Vacation Week Productivity Results

So, pretty much as I've done every year I've managed to combine a national holiday with a weeks vacation to maximize the number of days I can stay away from work while minimizing the number of vacation days I actually have to use. Holidays like the Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, and the uber Thanksgiving two day break work great for this strategy.

One additional objective for this year was to write and release 2 additional chapters in the ongoing Forgotten Empire project.

I didn't make it.

There were a number of reasons. Laziness, a host of great books waiting to be read, the fact I'm nearing the end of the first book, and the next chapter is probably the most critical to setting up the story for the next two books, so no pressure on me at all. If I had to choose I'd say it was a combination of all the above. Let's look at each of them in detail:

• Laziness, hey, I was on vacation, so that has to count for something. You're supposed to be lazy while on vacation. Sit back, smell the roses, recharge the battery, all that stuff. So I did.

• A host of books to read. Oh my, I did some serious reading. Pretty much in order I read:

   1. Heartless (Book #4 of the Parasol Protectorate) by Gail Carriger
   2. The John Rain series by Barry Eisler (Hard Rain, Killing Rain, Rain Fall, Rain Storm, and Killing Rain, and The Last Assassin)
   3. Hammered (Book #3 of the Iron Druid series) by Kevin Hearne
   4. Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
   5. Just a Geek, and Memories of the Future by Wil Wheaton

That's what, 11 books for the week? And let's not even count the number of web pages I visited to continue my research in becoming a self-publishing juggernaut. Nope, don't go there.

• The end of the project (Book #1) is coming to an end. As with all projects as I near the end, while I feel charged up to get it done, I'm always conflicted with the fact that I'll soon be done. The two battle it out in my mind and I dither between one state (get it done) to the opposite (this whole project sucks, you should stop before you embarrass yourself).

• Finally, its a critical chapter to the entire series. There's a lot riding on the story reveals in this chapter, its important, and I don't want to mess it up. Sure, it's only a first draft, you can clear it up in the editing phases, but still, the better it is in the first draft, then less work will be needed in the other phases.

Also, to be honest, while I did a lot of plotting and planning for this first book, its still a massive learning experience, and honestly, I'm making up some ideas as I go. Some are working, others are not. The big Macguffin, what Hieronymus is searching for, only just came to me two nights ago just as I lay down to sleep. Before that, I pretty much had nada, zip, nothing. Call it first novel jitters. A learners mistake, poor planning, whatever. Having been here once means I'm going to work harder to make sure I don't hit that wall in Book #2 or #3 or ever again.

It's not like I wasted a lot of time. While the story reveals in chapter 22 are important, there are other plot threads that I could continue just fine, so I did. Chapters 23, 24, and 25 are all half written as well. In fact, the final chapter word count targets were all set for 3500 words, I managed to write 2250, 1680, 1650, 1780 words per chapter for the week, for a total of 7360, or two chapters of material across four chapters. So, I made the word count goal, but not the release goal.

In addition, I awoke this morning with an idea for a side story in the Archer and Hieronymus universe concerning Alethea and Saara and started writing it. Since I've been itching to do a real short story for awhile I dug right in as soon as I could get my butt in gear. By noon I had 1100+ words, and before I started this post, the word count is sitting at 3027. That means I've really managed over 10,000 words for the week, a real first.

Wow, 10k words of writing in a week.

So, the results for the week are mixed, but the trend is good. There's still work to finish chapter 22, The Overseer, it's getting there slowly. Good follow ups to use my energy to write the easier scenes in later chapters so that I am still making progress, even if its not exactly where the roadblock is. And finally, a short story that's just flowing. I was starting to think I'd never come up with anything and then bam, there it is.

I can do this.

Oh, and I was working on a secret project I hope to reveal soon. So stay tuned.

Image: Another one of my artist influences, Jeff Jones, passed away earlier this year. Last year, Frazetta, this year Jones, I hate it. I loved his smooth style and classic presentation. His black & white work was also superb and greatly influenced how I drew woman for years. He will be missed in this household.

Some Final Planning

So, that last chapter went fast since I'd already written portions of it several months ago. However, the story has been growing and evolving in directions I hadn't originally planned, so it was time to reevaluate where I was and make some adjustments. Therefore, am spending some time this weekend simply revising the plot to bring it more in line with the current story. That means redoing the outline, adding and deleting scenes, adjusting attitudes, you name it.

It was also a time for me to use some of the new things I've learned during the last few months of research to improve the story, how I do the plotting, how to plan character arcs, etc. It's surprising how many things need to be juggled in a novel with a large cast of characters. In doing this I'm also addressing some of the issues I've already identified as needing work in the earlier chapters. Things that made sense then but maybe not so much now that the story is nearing completion. And by nearing completion I really mean within 15 chapters of being done. LOL

In my new detailed outline the novel could be complete in as few as 24 chapters, but I suspect that's a bit early and some things are likely to stretch out. I'm trying to keep each chapter about 4000 words, so if they go longer, some may be split up. Also, as the novel careens to a conclusion, chapters should get a bit shorter to match the increased pace the characters should be feeling as we reach the novel's conclusion.

So, early says 24 chapters, but I suspect 28 is the better count.

Only time will tell. Meanwhile, not that I know what's happening, I've got more writing to do.

Musings on the Future

With chapter 10 complete and only another 25+ chapters to go until The Forgotten Empire is final, it's time to start thinking about the next book. "Gods," you might say," you haven't even finished one and you're worrying about another already? Finish the first, then worry about the next one."

