Making a Come Back

One thing I should probably emphasize is my inability to stay on task. That, coupled with my desire to always be too busy to think, leads to a large bout of complete and utter absentmindedness.

Of course, I've always considered it a good thing for potential, and current, writers/authors to be quirky. I feel as if that makes them more accessible to the public. And isn't that really what we all want? To see ourselves in our role models?

Unfortunately, and possible fortunately, with my absentminded nature comes the ability to sit on a work-in-progress for a long time and then go back and read it. The fortunate part is getting a completely new perspective on it, the unfortunate is that it's not always a good one. In fact, the story that I was all excited about nearly a year ago...well....turns out I feel as if I was a smidgen too ambitious with it. At a whomping 55,000 words I realized that I hadn't even reached a half-way point and, often unless you're a) very luck b) a freaking genius, ridiculously long epic-fantasy novels don't get published.

And that's what I'm hoping for right?

So, alas, my 55,000 words have been placed into my ever-growing pile of "hopefuls" and "wishful thinkings" (this particular one falling into the latter category).

It's not all bad though! It actually got me to thinking.

Why does a novel need to be complex? And I mean complex as in main plot + sub plot + sub plot of the sub plot +sub sub sub SUB plot and....it all just becomes a jumbled mush and instead of being innovated and awesome it just sucks. No other words for it. So yes, I admit, my last attempt sucked. Maybe only to me, maybe someone out there really would enjoy it, but I didn't and thus couldn't really continue writing it.

I also realized that I kept trying to force myself into a writing style that was uncomfortable to me. I love reading young adult and juvenile literature. I love how the simplicity of the plot makes way for such complex and unforgettable characters and I thought, "Self, stop trying to write adult fantasy novels. It's not your thing!"

And thus was born my next "great idea."

This time, I approached things quite a bit differently. The entire novel is planned. I have a three page outline of all the events that are going to take place, a two page list of characters and places (which are ever changing. I'm a stickler for character names and tend to change them at least once every few weeks) and even a simple sketch of the world map. I have built societies, cities, keeps, wildernesses, castles and thrown my characters into this new world. "O brave new world that has such people in it!"

A simple plot that gives-way to a complex world.

I like this new idea. Let's roll with it.

Oh! And did I mention? Guild Wars. Yes. When I should be writing I'm usually blowing off steam from the day running around on Guild Wars. It keeps me sane, really! And probably keeps me securely in the "big dork" life category as well.

I've also decided to end each post from now on with a word count :)

Word Count: 4,047