Greetings, orcs! Sorry I’ve fallen behind on my updates. Today, I’ve got some awesome news.

The first Skirmishes Collections series, featuring the episodic shorts for Fangdarr and Bitrayuul – the Orcs set, is ready for it’s Cover Reveal!

With this announcement comes another! The Orcs Skirmishes Collection will be FREE to download upon release!

So, without further ado, BEHOLD!

Now that’s some brutal art, right there. Check out my artist, Todor Hristov!

I’m still in the editing phase of the Orcs collection and will be for the next few months, most likely. But once it’s out, you’ll be able to head to Amazon and add it straight to your Kindle/eReader without paying a dime.

Until then, see you on the battlefield!

I’ll keep this one short and sweet.

I got distracted.

Okay, end rant. 🙂

Hello orcs!

Oh, where to begin. I suppose I’ll start with my lack of progression on Ravaged. I had plans for this weekend and they were put on the back-burner, as some more important tasks come up. No big deal, I’ll pick up the slack this upcoming week.

Now that the gloom is out of the way, time to focus on the positive. On Friday, I was interviewed by the Read. Write. Edit. Repeat. Podcast. The actual podcast comes out Tuesday, currently, so I’ll probably make a follow-up posting then. But it was quite the experience. As my first ever interview, I was eager to take part. The host was friendly and welcoming, with our conversation instantly comfortable. It’s always a pleasure to meet people you just click well with. For anyone who listens to Podcasts or if you’re an author yourself, check it out!

Onward to more Skirmishes! I’m still early in the editing phase of the Orcs Skirmish Collection. Also, I checked on my cover artist’s availability and it looks like we’re good to get started in a few weeks. As I’ve mentioned a thousand times before, I love the art phase. Following that, Hagan was introduced in his first-ever Skirmish on Friday, beginning a new character line. Both he and Cormac will be paired together in the upcoming (months from now) Dwarves Skirmish Collection. I’ve got some changes planned for Cormac’s timeline, so that should be interesting.

Well, that’s all for this week! Don’t worry, I’m disappointed in myself for not reaching the goals I set for myself. But I’m eager to make up the lost ground.

See you on the battlefield!

Happy Sunday, people. Hope everyone is staying warm – some of you might’ve gotten buried under a huge amount of snow this week.

This week has been productive. I’m really glad to finally be back into steady progress, writing at my standard rate of one chapter on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Also, I’ve got some Skirmishes outlined for Cormac and Hagan (Dwarves collection) and wrote Hagan’s first Skirmish. So, lots of things in motion.

On a bit more of a random note, I was talking to my wife the other night about writing motivation. I only write three chapters per week (about 6 hours of work), and my books range between 50 – 70 chapters. This means that I can finish a book’s first draft is 17 – 24 weeks at that steady rate. This means that a first draft only takes me 100 – 140 hours.

I’ve always wanted to write more during the week. I make good progress, and a book per year is actually considered a pretty good timetable. But, at the rate of only 100+ hours per first draft, if I could manage to spend even 20 hours per week writing, I would be able to complete an entire novel’s first draft in just FIVE weeks.

Now, that’s only half the battle. There’s multiple rounds of edits, which equates to another 100+ hours, meaning to actually publish the novel would take twice that time.

Here’s a simplified version:

• (Current) 6 Hours per week: 17 – 24 weeks to completion (1st Draft)
• 20 Hours per week: 5 – 7 weeks to completion
• 30 Hours per week: 4 – 5 weeks to completion
• 40 Hours per week: 3 – 4 weeks to completion

That’s really fast. However, it’s important to remember that those timetables are based on strictly that: time. That doesn’t factor in motivation – or lack thereof, availability, etc. I have a hard time writing for longer than two hours at a time. My attention span usually just can’t stand it, despite writing being something I love.

But, you know what? I want to try it. A taste tester, that is. So, as I was talking to my wife, I’ve decided to use one of my vacation weeks from work and try to write on a strict plan. Six hours per day, Monday – Friday. Theoretically doable, but I’m eager to see if I could actually do so. If I could, in those 30 hours, I should, in theory, be able to tackle 15 chapters in a single week. Hot damn.

I’m not sure when that will be, but it’ll be sometime this year. Alright, sorry – done with the tangent.

This Tuesday (January 21st), the last Skirmish in Bitrayuul’s line gets released. I’m currently editing all of Fangdarr and Bitrayuul’s episodes to be published in an eBook soon. I should be working with my cover illustrator within the next few weeks – which is always my favorite part of the whole process.

Lastly, I’m planning to double the release schedule on Skirmishes, probably releasing the second on Fridays. I need to up the frequency so I can start getting collections out more quickly, as I have a lot planned and don’t want to spend the next five years putting them out.

Until next Sunday!

Good morning!

I’ll jump right in. This weekend has been really productive, which has left me feeling great. For those who follow my updates, there was a significant lull in progress during the transition from Madness to Ravaged.

This week, I set out to change that.

Earlier in the week, I set extremely ambitious goals for myself. And by ambitious, I mean I assigned myself more tasks than I ever had before. Now, I definitely had the time to complete them all with proper motivation. It was roughly +20 hours of work. Under perfect circumstances, I do have that much time where I’m not sleeping or working over the course of my weekend. But, I knew accomplishing every task I set was a long shot.

Overall, the purpose of setting such a high goal was to kickstart the engine, so to speak. I had been a bit too stagnant recently and needed to jump back in. It was time to dive head-first into the cold waters. No more dipping my toes and changing my mind last minute.

So, what were my goals?

1. Write Chapters 1 – 3 of Ravaged: I don’t write by word count, I write by chapter. Typically, one chapter per day of writing. It’s always worked best for me and will continue to do so. I’m not one of those people that can just slap a few hundred words on a page per day, progressing steadily little by little. I drive through a chapter, then I stop. It sets a minimum and a maximum and I’m generally always pleased with the output.
2. Write 3 Skirmishes: Some may know, I’ve completed Fangdarr and Bitrayuul’s Skirmishes (there are still two more posts upcoming for Bitrayuul, but they’re written). So, I’m on to the next characters. Normally, I write these on weekday mornings and release them once per week on Tuesdays. I actually need to consider doubling the rate so I can look to publish each Collection (two characters) every six months instead of every twelve.
3. Edit Fangdarr & Bitrayuul’s Skirmishes: As mentioned, these two lines are done and are being published in the first Collection set for Orcs (though Bitrayuul is a half-orc, of course). I needed to compile each episode into a single document and go through and edit the entire thing.
4. Rewrite Honor‘s Prologue: This one was a last-minute write-in. I actually strongly dislike Honor‘s Prologue, in retrospect. The scene is what it needs to be and serves its purpose, however the writing is no longer adequate and needs an update. This is a sort of temporary middle-ground, as I plan to do a full re-edit of Honor in the next few months to prepare to submit to SPFBO6 (assuming it will continue). Ironically, the exact day I decided to rewrite the Prologue, a coworker sent me a message out of the door, having picked up my book, and said he loved the intro/Prologue. Welp, mixed messages. I still plan to revise it heavily to put it in a place I’m happy with.

