On Writing Runewell:

I'm only a few chapters in, but...

1) YES, there are CHAPTERS!  Archer is in serious need of chapter-revamping, but I came prepared for Runewell.
2)  Names are cool.  Seriously.
3) From Twitter: "A perk of writing about a queen: getting to increase word count by the copious amounts of 'your majesty' AND it doesn't become redundant."
4) EVERYONE has a personality. (Duh, self)
5) Childhood is probably at least 75% of everything.  I draw inspiration on this from my second job.
6) So far, I'm making good, steady pace & progress.
7) Writing longhand sucks because of the typing.  My wrist hurts.
8) I'm going to need a new notebook.

Editing

So where are we now? What's next?

Archer of the Lake's draft is finished.  I never 'officially' shared that here, but approximately ten minutes after one in the afternoon on June the 11th, I officially completed writing my first book. That was a rather large milestone for me.  I'm still in shock.

So then I asked for people to edit, all the while spending time since then sluggishly reading through the manuscript to make my own cursory edits.  Mostly typos and basic syntax.  Yesterday I finished doing that, and last night I sent the manuscript to several peers--fifteen exactly--for them to read.  They will be looking for typos, syntax, and content. I will, hopefully if everyone participates, have the opinion of fifteen people on my book. Nerve racking. I was rather paranoid before hitting "send" when Boyfriend and Best Friend insisted I should not trust everyone I've sent it to.  They think someone will have the propensity to steal my work, so I took extra measures in case someone decides to maliciously do this. I don't think anyone will.  I hope not at least.

So now, I'm stuck in a rather odd situation.  At the moment, there's nothing for me to do with Archer.  There's no writing to be done, currently, or editing on my behalf.  There's just waiting, and that's strange because I feel as though I should be doing something.

When I do begin getting the feedback of my editors, I'll start making my gruesome edits.  And I'm hoping I won't have to dismember my baby TOO much.

Then at work I had this frightening realization. That people were actually reading my book. MY book. People are going to be reading my book and they may hate it or they may like.  They will have an opinion of it and they will know the characters I've spent the last year and a half creating.  And that's scary.  It makes me feel so exposed.

But there are plenty of other things I can busy myself with.  I've just begun drafting Runewell, and I have to say I'm relieved that Myria is turning out to be a different person than Caelfel.  (Main character in Runewell and Archer, respectively).  This is a fear I've always had.  That I would get accused of the "Mary-Sue", lookalike characters.  But I believe there's quite a bit of distinction.  So far.  I've not yet reached my first 1k word mark yet.  But it's outlined.

Then I had a dream, three days after completing Archer, and it inspired me to write another book.  I won't say much, because I don't want to promise something I won't deliver.  But this prospective story is currently titled Mute and it has a post-apocalyptic, almost steampunk setting for the scenario.  I will share a Facebook status I composed the morning after said dream:

I had a dream last night and it inspired me to write a story involving a philosophical and applicable comparison between Christianity and eastern schools of thinking.

I've made a rather basic outline for this one too, already have the names of the three most important characters down.  I feel that this will probably be the most meaningful of all my projects.  It'll be dark, rife with physical abuse and depression.  But it's important.  I really want to write it.  I don't suspect (or at least hope) that Runewell will take long.  And then there's a project after Mute, but I won't say much on that.

And now.  While there's nothing to do and I wait for Boyfriend to get home, I've suddenly found myself approaching another Phantom of the Opera kick.  The last time this happened, I watched my copy of the movie four times a week for at least eight months.  Seriously.

SOMEONE BRING ME PHANTOM.

Kelly's Writing Rules

Look! I'm doing a blog post!  I've seen countless other writers, self-published or no, come up with their own set of writing rules or reiterating ones they hail as absolute truth.  You know, Stephen King says the road to hell is paved with adverbs, right?  I wanted to come up with my own.  I'm not a fan of those type of writing rules, like the one Mr. King gives us, because I believe they're so limiting.  I suppose we'll find out when I publish Archer how well MY writing rules work.  If they don't, then feel free to taunt about how wrong I was for not listening.  I was a very stubborn child.

Anyway, I posted these on Twitter, but I'll make a collective blog post every now and then on some and explain.

1. Don't choreograph your fight scenes to Carmen's Habanera. Unless you're awesome.

Should be self-explanatory.  Habanera, while I LOVE the piece (particularly by Maria Callas), does not go well with action or climactic scenes.  I'm at the point of developing the final climax of Archer, so as I was driving home one day, my radio played Habanera and I began visualizing the scene in my head.  While interesting, it just did not fit the mood.  I think, given a different scene or situation though, the result would be awesome.

2. Showers are a good place to think on plot development. But watch that shampoo. Quarter-sized dots come quickly.

I have a LOT of hair, and I do ruminate on many things whilst in the shower, plot development included.  Since I have a lot of hair, I've always taken the recommended amount of shampoo needed on the bottles lightly.  However, pay attention when applying soap or shampoo because after blinking at the amount I poured into my hand the other night, I realized I had way too much.

3. When writing in the employee lounge, avoid eye contact with every familiar who would approach you.

This is a problem I face quite often.  A good portion of my writing is completed while on my lunch break.  To allow myself enough time to concentrate on this task, I scarf down my food in a semi-timely manner and pop in my headphones to write, trying to look as unfriendly as possible.  Sometimes, I am caught before I put my headphones on, or I look up at the wrong moment.  Then people approach me and stay however long they feel they should which either cuts into my writing time or eliminates it completely.

4. When working with sharp instruments, do not slice your thumb that would make it uncomfortable to hold a pen.

I work with sharp instruments.  I cut open a spot on my thumb yesterday, and since most of my writing is done by hand, it has been very uncomfortable to support my pen while writing.  Overall, it becomes an unnecessarily uncomfortable experience.

---

So, I would like to believe these writing rules are useful, and I've no doubt I'll come up with more as time goes by.

In the way of updates, I've created a new outline for my next project:

The Runewell Fairytale Outline

 I've purposely edited it this way so most of the text becomes unreadable.  Also, my handwriting!

Finally, if you would just look up at the list of tabs, you will see I've added new ones for my upcoming projects.  Runewell is still in the outlining process.  Under each tab you will see promotional covers, a term I've coined to mean as "viable to change."  Also, the Archer one will be ten times better, I'm sure.

The model for Archer is a friend.  I picked out the costume and I took the pictures.  I have over a hundred pictures total and I plan to use some of the amazing ones for more promotional things--banners and a book trailer.  Be excited!  More to come!