Spring into Summer

“Instantly the brute saw him; its great yellow tusks gleamed in the shadows, but it made no sound.  Creatures of night and the silence, the gray apes of Vilayet were voiceless.  But in its dim, hideous features, which were a bestial travesty of a human face, showed ghastly exultation.  Conan stood poised, watching the oncoming monster without a quiver.  He knew he must stake his life on one thrust; there would be no chance for another; nor would there be time to strike and spring away.  The first blow must kill, and kill instantly, if he hoped to survive that awful grapple.  He swept his gaze over the short, squat throat, the hairy swagbelly, and the mighty breast, swelling in giant arches like twin shields.  It must be the heart; better to risk the blade being deflected by the heavy ribs than to strike in where a stroke was not instantly fatal.  With full realization of the odds, Conan matched his speed of eye and hand and his muscular power against the brute might and ferocity of the man-eater.  He must meet the brute breast to breast, strike a deathblow, and then thrust to the ruggedness of his frame to survive the instant of manhandling that was certain to be his.”
— (Excerpt from The Hour of the Dragon, by Robert E. Howard)


Spring into Summer
Wow, it’s hard to believe that Spring has already given way to Summer.  Every year, it seems like these seasons pass ever more swiftly.  Time for me to give my assessment of the “Spring Round” of ROW80 and to share my goals for the upcoming “Summer Round.”  For the past few months, my writing journey has been exciting, at times arduous, but always encouraging.  This being my first attempt at this 80-day challenge, I went into it with nothing more than an adventurous spirit, a disciplined mindset, and a passion for writing.  Nothing more.  Sure, I set some achievable, albeit ambitious, goals for myself, hoping to write to these arbitrary word-count numbers that I had designated for myself, but that wasn’t my standard for success or failure this time around.  For the “Spring Round”, I just wanted to serendipitously experience it, to see for myself what I was capable of achieving, and to establish a baseline for future rounds.  By going this route, I assured my success so long as I wrote consistently each day and publicly reported my progress each week.   Best to keep it simple, lest I get discouraged by the magnitude of the journey. 

Having said that, I do want the next round to be more disciplined and structured.  I haven’t yet finalized any goals for the “Summer Round” of ROW80, but I do know that I want to work to a weekly word-count goal, not a daily one, this time around.  I think this is a better approach.  If I miss one day due to life’s demands or if I fall behind, I can always make them up later in the week with a weekly word-count goal.  I also hope to do some serious story-crafting next round as well.  I will attempt, for the first time, to have a completed first-draft story, from beginning to end, hopefully ready for revisions by this autumn, even if it’s just a novella with a simple plot.  I haven’t decided yet what story I will be working on, but thanks to my Muse, I have over fifteen story-candidates with potential from which to choose (some more developed than others).  I’ve already narrowed it down to a few story-candidates and will make a decision soon.  During the next few weeks, I will organize all my story content and  prepare myself for the beginning of the next round.  I’ll report on that later once I know more.

I’m looking forward to doing some artwork during this two-week break between rounds.  I’ve been wanting to do some drawings all week, and have some ideas that I want to explore.  I like to get a visual feel for my characters and their surroundings, and I get my best ideas while I’m drawing.  There’s just something about being in that drawing-zone that really ignites my imagination.  My Muse loves it when I draw.  I can usually invoke her by picking up a pencil and a piece of paper, brainstorming and sketching-out my ideas so that I can visually “see” them and build upon them.  Nothing too detailed, just loose sketches and scribblings of the basic shapes for now.  Detail will come later.  I have a few characters that I want to draw and a few book cover ideas that I want to develop in between rounds as well.  Gotta keep those creative energies flowing!


That’s all for now.  Keep the Fire Burning!
Please visit the other writers in the ROW80 Community…

Finding My Rhythm

“Olivia reclined in the bows of the gently rocking boat, in a state dreamy and unreal.  She experienced an illusion that she was floating in midair, stars beneath her as well as above.  Her silent companion was etched vaguely against the softer darkness.  There was no break or falter in the rhythm of his oars; he might have been a fantasmal oarsman, rowing her across the dark lake of Death.   But the edge of her fear was dulled, and, lulled by the monotony of motion, she passed into a quiet slumber.”