So, yeah. It was an ambitious weekend. I can tell you, I only achieved one of those – Chapters 1 – 3 of Ravaged. That was the minimum I needed to accomplish, and I did. I still have the rest of today to get some more work done, but to be honest I’m considering jumping into Chapter 4 on Ravaged rather than tackling some of the other tasks. It’s important to follow your momentum where your interest takes it.

In other news, I’ve got a few copies of Honor and Madness out to some book reviewers and am eager to see what they think. It’s always a risk for writers to have their work reviewed, as bad reviews can hurt you. However, that actually leads me into a new point that I plan to discuss in another posting I plan to do today, thanks to a discussion with a new friend on Twitter.

So, stick around, check out the Skirmishes if you’ve fallen behind – or wait until the Collection is published in a few months – and, as always, see you on the battlefield!

Good morning! Hope everyone had a great holiday season.

This week has been really productive, which has been a much-needed change in pace. First, yesterday I had my first signing event at Barnes & Noble, which went great. I met another local SFF writer there, Dan R. Arman, who was also having two of his fantasy novels available for signing. It’s always great to meet other down-to-earth writers, especially local.

In other news, Book 3 now has an official title! I no longer will need to refer to it as ‘Book 3’, which gets insufferable after about six months. The new title is . . .

I had this name picked out from the first brainstorming session and was looking for any other ones that stood out. If you caught this Facebook post, then you know that I normally don’t pick a title until I’m nearly finished. Because, really, the title often picks itself based on the events, theme, and emotion you’re looking for. But this time, I was pretty sold on Ravaged, as it hit all three qualifiers I was looking for.

The only thing I was waiting for was to flesh out the full outline to make sure that the plot points I had planned still fit the word. And holy poop, you better believe they do. If I tried to summarize what I have planned for Orcblood Legacy: Ravaged it would be:

In Ravaged, NO ONE is safe.

My books often implement some elements of Grim Dark Fantasy, which I enjoy. Ravaged will be no different. One of the tropes I love to write is that just when things seem to be going well, the worst happens. Then it happens again. And again.

And even MORE this week, Fangdarr and Bitrayuul’s Skirmishes are now completed. I have to compile, edit, and format them to start publishing the Collection. This is the first I have planned, with many more to come over time. I’m pretty sure I’ve put the list before, but I’ll do so again here:

Skirmish Collections:
1. Orcs (Fangdarr/Bitrayuul)
2. Dwarves (Cormac/Hagan)
3. Elves (Aesthéa/Elethain)
4. Satyrs (Brea’la/Thrax’ul)
5. Humans (Lucien/Gerty)
6. Assassins (Malice/Chakal)
7. Dragons (Crepusculus/Aurum)

Lots and lots of work. I’ll still probably be writing a Skirmish or two per week, trying to aim for 15 – 25 per character. Normally, that’d mean each collection will take 30 – 50 weeks, so 6 – 12 months. I’d like to move a bit faster than that, but we’ll see what happens as I’ll be working in tandem with Book Three Ravaged.

Overall, there’s a lot planned and it feels good to get back into it. I plan to finish Ravaged‘s Prologue today and will probably release it well in advance of the book, as always. Just to tease.

Once Ravaged is done, then it’s on to the spin-off for one of the side characters, then to the Prequel, then back to another set of three books. That sounds a bit more confusing than it is:

Book Writing Order:
1. Orcblood Legacy: Honor – Published Nov 15, 2018
2. Orcblood Legacy: Madness – Published Nov 15, 2019
3. Orcblood Legacy: Ravaged – Work in Progress, no date yet
4. Side Character Spin-off – Not started [Chronologically takes place after Madness, at the same time as Ravaged, just in a different setting]
5. Prequel – Not started [Chronologically takes place before Honor, following Brutigarr and Vrutnag, before Fangdarr and Bitrayuul were born]
6. Book 4 – Not started [Chronologically takes place right after Ravaged]
7. Book 5 – Not started [Chronologically takes place right after Book 4]
8. Book 6 – Not started [Chronologically takes place right after Book 5]

That’s the next few years of my plans, with Skirmishes being published throughout that time. It’s more than likely another five years of work, but who knows.

See you on the battlefield!

Greetings, orcs!

The year is nearing it’s end and the holidays are upon us, bringing a desire for laziness as the weight of the year settles on our shoulders. But, rejoice, for each New Year comes with a renewed sense of purpose, for many, giving them motivation to reach new heights and achieve their goals.

It’s no secret I’ve been falling behind the last few weeks. But, I’m insanely eager to get back into everything. I miss writing and the itch to jump back in is high.

Rejoice!

I’ve got some projects already in the works, some large, some small. Some in adolescence, others nearing fruition. Here’s a bit of what I’ve got planned:

Summary of Projects (Works in Progress):

1. First, I need to finish my wife’s Christmas present. It’s a small writing project containing a group of episodic shorts full of juicy drama. This will obviously need to be done by Christmas. Unfortunately, it’s an exclusive gift for her, so it won’t be shared with anyone.
2. Skirmishes. For the few of you who might have been following along with my Skirmishes over the last year, you’ll notice I haven’t added any since early August. However, I’m ready to pick these back up and release Collections of these, based on races – starting with Orcs, then Dwarves. For more information, check out this Facebook post.
3. Book Three is still in its outlining phase. I had planned on starting the first draft (for the second time) a few weeks ago until I decided to write something for my wife’s Christmas gift. Now, I should be able to get back to this with the new year.

So, while I’ve been decently stagnant, there are things in the works. Your continued support is a great motivator. There’s truly nothing like hearing that your work was well received by readers to make you want to press on. I have a LOT of things planned for the long run. They’ll take some time to get completed, but I’ll always want to get them done.

On an unrelated note, if you’ve read Madness already, feel free to send me a note, e-mail, or message and let me know what you thought! Or leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or Facebook – they go a long way to reaching more readers.

Until next week!

Happy Sunday, everyone.

This week, I finally got started on Book Three’s outline again. I had done it in the past, but knew I needed to re-do it since some ideas have changed. I got the Prologue outlined early in the week and was hoping to finish the rest of the outline and write the Prologue by the end of this week.

