So to start, I might as well talk about that which consumes the majority of my time not devoted to family or work: the craft of writing. Indeed, my hope for this blog is to eventually utilize the rants and reflections to come into a proposed, started-and-abandoned novel called … blurb and blather.
After completing my student teaching this spring, I had a “month free” before traveling to visit family in Korea. I used that month to edit two of my previous books into somewhat-acceptable drafts, and to embark again on a vexing task: completing a book of interrelated short-fiction pieces that had sat around unfinished from 2004 (!). Somewhere during this time I decided on finally doing what I’d desired-but-procrastinated on for years… print out ‘master drafts’ of all my writings and compile a systematic, organized library.
As of writing this blog, November 14th 2011, most of that library is now on the shelf.
1) Neophyte Nostrums — (word count 60,000)
A compilation of creative fiction from my teenage years and a little beyond, spanning 1991-1996. Short stories, poems, an essay or two, the multitude of attempted-and-abandoned creative pieces. This project is technically unfinished, as it is not yet in the library. I initially typed it up in one big draft back in 1997, then lost the 3.5 disk the file was on (it fell out of my backpack in a coffee-shop). I still have the printed, edited draft, however, and in the last couple weeks I’ve begun retyping all of it. Annoying, but one way to wake the brain up during my 15 minutes of free time before classes.
The title is intentional, as per the dictionary definition: “a medicine sold with false or exaggerated claims and with no demonstrable value; quack medicine.” The stories and especially the poems are all pretty much shit, detailing “shocking” stuff I’d had virtually no tactile experience of. Still, this is where I’d cut my teeth, and I’d be remiss to shuttle it aside.
2) Storm’s Whisper – (word count 167,000)
My first novel, written in the summer and fall of 1997. By this point I’d concieved of and even written a couple of long-form synopsis for a fantasy epic, but I felt unprepared/inexperienced and so decided to write a “prequel” detailing one of the significant events of the world’s history.
This book, more than perhaps any other, has existed as a writing template. The original handwritten draft was perhaps 25k; the first typed draft was 75k; my ‘fleshing out’ draft composed in 99/’00 balooned it to 187k. Then it sat onthe shelf for 8 years, until I pulled it down in 2008 (right before going back to school) and spent about a month weeping tears of frustration and clenching my fists in despair and rage as I read the bloated, meandering prose, slashing liberally with the red pen until the draft seemed to positively bleed. Eventually I transferred the changes from draft to computer file, edited the fucking thing again, slashed more… and ended up with a draft at 167k. This is without deleting any of the scenes or significantly changing the novel at all. Now–now I can pick up the book, read through it at random, and actually enjoy the prose. There are flaws within the novel that still remain and frankly aren’t worth the time and energy to fix, given that I have so many other projects demanding my attention. At least it is now readable without every glance electing a cringe–that was my goal.
3) As the Earth Sleeps (word count: 255,000)
The continuation from Storm’s Whisper. I began this in January 1998 and wrote 2/3rds of it that year, then left it to moulder and haunt through ’99 and most of ’00 as I restructured SW and worked on a few other projects. Eventually I completed the last climatic sections while ‘vacationing’ in Russia in 2001. I read-through/edited it in 2009, which was a painful experience that grew gradually less and less painful as it went on — I could visibly see how my writing improved over the course of nearly 3 1/2 years. Still, another volume that will never see the light of publication, beyond my personal library.
And I eventually abandoned that particular world / future book concepts, as well… these were to be the first two of five books, followed by another five. I cannot even contemplate continuing on now (or really from 2001!), with so many other visions burning bright in the mind’s eye.
4) The Kraken File (word count 67,000)
A sci-fi pulp novel concieved as a writing experiment in the spring of 2000. I wrote around 40% of it from 2000 – 2002, then put it aside, as I didn’t feel my skills were adequate to do justice to the concept (which was actually a pretty damn good concept).
I flew to Hong Kong in the fall of 2002 with the explicit purpose of getting a feel of the city, as this is where the second half of the book would take place. For a solid week I hoofed the streets, until my feet felt as if they’d been crushed by hammers… but I did get a sensory immersion, a totality of experience, which lended itself when I eventually returned to the draft.
