Week(s) of 19 March to 01 April
Oops. I didn’t mean to skip a week of updates, although I admittedly did not have a lot to report last week. Getting what I wanted to into chapter nine took longer than expected, and I’m still not sure if it works quite right – I imagine that it might take some detailed revisions when I get to that point to make it work for readers with the rest of the story. It’s mostly a character chapter, and for a side character at that, which is why it was a challenge; however, it’s also important, because said side character will intercede on Raven’s behalf in a major way in a couple of chapters, and that needs to be properly justified and motivated.
Now, I’m onto chapter ten, which will see Raven finish his first year at the University and go home for the summer. My main task here, aside from continuing to build up to the big conflict I’m projecting for chapter twelve or thirteen, is to wrap up the plot threat with the possible love interest I started back in chapter one. This should have been pretty evident from the start, but making it clear and interacting with it will be a good source of tension. That, and some discoveries Raven will be making over his summer away from school. Hopefully, I’ll be able to report chapter ten is complete by the next update.
I also spent some time on a final revision for Charmers and submitted that story to March’s Elegant Literature contest. Ship in a Bottle did not make the cut for February’s contest, so you can expect that one to show up eventually on the site, probably in July, since In My Defense is scheduled for May, and The Arch, the Centering, and the Keystone is scheduled for June. Whatever will I do if one of these submissions is actually accepted? Well, I’d probably still write a little author’s note for it. This month’s prompt is something about shadows and knives, and a crow, and I might not participate. There are many obvious directions to go with that prompt, and not a lot of new and interesting ones. We’ll see. Maybe something to do with cooking?
Aside from those projects, I’ve been making steady progress the past two weeks on a story with the working title Archmage, though I think I’ll come up with something better when it’s finished. It’s a little experimental, but it has one of the things I really enjoy about a story, which is a very powerful character being forced to stretch in new ways. I’d estimate I’m a little past halfway on the first draft, though it’s going to need some very thorough revisions before it’s fit to share. Once it is finished, though, I intend it to be an IGC Publishing original, and not attempt to submit it anywhere else.
Hopefully this longer update helps make up for the lack of one last week. We’re going to discuss blockchain technology in Tuesday’s post, and then Thursday’s book review marks the start of my reviews for the four books in Sanderson’s second era of Mistborn. After that, I’ll be back next week with another weekly writing update. Really.
IGC Publishing 