Unfortunately, something got in the way. I decided to make my wife something for Christmas, which will take probably 10 – 20 hours of work – with only three weeks to squeeze that in. So Book Three has been just a bit delayed (back to the original schedule of January 1st, or the week sooner).

I’m not worried, overall. With starting the outline again, I’m eager to get back. Re-reading through all of my ideas and the plans I had already laid out reminded me of what I’ve got planned and I’m excited. Hopefully you all will be as well!

In other news, I got accepted for my first ever Barnes & Noble Book Signing event, hosted in Akron, OH on January 4th at 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Details of the event can be found on my Facebook. If you happen to be local, come on out!

See you all next week.

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I apologize for not posting updates recently. A bit of an explanation may be owed.

Normally, I’m a firm believer in carrying over directly into the next project in order to maintain momentum. I actually attempted to do this by going straight into Book 3 after I had finished the first draft of Madness. However, juggling writing and editing was a bit difficult and both projects were suffering because of it. So, I made the decision to halt all progress on Book 3 to prioritize releasing Madness in a quality I was happy with.

Unfortunately, the fearful reasoning why I strive to jump right into the subsequent project occurred – my momentum had halted.

Now, it’s only been about 2-3 weeks since Madness was released and I haven’t started writing Book 3 yet. Most people think that isn’t much, but the real time-frame is that I haven’t actually written since May, when I finished the first draft of Madness. So, it’s actually been almost 7 months.

This is something that bugs the crap out of me and stresses me out. I want to get back to work. I feel I need to get back to work. And I know I will . . . eventually.

One of the reasons I’ve been unable to get back in is distractions. During the time I write my books, I cut out as many distractions as possible. It’s a cost to pay at the benefit of keeping focus and delivering a final result – something that had eluded me for 6 years, originally. I realized that without cutting out distractions, I would never finish.

Now that I’ve had a taste of freedom, I started to let myself get distracted. I wanted to just take a few weeks and catch up on all the things that I had missed by choice, knowing it was a slippery slope that could end up ceasing all writing for a long period of time.

Which is where I’m at now, ish. As I had been writing routinely for two years straight, I consider even the 3 weeks since Madness‘ release to be a long period of time. Every weekend I don’t write, I stress about it. I have to get back to it.

My current goal is that, no matter what, as of January 1st I plan to completely gut out all distractions again and sit back down. Ideally, I want it to be sooner. But that’s my ultimate deadline. With that, I give myself some time to unwind, finish ‘relaxing’ with the distractions I’ve picked up, and know the timeline is set. However, I’m trying to transition sooner than that.

So, bear with me for the time being. I still have everything laid out and am eager to move on to the next book. Your feedback on Madness will be paramount for inching me closer to that goal, so I’d love to hear what you think if you’ve read Book 2 already. Once I start writing again, I know I’ll be more diligent with my updates, as I’ll be proud to have something to report. (For the time, I really don’t want to just put out an arbitrary whine about how I’m not getting anything done, because no one wants to hear that)

TL;DR: Book 3 should be started soon!

Thanks everyone, have a great winter!

Whew, I’m late. I haven’t posted in a while and I apologize.

Orcblood Legacy: Madness is currently in the final review stages of being published and should be available for anyone interested in reading it on Friday, November 15th. The eBook is currently available for pre-order as well. It can be found here.

SALE SPOILERS: I plan on making Orcblood Legacy: Honor (Book 1) FREE (eBook only) for the 15th – 17th (November 2019), so any new fans of the series can catch up. So, tell your friends and let them geek out as well.

I will try to be a bit more diligent with posting this month and next, but with the holidays it may prove to be a bit unreliable. Bear with me!

If you don’t hear from me, happy Thanksgiving and Christmas to everyone.

This week has been a bit lax. I received both Paperback and Hardcover print samples for review and they look great. There was a minor adjustment to center the text on the back of the Hardcover, but other than that, they’re ready to go.

My next step is to just order a handful of copies for myself – probably around 10 of each format just to keep a stock on hand for people who ask me directly for them. I need to set up the eBook format which only takes about an hour. I’ll probably do that next weekend.

On to future plans. I need to get started on Book Three. I already have the outline completed from a long while ago, but I need to review it and probably make some changes. Due to editing for the last six months, my writing routine no longer exists. It’ll take some effort to jump back in, but I’m eager to write again.

Other than that, some of you may have noticed that I’ve stopped the Thursday Writing Prompts (and the Tuesday Skirmishes a while ago). Instead, I’ve been trying to put out some Writing Tips – things I’ve learned throughout my experience. If you have any specific questions you’d like answered, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Until next week!

MADNESS IS DONE!

Holy dwarf ears, it’s finally done. This last week I took a stay-cation, and it’s a good thing I did, otherwise I would’ve ended up needing to push the publication date from November 15th to January 1st. I spent over 40 hours updating all the edits I made in the manuscript. To give an idea of what that meant . . .

Honor – First Draft: ~121,000 words
Honor – Published: ~113,000 words
— Trimmed: ~8,000 (6.6%)

Madness – First Draft: 136,427 words
Madness – Post-Editing (Round 1): 131,704
— Trimmed: 4,723 (3.5%)
Madness – Post-Editing (Round 2): 120,294
— Trimmed: 11,410 (8.7%)
Total Trim: 16,133 (11.8%)

There were thousands of changes made this time around and I definitely am much happier with where it landed. It’s much more consistent and coherent, in my opinion. But we’ll see what you readers think.

I’m just waiting on final reviews and sample copies, which may or may not come with a few minor touch-ups. I’ve spent the entire morning dealing with Photoshop crashes and locking up my computer for hours to finally get the stupid covers formatted – which is one of the most dreaded processes, especially for Hardcover.

Assuming the samples come back without any issues, then I’m all set and ready to go to publish on November 15th. I’ve still some time in case of revisions, so I’m not worried.

So, spread the word and let your friends know that Madness is finally about to be ready. Unless it sucks, in which case don’t tell anyone.

Thanks for all the support. I’m eager to get back to writing after spending the last six MONTHS editing. Riding the storyline from Madness, I’ve changed the order of my next works and will be moving into Book Three as originally planned, then on to the Spin-off.

As always, tell me what you think of Madness once you read it! I’d love to hear your feedback.

In other news, there is only 18 days left in the contest! So for any who are entering, be sure to get your submissions in before the end of the month.

Finally done editing! Technically, I now have to go make all those markups in my manuscript, as I did my last round of editing directly in the book. Unfortunately, I anticipated the markups to only take me about two days to do, but it seems like it’ll be closer to a week. There are thousands of changes to make!

