L.G. Estrella's Blog, page 15
July 21, 2023
Second Draft Complete
The second draft of Two Necromancers, a Fortress, and a Titan is now complete.
It is a total of 21 chapters long and is 326,712 words long.I began the second draft on 4th June and completed it on the 21st July. That is a total of 47 days for an average of roughly 6951 words per day, keeping in mind that those 47 days also includes days that I took off due to illness, insomnia, injury, or just needing a break.The best day in terms of writing was 18 June when I wrote 18,000 words.The best week...
July 19, 2023
Hard Mode
Are you worried that your main character has it too easy? Are people telling you that your main character is overpowered for no reason and needs to earn their strength? And do people say that your character needs to face some real challenges and experience some real character growth?
Then I have an answer for you.
It’s time for Hard Mode.
Think of it like a video game. Set the fates themselves against your main character. If anything can go wrong, have it go wrong.
Start from the beginning.
If y...
July 18, 2023
Progress Report 19-07-2023
Well, I’m back with another progress report for Two Necromancers, a Fortress, and a Titan, which is Book 5 of the Unconventional Heroes Series. As an aside, I want to point out that I use the DAY-MONTH-YEAR format for dates, which is what is commonplace in Australia.
Anyway, progress since the last time has been okay. I have been dealing with a bit of insomnia, which culminated in me not sleeping for 48 or so hours followed by sleeping for like twelve hours the next day. I also had to deal with ...
July 13, 2023
Spot Sounds
Although Spot the dragon (from the Unconventional Heroes Series) is capable of telepathy, he also uses a variety of sounds to communicate. Since I’ve occasionally been asked about those sounds, I thought I’d go into a bit more detail. Note that everything I will be mentioning here has also been mentioned in the books.
First and foremost, Spot is a young dragon. Another dragon would refer to him as a hatchling. Sure, he’s pretty big compared to a person, but he’s still tiny for a dragon. This mea...
A Brief Aside
Not as much progress as I’d like over the past week. I’ve been sorting through an absolute mountain of paperwork for reasons that I won’t get into here. To put it into perspective, I’ve got about 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of paperwork that has to be securely destroyed. In other words, it has to be shredded. What made things so time consuming was that stuff was mixed in with stuff that could be recycled, so I had to go through it manually. I’d say I went through at least 45 kg (99 pounds) of paper...
July 4, 2023
Every Weapon Is A Knife
I firmly believe that almost every weapon came be explained in terms of knives.
Rock? It’s kind of like a stone knife… only it’s blunt.
Spear? What you get when you lash a knife onto a stick.
Sword? A big knife.
Gun? It uses gunpowder to shoot little knives at people.
Chainsaw? It’s like a whole lot of little knives chained together and rotated really quickly.
Axe? A weirdly shaped knife attached to a stick.
Poison? Chemical knife.
Laser? If knives were made of light.
Rail gun? A way to throw kn...
July 1, 2023
Daily Writing
If you want to improve your writing, then one of the best things you can do is to write regularly. In many ways, writing is like a muscle. If you don’t use it regularly, it’s going to atrophy. This doesn’t just happen to novices. It happens to everyone, which is why even when I’m on ‘break’ I’m basically always writing something. Sure, it might not be something I intend to publish, but just writing helps keep my proverbial writing muscles fresh and limber.
Of course, writing each day is easier s...
June 27, 2023
Progress Report 28-06-2023
Here is the long-awaited progress report for Two Necromancers, a Fortress, and a Titan.
Things have been going well. The second draft has now reached a total of roughly 193,000 words. I’m a bit shocked by that length since I only started writing the second draft on the 4th of June, which means I’m averaging almost 10,000 words a day. I’m about two thirds of the way through the story at the moment, so it’s looking like 300,000 or so words, maybe more, by the end of it. That would make it the long...
June 22, 2023
Audible Sale
I have been informed by my audiobook publishers (Podium Audio) that several of my books will be part of a sale that is currently going on over at Audible and expiring on Sunday the 25th June.
The titles included are:
http://www.audible.com/pd/1774244322
June 21, 2023
Saurian Sorcerer (Flash Fiction Fridays #38)
Because people wanted to know how a dinosaur wizard would even work…
Fred’s eyes narrowed as an unfamiliar scent drifted to him on the breeze. The mystical charms woven onto his feathers flickered in swift succession as he tapped into their power to enhance his already keen senses.
North.
He needed to go north.
With a speed that few could match, the velociraptor went north. The jungle around him was filled with life, from giant insect to tiny mammals, as well as his saurian kin. None dared to b...