(excerpt from, Shadows in the Moonlight, by Robert E. Howard)

Finding My Rhythm

So far, the first week of March has been relatively productive for me.  As I prepare for the next round of ROW80, I feel like the preliminary planning of my [World-Building] project is right on schedule.  This past week has mostly been about organizing my project folders, and copying-and-pasting all the “good stuff” from my NaNoWriMo world-building manuscript into my new folders.  Once organized, editing these new components into something useful has been the hardest part.   For example, I have some scenes that I have written where the story is told using a certain protagonist, but then I think ‘hey, wouldn’t it be better if this happened to my other protagonist in a different story?’  Well, that’s what I’ve been doing to a couple of my scenes, swapping out one character for another, then changing the new character’s reactions and dialog to the scene.  In other words, I end up re-writing the entire scene using a different lead character.  It’s a lot of work, but the end result is a stronger, more compelling, scene.

Random Scenes

In my [Brainstorming Ideas] folder, under a sub-folder called [Scenarios], I’ve been free-writing all the random scenes that I have floating around in my head.  Maybe it’s an exotic setting, like that of a crumbling temple, strangled by the vines and roots of the deep jungle.  Or maybe it’s a dramatic situation, like a hero frantically trying to unfasten the clasps and buckles of his heavy armor as he sinks quickly in deep dark waters.  Sometimes it’s nothing more than a mood or a tone that I want to convey in a story.   Mostly, these ideas come to me as nothing more than a vivid snapshot, without plot or context.  I don’t know if I’ll use these scenes in any of my stories, but I figure it’s good writing practice and counts toward my daily word-count goal.  More importantly, if I don’t get these thoughts out of my head, I’ll forget them tomorrow.  As the ancient proverb states, “the palest ink is better than the sharpest memory”.  Write it down before it’s forgotten!

World-Building Research

I’ve been doing some online research for my world-building project.  Many of the fantasy world-building articles that I find are geared towards video-game designers or role-playing-game dungeon-masters, but many of these same concepts can be used by fantasy writers to develop their world.   Here are some great world-building links that I discovered this week:

• A World Building Checklist — A well-organized list of all the world-building components that a fantasy writer will have to consider.  It is similar to the S.F.W.A. Questionnaire discussed in a previous post.   A great place to start.

• The Cartographers’ Guild — If you want to have a map of your fantasy world in the front of your book, this is, by far, the best map-making community forum out there!  Check out the Finished Maps and Cartographer’s Choice galleries.

• Medieval Names Archive — A fantastic collection of articles on medieval and renaissance names, and how to properly choose one.  A great resource for anyone wanting to add authenticity to their historical fiction.

• Ringwork’s Fantasy Name Generator — More than just a simple name generation tool, this one accepts complex commands that allow you to personalize how you character’s name looks and sounds.  Play around with the drop-menu.

• Donjon’s Fantasy Name Generator — A name generator used by role-playing-game dungeon-masters (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) to create characters for quests.  It has some fun drop-menu combinations, such as for naming adventuring parties and monsters.   Obviously, you would want to tweak these names with your own naming variation.  A good starting point.  Again, play around with the drop-menus.

• Medieval Demographics Calculator — This random kingdom generator calculates all the resources that are needed in order to support a kingdom of a certain size, such as population density, farmland acreage and trade services.  It is based on actual historical demographic data compiled by S. John Ross, in his article Medieval Demographics Made Easy.  Play around with the parameters.  Note: In order to get another random kingdom, refresh your browser.

• Fractal World Generator — A world creation tool where you can change the planetary parameters, like water and ice content, to create a map.   Press the [Create] button to see your fractal-generated world map.   A fun way to play with world-building ideas.

Okay, enough playing on the Internet; back to writing!  Just kidding.  I hope you find some of these links useful for your writing projects.  Please visit some of the other writers in the ROW80 Community…