With that said, I’m still on schedule to publish on November 15th. After the document is updated, I need to make sure the book cover is sized for both the paperback and hardcover, then order a sample print for each on rush delivery. The only one I’m worried about is the hardcover because the template Ingram Sparks provides is pretty much useless and it never gets placed correctly after upload, so it’s a lot of trial and error.

If the samples are good, then I’m good to go! Otherwise, I’ll need to make revisions and order another sample and repeat as needed. I only have time for about 2-3 rounds of revisions, depending on how quickly the rush service can get me books. That should be plenty, but the hardcover can be stubborn.

In other news, the first week of the contest has passed! I’m expecting a much smaller turnout this quarter – which means a higher chance to win for those who enter! This is due to no longer posting on the /r/fantasywriters subreddit community, so only followers of my website and Facebook will be aware of it.

Once Madness is published, I plan to actually jump into Book 3 again, instead of the spin-off as I had planned. I figured this would happen, and I’m okay with it. Reading through Madness has me eager to continue that particular story – I’m sure you’ll see why after you read it as well! In addition, I desperately need to go back and edit all of Honor. My writing has drastically improved since then and it’s an embarrassment, really. I need to determine when that will happen, but it needs to. It’s the first piece new readers encounter and I can’t stand how badly written it is. But that will probably delay my future books by three months, so it’s difficult to determine when to squeeze it in.

Dilemmas, dilemmas.

Well, that’s it for this week. I’m currently at 25% through the document markup and will definitely be finished by next Sunday with samples ordered. That leaves me with four weeks before publishing, which is still adequate time, unless I have to order multiple rounds of samples. As long as I can avoid that (and hopefully get them right on the first shot), then all is well.

See you next week!

Woohoo, lots of progress this weekend!

I started my weekend (Friday morning) with 92 pages remaining (out of 309) for editing. My goal was to be at 50 pages left by the end of Sunday – so 14 pages per day. Instead, I managed:

Friday: 25 pages
Saturday: 20 pages
Sunday: 17 pages

By the end of today, I’ll only have 30 pages left, so just under 10%. I have one more week of work, then I’ll be on vacation from 10/4 – 10/13. By the 13th, I want to have the final drafts uploaded, covers completed, and waiting for sample copies to make sure everything looks good. All of which should definitely be doable.

I will say, my plans for starting with the spin-off then moving to Book 3 may have flipped – which I always expected may happen after reading through Madness. I’m not ready to make a final decision on that, but it’s looking that way.

In other news, the next Short Story contest begins in two days! So keep an eye out for the Submission Guidelines, which will be posted on Tuesday. This time, there will be a prompt/theme that everyone must follow, so don’t start until you see it.

See you next week!

Hello everyone, sorry for any issues you may have encountered on the site. Some of them have been resolved, but I’m still working with the hosting company to get the rest handled. Primarily, e-mails are broken at the moment.

This week came with a lot of progress. I managed to get 31 pages edited so far (10%), which puts me at 69%. I need to finish around the middle of my vacation, so about October 8th. That should give me the second half of the week to get all of the markups implemented and hopefully get the final drafts up in Amazon and Ingram Spark to order a test print of each copy for review. I’ll need to get them expedited, otherwise they take about two weeks to get here – which I won’t have.

We’re coming down to the home stretch and I’m eager to get Madness out the door.

Also, we’re only about a week away from the start of the next contest, so keep your eye out for that. Hopefully this e-mail issue gets fixed by then, or many may miss out.

We’ll just have to see. So far, the experience getting these issues resolved has not been pleasant.

Until next time!

Yesterday came with a high amount of progress due to an extended wait while my car was getting a check-up, turning a pretty dry week into a fair one. Saturday added another 5%, bringing me to page 176/309.

I’m still a bit behind, but I have a vacation planned in early October that I plan to devote a lot of time toward editing. Ideally, I’ll be finished by the end of that week, giving me 30 days to update documents and get everything sorted for November’s publication date.

Apart from editing, there isn’t much else to bring up. I didn’t start outlining the Spin-Off like I wanted, but there’s no rush. I’m eager to get back to writing and can’t wait to call Madness complete.

In other news, the next Contest starts in 15 days – so start sharpening your pencils keyboards!

Mmk, this week has not been productive – but I expected that. This month will be difficult to reach meaningful goals due to my day job having some extra stress. It’s a bummer since I was glad to finally be moving forward steadily and this threw me off. But, it can’t be helped.

I’m still at 50%, leaving me around 60 days to get the second half of Madness edited. That’s enough time, though the reduced availability during September has me a bit worried. I have a week of vacation planned in early October, which I plan to devote to getting caught up.

In other news, the next Fantasy Short Story Contest starts in just a few weeks! The contest will begin October 1st – the Prompt for participants to follow will be announced on that date and can begin working on their submissions to be considered for the prizes like last quarter.

Lastly, while my editing progress was immobilized, I finally made the decision of my future works. I’ve mentioned it a few times over the past few months, but it was really a major struggle to consider. I posted the plans on my Facebook page, but they are posted below as well. Soon, I’ll probably place them on my website’s Home page so that new fans can see what is in the works.

Upcoming Plans:

𝗡𝗼𝘃 𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟵: 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗠𝗮𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀
Nov 2019 – May 2020: Write Spin-Off
May 2020 – Nov 2020: Write Book 3
Nov 2020 – May 2021: Edit Book 3
𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟭: 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝟯
May 2021 – Nov 2021: Edit Spin-Off
𝗡𝗼𝘃 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟭: 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗦𝗽𝗶𝗻-𝗢𝗳𝗳
Nov 2021 – May 2022: Write Prequel
May 2022 – Nov 2022: Edit Prequel
𝗡𝗼𝘃 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟮: 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗹

The timeline is, of course, tentative. Based on my previous works, I estimate a rough scope of 6 months to write each novel and 6 months for editing. Those may fluctuate by up to 50% in either direction, if I had to guess, so this is just a clean layout of the hopeful plans.

It’ll be a new challenge to write two books back-to-back, just to push off the next for an entire year before coming back to it. On one hand, it may be good to distance myself from it for a year and look at it from a completely different perspective. After all, a LOT changes in how you think as a writer in a year – trust me. However, I have to worry that the separation may leave me distracted for the next novel, or that I may lose interest by the time I go to edit the Spin-off a year later.

We’ll see how it goes. All I knew was that there was an undeniable necessity to start with the Spin-off. So, I have to go with my gut on that one.

It’s going to be a challenging path ahead, but I’m stoked for it.

I’m behind on editing, wooooooooooooooooooo!

Hah, not a big deal overall. I wanted to be at 50% by the end of the weekend but only sat down and worked through 3 pages so far. I have more time tomorrow with the holiday, so maybe I’ll crank out the last 23 pages to reach that point. We’ll see!

