That’s a wrap

Just wrapped up the first draft of a new novella. It’s a fantasy set in the early 1700s. Has to do with sailing and pirates. This draft is 102 pages and 22,299 words. I’m going to let it sit for a while, and then I’ll start the edit process.

I’m still working on the medieval themed epic fantasy novel from fifteen years ago. I now have 571 pages and 114,982 words. I try to work on it every day, but sometimes that doesn’t happen.

I did a stupid thing

Between 2002 and 2004, I was writing an epic fantasy novel. I had 491 pages down, and then I just stopped in early 2004. Over the years, I would pull up the manuscript and do some edits here and there, and try and fail to get back into the story. I had not moved the story forward since early 2004.

About a month ago, I started reading it again, and refrained from editing. While reading, I made lists of character names, cities, towns, castles, kingdoms, etc. Anything that had a name went on a list.

I finished reading a couple weeks ago and I’m moving the story forward again. I now have 525 pages down. I’m still not as connected to the story as I was fifteen years ago, but having the lists of names helps.

I had crude maps of the kingdoms, but at some point I threw them away. I just bought this big sketch pad. I’m going to try redrawing the maps from memory, so I can keep track of what’s what and where.

I had also written several spinoff short stories and novellas that were connected to this novel. But I threw those away too. Some of those stories had received positive feedback from editors.

I can’t believe I developed so much self-doubt and threw out all that work. I’m going to finish this novel and the entire series before I start the editing process.

No Writing Tonight

Guess I’m not getting in any writing tonight. I’m tired and I want to be up early tomorrow. I’m thinking about using my old break-action 20-gauge tomorrow morning instead of the 12-gauge pump-action. Because until I get that tree cut down, the farthest I can place the bait in that direction is 20 yards out, and that might too close for the powerful scope on my 12-gauge.