I took a screenwriting class for my winter semester 2009 to cover required credits for my writing minor. As I was taking 23 credits that semester, I decided to craft a screenplay from the unfinished novel and complete it in the process, so as to get my ‘major project’ out of the way as early as possible before being crushed by the compounded stress of other classes. I finished the 20k, 130 page screenplay in three weeks and turned it in; the teacher assumed I had written it previously and didn’t even read it. I turned in a second screenplay and recieved an A- for the class.. (!) Absolutely fucking typical, the only A- in college and it was for a creative writing class.
(I blogged about this already, so anyway…)
With the core dialogue and sequence of events already outlined in the screenplay draft, I returned to the book in the summer of 2010. I was working behind the counter of the tech center at Fort Lewis, with around 20-40 minutes of work required per 8 hour shift. I thus worked like a slave on my myriad projects, taking advantage of the opportunity to the fullest. So–July 2010–by this point I had already completed a monster fucker of a book and written the first 20k of a new novel (Immortal Coil below). I decided to “take a break” and tie up old loose ends. I’d already seriously hack’d-n-slash’d and rewritten The Kraken File’s original draft during my screenwriting process; I took that version and slammed out the second half in about three weeks. 10 years of procrastination, dithering, dreaming… hammered out in six weeks altogether.
The birth of my daughter probably has had some effect on my work ethic.
5) Souls in Winter (word count 230,000)
A bunch of short stories, novellas, poems, my two screenplays from that class mentioned above, a graphic-novel script… essentially, a compilation of fiction from 1999-2011. I finished two of the stories in summer 2011 just to get ’em done and this baby to the printers. Most of it was written in 2001-2002, though, as fallout exercises from (temporarily) abandoning the spec fiction.
6) Songs of Iron (word count 267,000)
I started this in 2004, so I suppose it will be slotted here, even though I completed the second half of it in the summer/fall of 2011.
I have this habit of starting a book, getting bored or intimidated or both by it, and starting a minor project to keep busy. And so did this book begin, with a novella titled “Blood of Sakoya” (later retitled). I wrote about half of it in 2004, let it gather dust for a long while, then returned to it in the second half of 2006, after returning from Asia and on-fire to get some words down. I finished that story and went ahead and wrote another… then another… while planning and writing the first few chapters of the novel Sacred Cycles (below).
The fourth story, The Serpentspire of Cazhandaga, ended up being 69,000, the size of a small novel in and of itself. I wrote about half of that tale, then put the book down to focus on Sacred Cycles. In the autumn of 2007 I completed Serpentspire and SC concurrertly, then dabbled about with the first 1/3rd of what would become the final story of the comp and the title of the overall project, Songs of Iron.
For the next few years I wrote the beginning of three more stories, perhaps a total of 5k. Finally, after completing the novel Immortal Coil in the spring of 2011, I took those fragments and fleshed them out, along with writing two more novellas and completing the title story (around 85k altogether from April 2011 – September 2011). Finally, finally this fucker was done! And I was burned out from fiction writing in general, so I started on a non-fiction piece (see below).
In the end, I view Songs of Iron as another writing template. I’ve edited the first four stories many many times, trying to develop my voice to the desired flow. Even now those stories aren’t quite what I’d like them to be… but whatever.
7) Against Entropy (word count roughly 350,000)
This is the most ‘recent’ project printed out, though chronologically it fits here (sort of). Essentially, this is my myspace blog (sans travel reflections / travel journals); my amazon.com reviews (1998-2008) and my academic papers from 2008-2010. I chose the title as the blog and amazon reviews were primarly composed to fight against entropy–to get something down, no matter depression, laziness, procrastination, despair.
8.) Walking on Fire (word count currently 140,000, will be around 170,000 at the end)
A collection of travel writings, consisting of the ‘travel reflection’ pieces from my myspace blog along with the totality of my journal writing from SE Asia, 2006. I’m currently typing out my handwritten journals from SE Asia 2002 and Russia 2001 as well. I plan on writing (in 2013 or 2014) a ‘definitive’ book of travel stories titled Strange World, which is why I’ve separated these sections from the main blog.
Perusing this reminds me again that my non-fiction is generally superior to my fiction.
9) Abandoned Agonies (word count roughly 120,000)
–contains my abandoned and incomplete works from 1999-2008, including a graphic novel drawn/written in 2008 (sort of finished, I didn’t have another place to put it) and an unfinished novel from 2000-2003 that ran around 75k in itself. The title refers to the agony of having a project envisioned, begun, but never completed…
10) Sacred Cycles (word count 225,000)
The first of a five-book ‘mega-epic,’ written in 2007. I still harbor hopes of publishing this, though I’ve hedged my bets in the last couple years by writing stand-alones with more immediate commercial value.
