House to myself

Home alone... time to write!

Focus Group

I hosted a focus group recently to get feedback on the first draft of the new short story. The idea was to listen to another perspective on the writing... to see if my ideas are communicated properly, etc. and also to establish a milestone with a deadline. It achieved both. It helped me to get in gear and draft up what will ultimately become a critical portion of the opening act of the finished work. I was also reassured that my own impression of what is working and what is not is fairly accurate.

No more shorts... time to jam on the novel.

New Short Story

I've been working on a new Short Story over this Holiday weekend. Parts of this story will definitely be included in some form in the Novel. It is told from the perspective of a different character than the Novel version. Hard to tell but this one will likely be over 20 pages, twice that of the first short story.

I'm setting up an event for some people to come and review it when it's complete... that type of stuff will hopefully enforce a deadline... to get me in the habit of focusing and blocking out distractions.

Respite Over

While I've been away from the blog for a while, I have done some work on the book. I won't lie and say it's been a lot of work, but now I'm back at it.
In the short term, I've set a goal to work on a second short story based on the themes of the novel. That goal oriented approach seemed to work last year in making progress so I'll attempt it again.

Cool technology

So I downloaded the iBooks App and got free copies of about 15 books I intended to read for reference. Everything from traditional classics like "The Odyssey" and "La Morte d'Arthur" to Epic Poems like "The Volsunga Saga", "Nibelungenlied" and "Kalevata".

I had built this reading list when reviewing my favorite authors and learning what their influences were. It seems most of what I enjoy reading derives from Norse and Icelandic Mythology!

Character Backstory

I've used the techniques I read recently to flush out back story for two main characters. Much of this writing will probably not see the published page, but its existence adds depth and continuity to the characters. With their history in mind, it's easier to divine "what would he do here". These characters are evolving on their own it seems.

Reference Material

I had been reading Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces", but after the Hero's Journey section I can't pick it up without falling asleep. I'll get back to it later, but for now I've been reading "Character" chapters from some of my older texts, like "Story", "Fundamentals of Screenwriting", "Story Sense", "Making a Good Writer Great", etc. These are all from my screenwriting days, but I think the principals apply to this format.