For those who follow my Facebook, you may have seen that last week my local Barnes & Noble put two copies of Orcblood Legacy: Honor on their shelves. On Friday I stopped by and noticed they only had one copy left. Believe me, that was a surprise. I even went and asked an employee to see how many copies were in stock, just in case the other was sitting in the back. Lo and behold, the other had been sold.

I’ve got to tell you, that was a pretty great feeling. Knowing that, out of all the other excellent selections neighboring it, someone took mine home. It gave me the confidence to submit an application this morning for the Barnes & Noble stock program to attempt to get my book in every store. I’ve never really considered myself successful or unsuccessful when it comes to writing. Most people judge that based on revenue, but I write mostly for myself and the love of it. But if I can manage to get it accepted into the Barnes & Noble program, I’ll consider that a huge success.

The process takes about 3 months, so I won’t have any updates on it for a long while. We’ll see what happens!

In other news, some of you may remember that this month I kept a daily score of which novel I felt strongest about. The most prominent in my head received a 3, followed by the next with a 2, and last a 1. For the entire month, the three novels next in my queue were scored to get an idea of which stood out the most over the test of time. Here are the results:

Prequel = 43 pts
Side Character Spin-off = 78 pts
Book 3 = 65 pts

Now, it’s still my opinion that by the time I finish editing Madness (i.e. Book 2), I’ll probably feel the need to move into Book 3. That would make the most sense, after all. But, the spin-off is definitely the one I’m most interested in. You should never feel forced to write something or it’ll show in your writing. Your lack of enthusiasm will definitely be picked up by readers and it could kill your entire story. So, let’s just wait and see.

That’s all for this week, orcs. See you on the battlefield!

Not too much to report. Progress was mediocre, but present. It’s extremely tedious to re-edit numerous times, to say the least, but also enjoyable in some regard. It’s been a few months since I wrote Madness now and I forget minor details or particular scenes I’m fond of. So, coming across them again makes me experience them as if for the first time.

I’m planning to reach the half-way point by the end of this month, meaning I have all of September and October to complete the other half – which is certainly doable. It just comes down to devoting the time. This round is especially slow. Some pages take me 15-30 minutes each to review, meaning 300 pages can easily turn into a 75-150 hour project.

Needless to say, I’m eager to be done editing. It’s killing a lot of my drive to get started on the next novel – which is just pissing me off.

Carrying on that topic, there’s one week left in my ‘August Scoring’ for the decision of the next novel I work on (Prequel, Spin-off, or Book Three). So far, the Spin-off has a bit of a lead and the Prequel has no chance of succeeding, even if it receives the maximum score every day for the remainder of the month. I’m okay with that. There were certainly days where the Prequel was the prominent story in my mind, but not often. I’m still looking forward to writing it, just not next in line.

We’ll see if Book Three pulls ahead. Overall, I’m not using only this scoring system to determine which novel I write next. It was mainly a way for me to make a decision each day, rating the novels in order or prominence then seeing who stood the victor at the end of the time period. This successfully removed my impulse decision and showed me what I constantly leaned towards the most. So, while it won’t actively mandate my decision, it is certainly an influence. There’s honestly a fair chance that by the time I finish reviewing Madness, I’ll feel it completely necessary to jump into Book Three.

Who knows?

I’m behind on Skirmishes by two weeks, with the third coming up on Tuesday. I may get caught up in the next week, but I’m not sure. As mentioned, my current drive to write is dampened by the bear of a task that editing is. I do need to get caught up, though.

That’s it for this week. Hopefully by next week I’ll be able to say I’ve reached the half-way point of Madness‘s last round of edits. I’m enjoying the book itself and am definitely making improvements, so the heavy investment – and its toll – are worth it. I hope!

A productive week, a less productive weekend.

During the week, I managed to snag extra pages while editing, only to get tied up with the family over the weekend and falling behind. No problem, really, just beating myself up over the lack of effort.

I still need to go back and do Tuesday’s Skirmish. I typically do them Tuesday morning when I wake up, but my toddler has been waking up about an hour earlier this whole week. I’ll try to squeeze it in soon.

That’s all for this week!

Hey everyone! This week turned out to be pretty productive for a change. It started with only 6% of Madness edited (third round, that is) and currently sits at 22%. It was a nice change to get back into the swing of things and I’m looking forward to maintaining momentum again.

My Score Card, of sorts, is still in progress for the decision on the next novel to work on. Here are the current scores:

Prequel: 17 points
Spin-Off: 26 points
Book 3: 23 points

The Prequel is a bit behind, obviously, though the scores fluctuate each day pretty heavily. For example, a few hours ago I had the Prequel scored as a 1 for the day. Then, I had a discussion with a friend that made me eager to write it, so the score was switched to a 3.

I will say that editing Madness is definitely increasing my desire for both Book 3 and the Spin-Off, primarily any time the character that has the spin-off is in the scene (for the Spin-Off).

Onward to other topics! The contest winners will be announced in four days. The first and second place winners will have their work posted here on my site.

Be sure to subscribe to catch the next contest!

Happy Sunday, everyone!

The Contest is now closed. We had a pretty great turnout and got more submissions than I expected, which is awesome! I’m working through them now and will be ready to announce the winners on August 15th!

The next Contest will be from October 1st – October 31st. All future contests will have a strict prompt that must be adhered to – so keep an eye out for the announcement around October 1st. As always, there will be prizes available, so tell your friends to subscribe to the site to get e-mail updates for each quarterly contest.

In other news, now that the contest is coming to a close, I’m finally getting back to editing Madness after about a month of dryness. I’m eager to get finished and have a new expected Launch Date of November 15th, 2019 – one year to the day after Honor‘s publication. Coincidentally, this will also fall on the day that the next Contest’s winners will be announced.

In even more future news, I’ve started brainstorming, plotting, and internally voting on the next novel to work on. It’s a big decision that I keep jumping around on. As in, every 18 seconds my preference changes. So, it’s proving to be difficult to stick with a choice. But, that’s something to worry about over the next few months, as I’ll probably start writing the next novel in November

The new Discord group has been really fun. It’s great to have others who are interested in Fantasy writing to talk to. For anyone who wants to join, you’re more than welcome.

Orcs, roll out.

Woohoo! For the first time in two weeks, I finally sat down to work on my second round of edits on Madness. I only got about five pages edited – which, in itself, is pitiful. But it’s the first progress I’ve made at all recently, so it’s worth celebrating. I’ve been stuck in the mud without motivation and I was happy to finally get to it. I need to keep up the progress.

On to the Contest! A few more submissions have come in over the weekend. I’m glad people are enjoying writing their short stories and it’s exciting to read their work. There are only THREE days left! So, be sure to get your submission in if you haven’t yet.