After editing and editing and editing some more, I eventually changed course in 2008 and began looking forward, rather than back–in other words, I attempt to spend the majority of my time writing new books, rather than editing old books. My output has subsequently increased by a large margin.
11) Sorrow’s Heart (word count 302,000)
My largest novel so far, and hopefully ever… this book was a fucking beast to write for various reasons, and it took 2 1/2 years to get it done (Jan 2008 – June 2010). I actually haven’t read it cover-to-cover, so I don’t know if I was entirely successful… but it does contain some of my finest individual moments in fiction, without a doubt.
Part of the struggle came from the fact that I split one book (originally titled Farewell to Farcia) to three books (The Conquest Song) and then, after realizing that there was no way in hell to get everything down, split the second volume into 3 (thus, five books altogther). Resolving this conflict and properly outlining the details took damn near a year in and of itself.
12) Immortal Coil (word count 171,000)
I started this the same day I completed Sorrow’s Heart. Buzzing from the relief of putting that beast to bed, I began the prologue and went on to write out the beginning 20k in about two weeks. I then paused and finished The Kraken File and a short story, allowing my brain the time to germinate the central conflict and sequence of events.
The fall of 2010 was extremely busy–three jobs, my undergrad thesis, the baby–so I wrote a mere 25k over those four months. The next semester I underwent student teaching and had far more free time; from Jan to April I banged out the remaining 120k.
This, a stand-alone related to the The Conquest Song, is my attempt to write something commercial, perhaps attract an agent… but I need to run it through the editing mill about two or twenty times beforehand.
In-progress works:
13) The Circle
After completing the remaining 5 stories of Songs of Iron this year, I found myself burned out on writing fiction, even if the results were still emerging to satisfaction. To keep busy, I started this non-fiction novel about the “bad ol’ days” from 1995-1996. I’ve wanted to write this for a long time–16 years–and have attempted it four times before, never progressing very far (the screenplay attempt in 1999 was the most promising, in reflection).
And it worked: this project has rejuvinated my creative process, big time… I no longer feel burned out at all. It’s also been quite strange and illuminating to view my days as a bumbling outlaw. Old memories continue to surface, and I find myself nostalgic…
Current draft – around 28,000. Expected wc: 70-80k
14) The Book of Mirrors
A YA fantasy novel intended for my daughter when she reaches her tweens. I started this in 2010, wrote around 15k, and have had it on the backburner since. Returned to it recently, gave it a pretty sound thrashing of an edit, and wrote a few more thousand. I plan on completing this next spring.
Current wc – 18,000. Expected wc: 60-70k
15) Until the End of the World
It was interesting to read all my old research on cults and scientology in the myspace blog last week, given that the eventual result still festers at the margins of my creative process. This book is so dark that I don’t want to work on it in the vicinity of my daughter, however, so after writing the first 1/3rd in early 2010, I haven’t touched it. I plan on completing it at my work environment in the spring of next year.
Current wc: 22,000. Expected wc: 70-80,000
16) The Lash
Another stand-alone fantasy book, developed in part to increase my selling pitch when I seek an agent, and in part to work on thematic aspects lacking from my main mega-epic (such as romance). Work has been very slow on this; I’ve spent most of my time honing the prologue’s language. Will probably pick up steam on this next year, after the above two projects are done.
Current wc: 7,000. Expected wc: 120,000
17) The Subtle Wound
The third book of The Conquest Song mega-epic. Book 2 was so exhausting and frustrating that I put this series aside “For a year” and worked on other stuff. It looks like I’ll be putting it aside for at least another year, given the material above. Part of me wants to work on it, which is good–I sure as hell didn’t feel that way after completing Sorrow’s Heart.
Current wc: around 3,000. Expected wc: 240,000
18) Blurb and Blather
A book of rants and reflection on the creative process – a semi-autobiography of a ‘failed writer’. Originally this was to be a short story about a starving-artist returning home and catching up on the activities, successes and failures of his old writing circle. Lots of opportunity for misanthropic bitching and the like. I wrote the beginning and then it shuffled on down the line. But there’s potential for a novel here, so I’m (eventually) going to go with it…
Current wc: 3,000. Expected wc: 70-90,000
—–I also have around 20 more books planned out, but the above 6 (along with a couple others) will take 2012 / 2013 to complete.
blurbandblather 