The State of My Writing World – August, 2014

I’ve mentioned that I’m preparing Deiform Three for my editor. What am I planning to write next?

Project One

There will be a Deiform Four, but I’m not going to start it until January. Because of that, I’ve been building a Deiform Fellowship wiki of sorts. I’ve reread the first book, and I’m currently rereading the second one. I’m recording important details as I read (character background information, Fellowship history, details about the gifts, etc.). I also added to the wiki as I wrote and edited Deiform Three. When I start Deiform Four after a several-months break, I’ll read the wiki and be up to speed again.

However, I’m not taking a break from the Deiform Fellowship series.

Project Two

From building the wiki, I was again reminded of something I already knew: we don’t know much about Roberta, and she’s a rather important figure in the Fellowship. If you buy the Fellowship’s viewpoint, she’s the line to God. She directs her Deiforms based on what God wants. But she stays on the island, and Jillian and Sam don’t. That means she doesn’t get much air time in the books.

In Deiform Three, she’s in a couple of scenes and speaks to Jillian and Sam on the phone a few times, but that’s it. Jillian thinks that she’d like to ask Roberta about her background, and so would I.

Here’s the thing about writing: sometimes you write stuff trusting that you’ll get more details later. On a forum, a writer once described it like this (I’m paraphrasing, because it was a few years ago):

“When my character does something like stick a piece of chewed gum on the bottom of a boat for no apparent reason, I go with it. Because later on, on page 235, something will happen that will make me understand why the character did that. So I just trust that I’ll find out when I need to know.”

I’m the same way. There were a couple of things I included in the Rymellan series when I didn’t have the full picture. I trusted I’d get the details later, and I did. One of those things was why Jayne hates her brother. I didn’t know why until after I’d made it clear that she hates her brother. I just knew she did, and that she’d tell me why later.

In Deiform Two, Jillian and Sam have a brief conversation about how Guides come into the Fellowship. Sam said they just know where to go. When I wrote that, I thought, “Okay. I don’t have the full picture about how they’d do that, but Sam says that’s how it happens, so I’ll write it.”

Now, I could have Jillian ask Roberta about all this in a future Deiform book, but I’d only be able to spend maybe a page or two of conversation on it. I wanted to go deeper than that, and so I’m going to write what will probably be a novelette about how Roberta came into the Fellowship. What, and who, did she leave behind? How did she know how to find the island?

I’m starting the story this afternoon. I’m looking forward to opening the empty Word file and digging in. I don’t usually outline, but I did for this one, so I’m pretty confident that I’ll make it to “the end,” probably around early October. That means I could release the story around December/January. It’ll depend on when my editor has a free slot. I still have Deiform Three to revise and publish between now and then, too.

My keyboard. I’m not sure whether writing or gaming has worn the poor thing down. Probably both.

Project Three

I’m taking one of Holly Lisle’s writing workshops. It’s 39 weeks long (eek!), and I’m on week 3. The idea is to come out of it with a novel. I’m always looking to improve my craft, and I chose this particular workshop because I was also interested in seeing how another SF/F writer thinks when writing a story. As I mentioned, I’m only on week 3, and it’s already been fascinating. We don’t actually start writing our novel until week 12. Everything up until then is prep work.

I’ve had a standalone science fiction novel kicking around in my head for a while. Right now, I’m thinking I’ll write that novel, but I could change my mind. I could decide to write Deiform Four for the workshop. I doubt it, though. I want to use a fresh idea; in fact, this week’s exercise is to come up with three new ideas (I have two already). The important thing isn’t what I’ll write, but that I’ll be starting a standalone novel in about nine weeks.

Project Four

I’m also taking Holly’s workshop about how to write a series. Because I’m already a student in her other workshop, I got in at a great discount. The other workshop is a recorded, self-paced deal (you get one lesson per week, with each lesson building on the last). The series workshop is live. Holly’s actually writing a series along with those in the workshop. So the lesson dates are open, because she doesn’t teach the next lesson until she’s completed her work for the last lesson, which can take weeks or months. That’s good, because we have to write, too.

I just joined this workshop (you can get in while she’s still working on the homework for module one), so I’m just catching up on what’s there so far. I haven’t decided what series I’ll write, but I have a couple of ideas. This will be a lower priority project than the Roberta story, Deiform Four, and whatever standalone novel I’ll write for the other workshop. I’ll squeeze in time when I can.

Project Five

In addition to all that, I’ve recently tried my hand at flash fiction. I’ve written several pieces and submitted a few of them. I’ve also been jotting down ideas for a science fiction short story, and I have a short story I wrote years ago, during my thirties, that I’m going to polish. I’m interested in building a body of shorter work (flash, short stories), so I’ll be dedicating time to doing so.

I’m excited about the stories, the workshops, and all that writing!

Have a great weekend.

The State of My Writing World – August, 2014 is a post from: Sarah Ettritch