As mentioned, the winners will be announced on August 15th on my blog (here), Facebook, and the /r/FantasyWriters subreddit.

For any writers who are interested, I’ve started a Discord server where you can discuss your own works with other writers, get feedback, and keep yourself motivated.

See you next week!

Hi, hi, hello!

There is 10 days left in the Contest and more submissions came in this week. Be sure to get your Short Stories written – details can be found here. It’s exciting to start reading through some of the works that have been submitted!

As for my own work, this week wasn’t too fruitful. My birthday was this week, as well as a trip to the hospital, so I wanted to just spend a lot of time with the family, so I fell behind on editing Madness. I’d like to hope I can make it up, but that’s a bit optimistic. I’ll just keep chuggin’ along. Worst case scenario, the publication gets delayed a bit. Normally I’m pretty strict on maintaining my timeline and schedules, but recently I’ve been coasting a bit more to spend some quality time with my wife and daughter. They give me the time I need for writing – at the sacrifice of time with them – and sometimes you need to flip the scales.

I’m starting to try to work through the decision on which novel I’ll be working on after Madness is published. It’s a tough one to make, as whichever I choose I’ll be working on for probably 6-12 months. I want to write all of them, and will, but need to start with the one I want to write most. Unfortunately, that is subject to change at any given moment based on current mood. So, it’s difficult to make a resolute decision and stick with it.

But, that’s a worry for about two months from now. 🙂 Until then, it’s back to the sludge of editing.

Best of luck!

Hello everyone!

First up, the Short Story Contest. There has been a lot of interest – and even a few submissions already – which is great! It’s exciting to just be surrounded by other writers.

To note, there has been a few minor rule adjustments. a) The content must be original. I’ve removed the allowance for fan-fiction, as this is a paid contest and copyright infringement is something we, as other writers, should not be aiming to do. b) Only one submission is allowed per contestant.

There were a few who wanted to write multiple short stories, and I was glad they were so eager to write more. However, to keep it fair for everyone, only one can be submitted.

There are still 17 days left, so there is plenty of time for everyone to get there submissions in. Be sure to send them to bernard@bernardbertram.com by 11:59 p.m. EST (UTC-4) on July 31st.

In other news, I’ve begun on my third road of edits of Madness. I originally expected this to just be a quick, final pass to make sure I caught any sneaky typos or other grammatical errors. However, I’ve been picking up some issues with clarity and other minor touch-ups that I want to make sure get fixed before publishing. So, this has turned into a full-sweep editing run. For any who have edited before, you know just how grueling that is . . .

Well, not to worry. It’s all for the improvement of the end result. My goal is still to be completed around mid-September. Worst case, it pushes to October. I’ll keep everyone informed as we move along.

Happy writing and reading!

Happy 4th of July!

This week had a lot of progress. I’ve finished going through Beta Reader’s feedback and making any necessary changes. The next step is to order a new set of Proofs and do a final pass for any additional edits, then it’s off to publishing.

In other news, I’ll be hosting a Fantasy Short Story Writing Contest sometime in the next week or so. This contest will be available to anyone and will have two prizes available – a $100 Amazon Gift Card for 1st place and a $25 Amazon Gift Card for 2nd place!

Here are the rules for submissions:

• Must be Fantasy-themed (any sub-genre is fair game)
• Must be under 5,000 words
• It can be in any world – either your own or an existing one
• There is no maturity restriction, anything goes!

Submissions will be under a deadline, to be determined – most likely 2-4 weeks. The winners will be announced 2-4 weeks after the submission deadline. I will have resolute dates at the time of the contest’s official announcement.

All submissions should be sent to bernard@bernardbertram.com to be considered for review.

Disclosure Details:
All work that you submit is your own. It will not be copied, claimed, or distributed in any way except in the case of the 1st and 2nd place works. Both winners will have their submissions shared via this website, my Facebook, Goodreads (due to an automated RSS Blog feed from my website), and – dependent on permission – the /r/fantasywriters subreddit community. To restate, this sharing of work will only apply to the winners of the contest.
I reserve the right to review and rate all submitted works based on personal opinion. There are only two winners chosen out of all submissions. If your work did not result in the top two positions, do not take this to mean your piece was bad, just that I considered others better. You are always welcome to submit to future contests at any time for more chances to win prizes.
Prizes will be delivered electronically via e-mail.

This contest is meant to bring Fantasy Writers together and have fun. Please enjoy yourself!

Alright, some of you are following along on Facebook, so this may be repetitive. I finally finished my Book Three map! Now, I just need to re-do the Outline based on the layout.

This process (Map first, then Outline) is atypical for me. Normally, the map is created as I write the book. In this case, Book Three’s plot is extremely dependent on the layout, so map comes first this time.

In other news, beta readers are making progress and should have feedback for me soon. This week I’ll start going through it to slowly work my way toward my second editing run-through.

Hi, hi, hello!

Time is quickly counting down, there is only two weeks left for beta readers to return their feedback – or whatever they were able to complete in the short time frame – so I can begin the second round of edits for Madness.

I’ve been beating myself up pretty hard regarding not starting Book Three. Though, now that I realize just how soon the next round of editing is for Madness, it might not turn out to be so bad. Once the time for editing comes again (July 1st), I’ll be taking my standard writing sessions and replacing them with editing sessions to try to get all the edits done in time. So, I would’ve had to have postponed writing Book Three between July 1st and August 31st anyway. I suppose it’s not the end of the world to start Book Three after that, right?

I managed to get another draft of my Book Three map created. It was quite a complex task – much worse than originally expected. I’ll need to finish it before I can tell if it’ll be suitable or not, but I can already tell that my original outline will need to drastically change to fit the map. That brings me to my next point, which I’ve touched on briefly in the past.

Normally, my process involves building the events first and the map is filled around those events. However, Book Three is much more restrictive and requires a predetermined map in order to effectively accomplish the plot I’m aiming for. This means I need to flip my standard practices and create the map first, then build the outline based on the map’s layout. I can’t say why, you’ll just have to see (sometime in 2020, I would hope).

Due to this severe restriction, many of the concepts I’ve had in the numerous drafts of the map have failed for one reason or another. I needed this to be adjacent to that, but underneath the other, but not near the fourth – which needed to be adjacent to the second. Blah, blah, blah. Just a logistical nightmare. I’m hoping that my most recent draft that I’ve worked on today should suffice. It’s about 90% complete, then comes the time to theorycraft, contemplate, and – unfortunately – revise my outline to suit. It’s a pain in the ass overall, but had I went with my original draft/outline, there would have been so many plot holes that I would’ve smashed my face with a rock. Too many.

