretty sure "goddammit" isn't going to fly in one of their books. This will be made it's own file; I plan on continuing to submit the original to other publishing houses unedited.

Shadow Mountain is a small-ish publishing house, but it does have several major bestsellers and authors (Fablehaven being first and foremost). While I know I should start from the top and go down, I don't think this could hurt any.

Plus, I've been itching to edit Steelgods, and now this is an excuse. I plan on continuing to write Effulgent Corruption during the evening (even though I didn't yesterday) but it needs some serious plotting before I can continue.

So that's it. Keep it real.

10,000 words in three days = not bad.

I wrote a ton yesterday, finishing up the "interlude" that I needed to add. It was huge. Much too huge. Editing: I choose you!
I don't have much more to say. I am considering sending some of my YA books (Paradise Seekers, Steelgods) to a smaller publishing house, such as the local Shadow Mountain. It at least would be a rewarding experience, and we'll see where it goes. I still fully intend to continue writing and attempting to market adult books to both agents and the "Big Six," but for now I have a large collection of YA books (including a potential series) that I wouldn't mind seeing some recognition.
Not much more else to say. Work is going well but is busy, but it IS helping motivate me to write in the evenings. I'm feeling relatively confident, but we'll see how long that lasts once I'm on the phones by myself.
Picking up Wise Man's Fear again, with intention of finishing it. It's such a well written book; I'm loving it to death. Even if one could argue the plot itself moves a bit slow, the wonderful narrator and fantastic prose make it easy to read. I wish I could write this good.

To prove I can't, I have an extra long quote for you. This is the end of a chapter that is about three chapters from the end of part 2.

Also, for the record, EC is ~111k right now. If each part is the same length, that would mean the final product would be 333k. That would be both amazing and horrifying, so I'm shooting to make the other parts shorter.

Quote:

            Ciara was silent, the rain falling harder. Lightning and a blast of thunder accented the already dreary scene, the sound rolling across the valley and causing the leaves on the trees to tremble. Still, she stared at Thomas.

            And for that moment she believed him. As she looked across his set jaw, his determined eyes and rain-soaked hair, Ciara saw someone else. The impish bookworm she knew was gone, the boy replaced by a man. A man refined by impossible circumstances. A man accepting unbelievable realities and still pressing forward.

            The man she had always loved.

            She reached forward and touched his chin, the emerging beard poking through the thin gloves. She turned Thomas’ face towards hers, staring deep into his dark eyes.

            “Thomas,” she whispered, refusing to break the gaze. “Tell me we can do this.”

            Thomas’ lip curled ever so slightly to a smile, and his eyes softened. “I won’t say we can. I’ll say we will.”

            Ciara was swept up in his sudden embrace, strong arms holding her tightly as she pressed against his rain-drenched shirt. Despite the assault of confusing emotions Ciara still did not cry, her fear and worry slowly melting away, pooling under her like the rainwater. Thomas held her to him for a long moment, head still high, hair slicked back from the rain.

            At last the separated, and when they did Ciara saw a smile – a real one – etched across Thomas’ face.

            “I think,” he said, “that maybe we can do this after all.”

            Ciara pressed a finger to his lips, indicating he be silent. “I won’t say we can,” she smiled wide, “I’ll say we will.”

Effulgent Corruption: Back in Black

A little over 2k today, I'm back in the groove. A few things of note that don't really matter to anybody reading but I'm going to say them anyway because then I'll remember.

- I'm going to have to go back and add a chapter (and add a bit on the front of another chapter) between two others to make the second part flow better. I don't want to make this dumb thing any longer (it's already huge), but it cheapens a rather dramatic scene to not have proper build up, so I'm going to go back and add build-up. You won't even know it happened and that it's all artificially added after the fact. So ha!

- I beat Pokemon White. So I should have a vast increase in productivity. Theoretically.

- Part 2 is almost done. I'm guessing I have three to four chapters total left (including the one I left out). I'll probably go back and add that chapter tomorrow, then close out the part on Wednesday. I'm guessing it'll end at about 120k, making part 2 around 50k. I've said it a billion times but here I go again: this book is going to be huge.

- On that note, I'm already considering what exactly to trim and what to keep. Editing Paradise Seekers was good for me because it taught me that sometimes it is necessary to rewrite entire sections or cut entire chunks of book. The other major edit my books need is the "loose ends" edit. Often I mention things that I intend to bring up later, but since I discovery write the item didn't stick so it just...is there. Paradise Seekers is full of them, and Steelgods STILL has one that drives me crazy that I missed in editing (calling a non-Graffiting hand an "off hand" at the beginning of the book and NEVER USING THE TERM AGAIN EVER). Anyway, the point of all this is that I'll be both cleaning up and trimming.

- On THAT note, the part that I currently think needs the most revising is actually the part my writing group just finished. All I've submitted thus far was rewrites/reedits of what I wrote back in July when I first attempted this thing. Because of this, I've found the prose can be strong but the actual pacing doesn't match the rest of the book. It's slower than the YA, but not THAT slow and exposition heavy. I'm going to attempt (after finishing) another re-edit, and if it still doesn't work I may just scrap it all and rewrite it all dry (much like I did for the first 3 chapters of Paradise Seekers).

- Despite this [Effulgent Corruption] being huge, I still feel like I'm rushing through it. Drake's first part ends a bit too fast for my liking (though in a re-read I may consider otherwise), and Ciara's is just racing like wildfire. I'm sure I'll hear the other end from the readers ("It's too long!"), but I can't shake the nagging feeling there should be more stuff happening before the part's climax/conclusion. Ah well, pacing. I'll figure it out.

- I'm scared to set a goal, but I think I will anyway: End of April I'll need to be in part five at the latest. Part six is the last part, so I want this done by end of May. If I'm super amazing I'll be done by end April, then I'll have a month off (where I'll probably edit and submit Steelgods) before doing a June binge write (just like Paradise Seekers was last year).

I'm glad to be writing again. I also have a feeling my job (which I am taking calls for the first time tomorrow, then actually doing the job next Monday) will allow for a decent amount of free time. I've already decided that I'm going to write at least 1k at work a day, and try to devote all down-time writing as well. We'll see how much I can actually get done.

That's it from me. Time to go critique some writing group stuff.