Grand advice, if this was a standalone novel. It is not. As some people are already aware, the characters of Archer and Hieronymus came alive to fulfill a dream of mine to write a fantasy series. I can already envision a dozen novels concerning just these two characters alone, let alone other heroes of Bulinnarm, like Skar Doorishmurk.

This book is the first of a mini-trilogy within the Archer and Hieronymus series, tentatively called the Empire Trilogy. It concerns the discovery and eventual clearing of an ancient evil from a dwarfish fortress. The idea has been percolating in my imagination for 20+ years, so there is a lot of ground to cover, lots of interesting characters to meet, and a boatload or more of adventure to experience.

So, thinking more about what needs to be in the other two books of this trilogy allows me to plan for their eventual writing, enabling me to place small bits of information in the current narrative, and thus foreshadow future events and discoveries for you, the reader, to discover later. One of those "ah ha" moments.

Right now the overall title arc reads like this:

1. An Empire Forgotten (in progress)
2. An Empire Embattled (initial plotting)
3. An Empire Reclaimed

An that, dear reader, is as much as you're allowed to know at this time. Suffer!

Forgotten Empire Map

Here's a map of the world that Hieronymus and Archer adventure within the novel The Forgotten Empire.

The Forgotten Empire map (click to view)

As you can see it's quite large and the two adventurers will need some time to get from point to point on the map. The majority of this book takes place in Choy, the Urdraxian Desert, Gulgash, and finally deep in the Blackstahl Mountains.

A variation of this map is also posted under the Maps tab showing the starting point of each character and the route of the Verdant Swan.

There are also plenty of other interesting places to visit, many of which I hope to cover in future stories about these two men.

Enjoy

Some Background on Hieronymus

I know this was mentioned in a previous post, but this world and the idea for a series of novels have been circling my head for a long, long time. While looking through my notebooks I came across some old drawings I made when I initially conceived the characters, the locations, and items of interest.

One of the first ones I came across was a portrait of Hieronymus, originally called Heron, done in, wait for it, MacPaint! Yes, the idea is that old! As you can see, his appearance differs markedly from how I'm now describing him in the novel.

The initial description conceived is also equally different:

Heron - eccentric mage who lives in Dugald.  Known for his odd habits and fascination with ancient artifacts of power.

Archer was also included in that original design. Unfortunately, I haven't come across any drawings of him but did find this description in my notes. Note the D&D level reference.

Archer Goodfellow - bodyguard and friend of Heron.  Archer is a fighter (12th lvl) specializing in the longsword.

For those of you that don't work or ardently follow the computer industry, MacPaint was the first graphics program for the Macintosh that allowed you to actually draw on screen with the mouse pointer. It was one of a pair of programs (MacPaint, MacWrite) that shipped on the original Macintosh when it appeared on the market in 1984.

I was fortunate in that I was able to purchase one of the original Macintoshes within the first 100 days of its release, and I've been a Mac user ever since.

Enjoy

Glossary Added

Added a new Glossary tab that describes all the people, places, and items found throughout the book, with suggested pronunciations. Of course, your mileage may vary.

Have much more to report on tomorrow, or at least later today.

The Road Less Travelled

When I designed the site I set up a section for Maps so everyone could get oriented with the world Archer and Hieronymus are traipsing across. Well, the idea was good, but the material needed some work to make it acceptable for sharing.

First, the main map for Bulinnarm is on a huge piece of poster board that I remember drawing back when I was stationed in 29 Palms and attending Electronics and Radar schools. It's a great map showing the three continents (Bulinnarm, Alexiandromor, and Ulax) in all their glory and with many of the major details already filled in. This is the master map, from which all others are derived.

Below is just one of the scans (Builinnarm region) made of the master map which I am enhancing, expanding, and detailing this week.

Bulinnarm scan from master map (click to view at full size)

Next up, I have a complete expandable notebook filled with D&D adventures, drawings, dungeons, and maps, lots of maps, for the areas in which I ran several campaigns through the world. These provide even greater detail on specific areas of the map. As my characters pass through those regions I expect to add some of this detail to the new master maps.

The new maps are done using vector graphics software (Acorn, from Flying Meat). For those that don't know what that is, it simply means that there is almost no limit to the amount of detail I can add to them. In addition, they are resolution independent, which means they can be scaled easily without losing any detail. Lots of work, but the final results will be worth it.

Below is the work-in-progress for the Bulinnarm area of the map. Still lots of detail to add and I'm figuring out the capabilities of the software as I work, but so far, I'm liking the results.

Bulinnarm in vector graphics (click to view at full size)

I hope to post Chapter 9 - A Busy Night as well as one or two of the new maps this weekend.

An Issue of Time

Mainly that my timeline is suffering in later chapters. Some of the events in the previous chapters will need to be revised to better fit into the day-to-day action as I imagined it. Sloppy on my part I know, but then everything I'm trying to do here is new to me, especially the number of viewpoints I'm trying to juggle at once.

Anyway, I'm spending some time getting them all lined up on paper this time so the relationships are clear and properly organized. Then when it comes time to revise the early chapters I'll rearrange scenes as necessary to fit the revised and correct timeline.

Not what I wanted to be doing at this stage in the book, but good I've identified the problem now and fix it for the remainder of the book.
Writing is also coming along fine. Am about 4100 words into chapter 8 so far and thinking on chapter 9 as well where everything comes together. Wish me luck.