There are still quite a bit of plot holes I need to plan for and handle, even with a logistical map, that are created from the plot itself. I have to be extremely careful to not write myself into a corner that ends in a rewrite of half (or all) of the entire story. That’s a quick way to walk away for good.

We’ll see how it all goes. I have two other stories in the series I’d love to get to (and then some), but Book Three stands in the path. I can’t just rush out Book Three and fill it with crap to progress, I want it to be the best it can be. It’s still a plot I think will be thrilling, with high stakes and all the loss I’m hopefully becoming known for. As always, no characters are safe, and the party will be in for one hell of a ride.

Hey, hey, slight progress this weekend. I’m slowly chipping away the obstacles blocking Book Three.

Soon I’ll be able to look back at this and forget it ever happened.

. . . Right?

There are some other cool ideas floating around for the Orcblood Legacy series. Unfortunately, Book Three is currently the gatekeeper before those other plans can see light. The sooner I can knock it out, the earlier I can get started on some of the other plans I have.

Until next week!

Yay, minor progress towards Book Three!

It wasn’t much. I didn’t really do anything this weekend except get some details organized on Book Three that were locking me up. I still have more to sort through, but I think I’ve found out what I need to do which makes me happy.

I was planning on doing more today – and still might – but it’s getting late in the day. This weekend has been one of those where I’m just in a weird mood and don’t want to do anything (which is odd, considering it’s the first weekend I’ve accomplished anything, even if minor).

I have some things I’m considering regarding future books, new Skirmish characters, and other ideas. I had considered doing a small Poll on Facebook, but you can only present two options which seems rather pointless. So, I’ll just keep stewing on those ideas for a bit until I reach a conclusion.

That’s all for this week!

I didn’t do what I thought I was going to do regarding Book Three. But, I’ve made the decision to start from scratch after reviewing some of what I had already written. As already discovered, it was ‘fine’. But I’m looking for a bit better than fine.

I suspect that it may take me some time to get around to re-starting Book Three. It’s been bugging me that I haven’t made any progress, but I think I need to accept that I need to take my time with this one. Overall, my biggest fear is obviously stopping entirely. But I don’t think that’ll happen. I’m too far in and love writing. I’m just going to start on Book Three in a bit of time. It may be weeks, it may be months.

I don’t want to put it on hold, but I think I’m just sort of distracted with Madness and other non-writing things and it’s breaking my concentration. There’s about a month left for beta readers to give me their feedback on Madness – I know most haven’t made it too far yet, which is alright.

One step at a time. 🙂

Yay, got some writing in this weekend. It wasn’t any new progress on Book Three, but I’ve caught up on my Skirmishes – and even got next Tuesday’s done in advance. I hate falling behind.

I’m hoping to go to the library today or something to get my outline organized. For some reason, I can’t bring myself to do it in the morning, and during the day is too noisy with a toddler running around. It’s just a weird quirk. I write in the mornings, but I have to organize during the day – I can’t switch them. Oh well, find what works and stick with it, I suppose.

Outlining for Book Three aside, this week is my Author Event at my local library. I still need to make a brief PowerPoint for that today as well, but it shouldn’t take long. It’s not really about me and my books, specifically, more to talk to patrons about writing in general.

That’s all for this week!

Not much to report this week. I decided to take a break during the transition between Madness and Book Three – hence no Skirmish or Writing Prompt this week.

For Madness, I had pretty much already planned out the storyline the day I started writing Honor a long, long time ago. So, other than the fine details, I already knew the A -> B, as I call it.

I’ve got the primary outline for Book Three completed, but as I was writing it, it didn’t feel quite right. I mentioned that last week and that I wanted to take some more time to go through and organize the details of the outline just to fine tune it. That didn’t happen, unfortunately.

I really need to get back on track. There’s no real reason why but I still get stressed if I miss my scheduled content or don’t put out an adequate amount of progress towards the next book. I have to remind myself that it’s only 1-2 weeks and in the long term it really doesn’t matter. I just don’t want to rush it, is all. I’m still going to write and still want to, I just need to take a quick breather in between this time. Otherwise I’ll just force progress for the sake of it and it’ll just feel like a chore.

Thanks for being patient. I’ve got some exciting new characters planned for Book Three, sorry I can’t give out any details (to avoid spoilers from Madness).

A few copies of Madness are out to some readers and they’re chugging away on feedback. I’m eager to see what people think but am forcing myself not to slam them with a hundred questions on what their thoughts are. They’ve got about 6 more weeks to edit before I need their feedback in order to try to publish around September.

Also, my first ever Author event is only 10 days away at my local library. I still need to prepare a presentation, but I’m excited for that.

See you next week, hopefully I’ll have some actual progress to report.

Alright, on to Book Three!

So, I didn’t get much writing done this weekend. I’m part-way through Chapter 3. However, while I’ve laid out the general plot outline for how I’d like the story to go, I keep feeling like something is off – and I don’t like it. Every paragraph I start is just feeling sort of bland. Overall, I’m probably overthinking it and it is most likely fine. But I’m not looking for fine.

So, I halted my progress this morning and decided to go through my outline in much more detail than I normally would. This time, I’m going to do a bit of a roadmap of every scene just to get a more in-depth feel for every step of the book. That’s not my normal process, but this time my standard isn’t working. No big deal, it just means I need to take it slower. I don’t want to rush into the next book and truck through mediocre progress for the sake of it. Quality needs to stay in mind.

That’s about it for this weekend. I fleshed out the names of the key character I’ll be introducing in the book (this halted my progress on Saturday, which was annoying). This week, I’ll start to look at my outline in detail and analyze it. My hope is I can find the reason why it seems off and bland – then correct it. The content I’ve written so far (excluding the Prologue, which I thoroughly enjoyed) in the first few chapters just has not been interesting. And if it’s not interesting to me, it won’t be interesting to you. So, before I make any more progress, I’m going back to the drawing board and starting over with only about two days of effort lost. I’ll let you know next weekend how things are going.

On the note of Madness, Beta Readers have their copies (or will receive them in the mail today) to get started on feedback. They’ll have as much as they can get to back to me by the end of June. From there, I’ll probably need about two months to go through everything and get ready for publishing. So, we’re looking at September for now.

Awww yeah. Orcblood Legacy: Madness is officially in it’s first draft stage. I have a few Proof Copies on order that should be here on Thursday. I’ll be sending a few out for some friends to review and provide feedback – then it’ll be onward to the final round of editing for me, just before publishing.

At this point, I’m expecting to publish Madness sometime between August and September (July at the earliest, depending on when I get feedback). In the meantime, I’ve started on Book Three already.

