Update on Fifth World 3 and other Projects
After a slow 2014, the start to the new year has been pretty productive. I finally completed the first draft of The Fifth World 3 (temporary title). As a rule I don’t decide on a title until after a revised manuscript is completed. Currently I am revising the first draft and preparing it to go to the editors in the next month or so.
The writing process for the third novel has been tougher for a few reasons. First, it is a different kind of book than the first two. It is much more action with a stronger focus on the military-aspect of the conflict rather than the political struggle. I don’t have as much experience or confidence in writing military/action and sort of moved slowly to make sure it came out right.
Last year was also spent reading up on fiction-writing as part of an effort to refine some of my skills. There are some weaknesses in my writing from a stylistic standpoint, which I don’t mind admitting. I’m still in the early to mid-stage of my writing career and will always approach it as a learning process. I also got some pretty blunt reviews of my second novel which further highlighted some of the issues with my writing. Specifically my descriptive writing needs some improvement.
When you are learning to refine your writing style while writing a novel, it can make you second guess yourself constantly. Hence I stayed stuck on the same couple chapters for months. By comparison, I wrote the first draft of The Times That Try Men’s Souls in roughly eight months. The third novel took thirteen months. Add in editing, revising, and marketing operations and the publication date looks to be sometime in the summer.
There is also a new project that keeps creeping into my mind, distracting me from finishing what is in front of me. Part of me wants to shift to a different universe than The Fifth World, while the other part wants to finish the trilogy before proceeding to anything else. The new project is a high-tech, space opera-type series that will be written in novellas or episodes rather than novels. Each one will be 80-120 pages rather than 300+ pages. Three episodes are completed and will be reviewed, edited, and revised sometime later this year. When this last novel is complete, I will also be working on writing two more episodes to make it a nice five episode release when its done.
There’s no name yet (due to my rule), but as I’ve explained before, it is about a team of engineers that work in a mech-fighting league. During a match, the government intervenes and tries to destroy it and arrest them for possessing military weaponry. Their mech fights its way out and the team goes on the run. Little do they know, they are caught in the middle of an interstellar war and their mech is considered a game-changing weapon.
So far it has moved away from the originally intended cyberpunk style and more into space opera. There will be a military side to it but it won’t be dominant. The story is primarily character-driven. The inspiration for the series comes from Firefly, Battletech, and also from my fictional timeline which was the foundation for The Fifth World. They won’t inhabit the same universe but the timeline will resemble the source material used for my first three novels.
Firefly and Serenity were amazing in terms of drama, comedy, and possessing a profound yet subtle theme of frontier individualism. The technology was steampunk but the true genius of the show was the brilliant cast of characters and great dialogue. Joss Whedon did a fantastic job creating them and developing a chemistry among them.
My goal is to build a more character-driven series, like Firefly, as well as build in some serious themes underneath. I will also be trying out my own brand of comedy and dialogue, which will not resemble Firefly in any way. The technology will also be far more advanced and play a different role in the story.
I can’t get into the fictional timeline too much because it will give away the direction of the series. It is set well into the future, where humanity has colonized dozens of worlds in dozens of star systems.
My goals for 2015 are to (1) publish The Fifth World 3; (2) publish the first episodes of the Mek Series; (3) contribute to my blog at 1 per week minimum; (4) read 35 science fiction novels; and (5) begin work on a new possible novel-length project by the end of the year.
I will try to give more updates and talk more about what I am reading and what I’ve learned during this whole process. I’ve been keeping a lot of it to myself so far and have been told I need to share a little more about the experience of trying to be a successful science fiction author.
J
The post Update on Fifth World 3 and other Projects appeared first on Jacob Foxx.
