First Week Assessment

“Above him the skies glowed and crackled with strange lights and gleams.  The snow shone weirdly, now frosty blue, now icy crimson, now cold silver.  Through a shimmering icy realm of enchantment Conan plunged doggedly onward, in a crystalline maze where the only reality was the white body dancing across the glittering snow beyond his reach — ever beyond his reach.”

(excerpt from, The Frost Giant’s Daughter, by Robert E. Howard)

New Blog Pages

I created two new pages titled [My Writing Projects] and [My Reading List] for my blog (see links above).  On the first page you will find my current writing projects and long-term writing goals.  It is a reference page for all of the stories I will be discussing in my blog.  I will update this page frequently with new ideas and progress reports.  On the second page you will find a long list of stories I plan on reading.  Most of these stories fall under the genre of “Sword & Sorcery” and “Heroic Fantasy” because that’s what I love to read, and hopefully someday write.  Many of the stories (like the Conan series) I have read as a child, but I want to read them again with fresh adult eyes, studying the prose while rediscovering the magic.  I will update this page on a regular basis as I complete each story and as I add new ones to the list.

Project Organization

Besides updating the look and feel of my blog site (more changes to come later), I’ve been organizing my new writing project in Scrivener (I highly recommend this writing software).  Lately, I have been wading through all of the rambling sentences of my 54,000-word NaNoWriMo world-building manuscript, copying-and-pasting all the “good stuff” onto new pages.  So far, I’m half-way through this process.  I will have a lot of good “raw material” for story-crafting once I weed-out all of the “bad stuff.”   Within my World-Building folder, I have several sub-folders, such as Characters, Places, Story Outlines, Scenes, History and Lore, and Magic.  I have been using the World-Building Questionnaire provided by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as my organization guide.   I have also been reading The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy: Volume One, by Darin Park & Tom Dullemond and The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction, by Philip Athans.  These are great resources for fantasy world-building.

Writing and Reading

For my daily writing exercises, in a sub-folder called Brainstorming Ideas, I have been free-writing my generic characters into practice scenes as I try to develop their personalities.  Some are coming to life nicely, while others, not so much.  I will get more serious about this in the weeks ahead as I work on a few of my favorite characters that I think have the most potential.  With only one month to go until the “Spring Round” of ROW80, I want to have three or four main characters sketched-out, a few plots outlined, and several location settings established in the month of March.   My tentative goal is to write 60,0000 words during the 80 day period, focusing mostly on world-building and possibly a short-story or two, depending on how well the brainstorming sessions go.   I’m doubling my word-count goal for next week as I blasted past the measly 250 words-per-day goal I previously set for myself.   My reading goal remains the same; at least one “Sword & Sorcery” story a week.  I’m really enjoying this goal, having just read, The Frost Giant’s Daughter, by Robert E. Howard.   I’ll be sticking to Conan short-stories for the foreseeable future, until all of them have been read.  More on my progress mid-week…

Preliminary Preparations

“I am like a hunter

who crouches by his small fire amid the forest,

and hears stealthy feet padding in the darkness,

and almost sees the glimmer of burning eyes.

If I could but come to grips with something tangible,

that I could cleave with my sword!”

— King Conan of Aquilonia

(excerpt from The Phoenix on the Sword, by Robert E. Howard)

Since I came late to the current 80-day round, I figure I’d use this preliminary time to prepare for the next round in April.  During the month of March, I will add content to my new blog, organize my writing projects, and discuss my current goals.   Each week, I will set achievable word-counts for myself as I gradually ease my way back into the daily habit of writing again.  So far, I have easily surpassed my measly 250 words-per-day goal, and will likely increase that count next week.  

The last time I wrote on a consistent basis was during NaNoWriMo.  I used that time as a world-building exercise, creating several intriguing characters and story ideas that I may want to use in a future writing project.   I also wrote a lot of junk during that time, with “word sprints” and “stream of consciousness” exercises mixed in, just to get the daily word-count in on time.  Unfortunately, now I have to wade through piles of rubble to find those elusive story-gems.  Once I find them, I cut-and-paste them into my new project.  After that, it’s just a matter of organizing and re-working these ideas.  More on that later.

I’ve been trying to read more lately, both for knowledge and entertainment.  I believe that in order to improve as a storyteller, I need to study stories that are well-told, analyzing what it is that makes these stories great, and to emulate those aspects in my own work.  Towards that goal, I plan on reading a story a week, depending on the size of the story.   I will also be allotting “how-to-write” reading assignments for myself on a regular basis (tentatively one book per week) although, that may change depending on how much note-taking I may want to do on a particular subject (plotting, outlining, dialog, setting, characterization, etc.).   Hopefully, with all this reading, my storytelling will improve over time.   I just read The Phoenix on the Sword for the first time since my childhood.  Fantastic!  Robert E. Howard is a masterful storyteller!  I plan on reading more of his work later this week (possibly The Frost Giant’s Daughter next).  More on that in my next post…

A Writer's Journey

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

— Lao-tzu

Welcome to my journey! There are three parts to any journey; the starting point, the destination, and the path between the two.  My "starting point" is that of an introverted artist who sometimes dabbles in writing.  My "destination" is that of a prolific author who has established for himself a profitable writing career (which, metaphorically, seems like "a thousand miles" away).  This blog is my "path between the two." 

In order to get things moving on this journey, my "first step" is to set for myself a workable, measurable writing goal.  So, here it is.  For the remainder of this month (one full week), I plan on writing 250 words a day, everyday, towards one of my story ideas (which I will go into more detail about my story ideas later).  Simple enough, right?  It's a long journey; no need to sprint out of the starting-gate.  Besides, I need to break-in these new shoes.  I can adjust my pace next week if needed.  I’ll post my initial results during this week in subsequent posts.  Stay tuned…