L.G. Estrella's Blog, page 15

Work Resuming

Well, it’s back to work on Two Necromancers, a Fortress, and a Titan.

I had a productive break too. I managed to get two complete drafts done on that other project I was working on. One last draft, and it should be done. Naturally, proofreading and the like will also be required, but I think one more draft should be enough on the writing side. Those two drafts added up to maybe 120,000 words, so I’m quite happy with the rate of progress there.

This will be the second major draft of Two Necromanc...

Another Labyrinth (Flash Fiction #36)

Jonathan groaned and got to his feet. “That dragon could have at least warned us about the drop…” He trailed off as he realised that he was alone. “Um… hello? Please, don’t tell me we all got separated.”

Alas, it did look as though they’d all been separated. On the upside, he didn’t seemed to be in any immediate danger. He was on a dirt trail in the middle of a forest, but nothing was trying to kill him. Then again, this was a forest. There were probably bears and wolves and, knowing the dragon,...

A Welcome Surprise

As some of you probably know, I regularly trained in martial arts for around twenty years before a slew of injuries made that difficult to continue. I even helped out as an instructor regularly. In fact, on more than one occasion, I was asked to take over the majority of teaching duties while the head instructor was away for a couple of weeks.

One of the reasons the head instructor asked me to handle those duties while he was away was because he and I had known each other for basically all of...

Unconventional Answers and Humour

There are lots of ways to add humour to a story, but one of my personal favourites is through the use of unconventional answers to common situations.

Let’s take fantasy fiction.

One of the most common scenarios is the old ‘dragon kidnaps a princess’ schtick. What usually happens is that the hero goes off, finds some magical sword, kills the dragon, saves the princess, and then marries her. How can we add humour to this situation? Well, we can change the situation, so the hero needs to use a more...

What Kind of Build is This?

If there was a game…

Okay, guys, hear me out. I just started playing The Unconventional Heroes Series RPG, and Timmy’s build just makes no sense to me.

I mean… first of all, he’s a Grand Necromancer. That’s cool. Out of the two playable characters in the first section of the game, he’s clearly the more powerful. Obviously, Katie’s just a kid, so she’s way lower level, but Timmy’s build still doesn’t make any sense.

What kind of necromancer has such a bizarre skill point distribution?

Not only h...

Yes!

Yes! The San Antonio Spurs have the #1 pick!

Things I Might Have Been

I’ve been asked on more than one occasion about what career I would have pursued if I wasn’t a writer. The answer to that really depends on when exactly you asked me.

Growing up, I had strong interests in science and medicine. In fact, I strongly considered going into medicine during university. Instead, I decided to go into the sciences, particularly physics and chemistry. In a great display of consistency (/sarcasm) I ended up finding myself more interested in areas like business, economics, a...

First Draft Complete

The first draft of Two Necromancers, a Fortress, and a Titan is complete. It measures in at roughly 125,000 words and is comprised of 14 chapters. I would expect the word count to increase significantly in subsequent drafts, which means the chapter count is also likely to increase since I will be splitting chapters up if they get too long.

So what happens now?

Now, I will be taking a short break (a week or so) from writing the story. Instead, I will work on some other writing projects that I’ve ...

Another Role Reversal (Flash Fiction Fridays #35)

“Stupid elves,” the elf girl grumbled. “So what if I have fire magic? That doesn’t make me evil. Oh, yeah, nobody complains if the other kids with water magic flood the damn village, but if I set even one leaf on fire, it’s suddenly a war crime. Screw them! I’ll find somewhere else to live. And if I can’t find another village or something, I’ll live on my own. I’m smart. I’ve got my magic too. I can do it.” The girl huffed. “I even have a bow, and I’m way better with it than all those other lose...

First Drafts For Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8 Complete

The first drafts for Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8 of Two Necromancers, a Fortress, and a Titan are complete. They add up to about 34,000 words. I’m pretty happy with the overall direction they’re going in, so I’ll wait until the first draft of the story is complete before coming back to them.