I hope everyone reading this had a wonderful Valentine's Day. If you're like what seems like 90% of Facebook and feel the holiday is nothing more than a manufactured one and that the concept of taking a single day to dote on those you love is ridiculous, then I just hope you had a wonderful day. Though, any day that can be used as an excuse to have free reign on candy, and then buy that candy for 50% off the next day is okay in my book. Also, any holiday in which Reese's has a holiday-themed peanut butter cup-ish product gets my seal of approval.
Onto the (lack of) progress updates!
Well, it was another week of "meh" progress, so I'm hoping to be a bit more productive next week. As of now, Book 3 of Korin's Journal stands at 19,132 words. Korin's about a chapter away from getting his mind blown! That's all I can really say about the upcoming part of the book without giving to much away.
Other than those few words, no other writing has been happening. I do want to have a backup project this year to turn to when I need a little break from all things Korin, but I'm not sure what I want it to be yet. As you can tell from my lil' ol' progress bars to the upper right of this page, I have a novella I started that has been stuck on 29% for . . . a long time. Sadly, though it is something I will be finishing in the future, I just haven't been feeling it.
What that novella is going to be, basically, is a murder mystery involving immortals, immortals who are supposed to be, well, immortal. I still like the story and the characters, but there's just something missing that I feel the story will need to be what I want it to be (Reading back through that sentence makes my head hurt).
Basically, I don't plot on paper. I don't formally outline. The second I have a physical outline, I feel trapped. OCD kicks in and I refuse to deviate from what's on the paper/file/whatever. Therefore, I keep everything in my head. And believe it or not, it works(for me), and it doesn't incite my psychological stubbornness to stick to the plan . Also, I tend to create stories with a series of events in mind and then fill in the gaps between those events as I go. That's the only way I can be truly creative. Anything else just feels too procedural.
Even so, I don't "wing it" with my writing. I'm not a complete pantser. When I sit down to write, though I may have trouble getting the words out of my head, I always know what I want to happen.
With this novella, I have the main events in my head. I have 99% of the plot. I even have a decent idea for a sequel. But something, some inexplicable spark, just isn't there for me right now. The result of this lack is that I keep my distance from the story, waiting for that spark to hit me. And I know it will. But until then, I don't want to go into the story half-assed and end up hating it, as I've done with so many things I've written in the past. Maybe at some point this year I'll clean up what I've written so far with it. The first couple chapters are a bit too much of an info dump for me.
Hmm...I didn't plan going there with this blog. Anyway, at some point, you'll probably see another project progress bar up in that corner(hopefully with actual progress), while the Untitled Novella(though it is titled) stays where it is for a bit longer.
Moving on.
My St. Jude fundraiser is still stuck at the $275 out of $300 mark, but it's ongoing until May 17, so there's still tons of time to make a donation and get a chance to win a signed copy of one my books or to get your name in Book 3 of Korin's Journal.
And don't forget to enter the Alinor's Shard giveaway on Goodreads! The giveaway ends February 28th!
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Alinor's Shard
by Brian Beam
Giveaway ends February 28, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
This Tuesday's blog (2/18/2014) will be my first Top-Ten Tuesday blog, and appropriately will feature my top ten fantasy novels. I've decided not to explain my reasoning for each item on the list each week, but will gladly do so if asked after they're posted. Also, feel free to ask things like "You actually like that crap?" or "Why the hell would that be #10?" or "Why don't you like old books/movies/music etc?". With Top-Ten tuesdays, there'll officially be 4 regular blog features on here(Sunday Scoop, Top-Ten Tuesday, Warrior Wendnesday, and Throwback Thursday). There'll be at least one or two more regular blog features, I just don't know what they'll be yet.
Best wishes to everyone for the coming week!
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