(Almost) Full Time Writing

[Recovering from burnout-source]

It took me a while to recover from burnout from a very long, difficult school year.  Now, I'm trying to spend all the time I can, as close to full time as I can, rewriting the books and getting them ready for publication using the editor's feedback. During the school year, I gather up the few scraps I can and try to write a little bit.  But during the summer, I get real time. When I'm not teaching or transcribing (my two full or part time jobs during the school year, which become very part time jobs during the summer), I'm focusing all my time on writing. 

[Editing-source]

I'm now able to dig right into writing.  First, I'll go over the feedback I've received from various sources and make sure I know which direction I'm headed in, then I'll dig into each chapter, making sure I follow the right format and have at least one turning point per chapter.  Some chapters and even spans of book have to be completely rewritten.  It's not as fun as the freedom of writing in the first place, when a rough idea of what will happen that chapter guides me, and just about anything can happen.  But it's still gratifying to know where I've come from, where I'm going, and more about who these characters are and what they're doing over the course of these ten books and the next ten besides.  I'm making good progress and hope to make better progress still as I push through July.  I look forward to bringing you some actual published works soon. 

Connecting

 

[source]

When I was in my late teens, I started a novel that came from a dream.  In my dream, I was a shapeshifting alien boy.  I invented a vague backstory with a lot more detail to the world than I had to his life.  I had a working title, Transposition, a name, Joshua, a rough idea of various aliens involved, and the imagery from my dream.  I wrote one scene but then wasn't sure where to go from there.  I wanted to make something of the story, but though I was able to spin other dreams/ideas/concepts into a couple of (never to be published) novels, I couldn't seem to move this one past that first scene.  It had cool bits and pieces that I liked as a youth, but it was going nowhere. 

[Alpaca-lips-source]

Then, 2.5 decades later, my boy and I started Doomimals, a story that seemed to be totally unconnected to anything I had written before.  It all started with a stumble in conversation.  One of us said "Alpacalips" instead of apocalypse.  I thought that germ had promise for a kids' story but didn't come up with a path until later, when I was talking to my son.  Since then, it has become a complex and rich universe with detailed mythology.  And best of all, we've figured out a way to bring in the main character from those defunct novels and the story germ of Transposition forward.  Its basic idea of an intergalactic war between a set of three leading alien races in conflict with seven other alien races became the foundation for the Doomimals mythology. 

[Drawing from one of my Future Books]

Now, the main character has a new name, Adam (a religious and scientific allusion) and title (working title: The Radiant Army vs Me), and is becoming a complex character with a similar backstory but a whole pathway and plot laid out before him.  My boy helped me break down those barriers, so the boy from my dreams so many years ago could help those three alien races (now the Guardian Races) challenge each of those seven races of the Radiant Army to their own game, one at a time.  This is the value of having a working buddy; they can help you overcome writer's block. As I polish Doomimals for you, I'm also working on how to craft this story into a fun adventure for you.  Thanks for listening.