Yesterday, I got the outline for Book Three organized and fleshed out, and today I wrote the first Chapter (I wrote the Prologue about a month ago). I can’t give away any details, as it will contain spoilers for Madness, however, I can provide you with one of the songs I plan to listen to while I write some of the more riveting scenes, as it fits very well: You can listen here!

I’m excited to get back into writing, rather than editing. However, I still need to finish editing Honor and get an updated edition out. I’m embarrassed at what managed to go out, to be honest, and have a lot to fix. So, I’ll be trying to work on that over the next few months as I can as well. I’m just pretty sick of editing at the moment.

In other Orcblood Legacy news, my wife has lovingly agreed to work on some 3D designs of some of the weapons from my series. You can see her work on Driktarr, Fangdarr’s greataxe below!

I plan on getting it 3D printed when I can, as well as the other projects she will be working on. I won’t give away any details on what’s to come, but you’ll see them as they’re completed!

That’s all for this week. Expect an update on the Proof Copies later in the week – with pictures! You will finally be able to see the Cover that I’ve been fawning over for the past for months.

See you next week!

Whew, lot’s of progress this weekend.

I’m at 95% with the first round of editing Madness. I have 11 pages left and 4 chapters, which I’ll probably finish next weekend. After that, it’s onward to formatting and getting the cover prepped to make an ARC.

With only the last 5% left, I definitely enjoy this story – even more than Honor by a large margin. It’s fun to see just how much I’ve learned since starting out, both in writing and editing.

For the rest of the week, I – once again – skipped my Skirmish and 50-word Fantasy Prompts due to distractions. I should be able to start them again this week without much issue, and I’m considering probably going back and doing the previous ones I skipped and back-dating them so they fall in line. So far I’ve only missed one Skirmish and two Prompts, so it would only be about an hour or two to catch up. We’ll see how the week goes.

Overall, while I’m about a month behind the original schedule, I think Madness is coming along really well. My plan is to get a few copies out to some people and try to get as much detailed feedback as possible within about two months. Then, I’ll go through it all again myself for a final check.

Based on that, I’d anticipate it being about four months just for those two steps alone, and would probably end up publishing around September, if I had to guess. My original intention was between June and September, so I’m going to be a bit on the late end, but I wanted to take as much time as I needed to be meticulous. All things considered, I definitely don’t regret that and think the story will be much better for it.

Once I’m finished with my own first round of editing, I’ll be jumping right back into Book Three – which I’m pretty stoked for. All three books are in pretty vastly different scenarios, which makes it really fun to transition from one into the other (all while keeping in line with the plot, of course).

I’ve had some thoughts on what to do for the fourth book. Possibly a side-story with a background of one of the other characters in the past, such as possibly Chakal or Cormac. They have really interesting backstories that I’d love to explore more and get onto paper. Technically, I could use Skirmishes for those things and eventually I’ll run out of content for Fangdarr and Bitrayuul’s Skirmishes, so I may just start there. We’ll see how it plays out!

See you all next week.

Sorry for missing the 50-word Fantasy Prompt this week, I’ve been distracted.

I didn’t make much progress this weekend, only about 1.5 chapters edited. I’ll need to try to make up for it next weekend if I can.

I’m eager to get done editing – well, the first round – and start writing Book Three again. I’m thoroughly enjoying reading through Madness and think it will be much more thrilling than Honor. Time will tell.

That’s all for this week!

82%.

SOON.

(Yes, I made a whole post for this. But look, it’s got some bold and shit.)

Whew, it’s already Sunday. This weekend went way too fast.

Editing went well. I made good progress each morning during my normal writing times, but didn’t spend any additional time throughout each day. So, I was only able to get another 18 pages done, leaving my current progress at about 69%.

I do have some cool news, however. One of Orcblood Legacy‘s followers has just released one of his own novels, titled Tavern! I’m really excited for him and look forward to reading through it myself. (The image is a link to the book on Amazon)

Just wanted to give Mr. Munden as shoutout and a big congratulations. It’s a great feeling to have all your hard work become real.

Aside from that, not too much this week. I finally copied my magic system down onto a digital document just in case my whiteboard ever gets erased on accident. It’s a really minor thing, but I’ve been putting it off for over a month.

I still have other things I’ve put off, such as adding a new section to my website for Artwork of the Orcblood Legacy series. I had that on my To Do list for this weekend as well, but we know how that goes. Maybe I’ll get around to it later in the day.

Once I do that, I’m considering organizing my site a bit more. It’s usable as-is, but I think I might have an additional of Table of Contents for some of the recurring Blogs such as the Writing Prompts and Weekly Progress Updates. Another item on the To Do list!

That’s it for this week, orcs. I’m really eager to get started on Book Three but need to wait until I’m finished with the first round of editing on Madness first. Soooooooooooooooooooooooon.

The week was a bit slow on progress. I only reached half my goal for editing, with only one chapter edited on Thursday morning and three more on Friday morning.

Saturday and Sunday were shot from my kid waking up at 4:00 a.m. right when I did. I really only work well in silence and having a toddler wide awake and playing a few feet away just instantly cuts out any chance of productivity. Normally I’d be a bit peeved, but her birthday was Saturday. So, I set my work aside to just try to spend some extra time with her.

The progress lost added a bit of stress, but she had a great weekend overall so it was worth it. I get really strict on my timelines and tend to internally freak out when I don’t meet the micro-milestones I set for myself.

In any case, I got a lot done on Friday so I didn’t fall too far behind. I’m currently sitting at 55% of the first round. I’m actually really excited and think Madness will stand a cut above Honor. Even I’m having a blast reading through it again. The high stakes and constant action really keep the story on its toes. We’ll see if readers feel the same.

Also, I’ve decided to postpone writing on Book Three until after the first round of edits is done for Madness. I’ll have a lot of time after the first round while I wait on feedback from a few others. I did recently get some great feedback on Honor from a reader, so that was nice as well. I try to continue to improve my writing skills as I progress through the series and avoid making the same mistakes.

I’m not sure when Madness will be out yet. I’ll be able to tell as we get closer. However, I think I’ll put it up for pre-order on Amazon once I have the Author Review Copies created (most likely by the end of April). I’m guessing sometime around July or August, to be honest. While I’m eager to get it out, I need to make sure I don’t rush.

See you next week!

Man, editing is so draining. Props to the people that can do this for a living. I can only stand to sit for maybe an hour or two at the very most before I have to stop. Going through it with extreme scrutiny and reviewing every word – its placement, alternatives, grammar, flow, etc. – in every sentence sure makes your eyes go dull. It doesn’t take long before you end up re-reading the same sentence or paragraph 15 times over before finally getting to the next. Whew, lad.

In any case, I’m still a bit behind from where I wanted to be. I’m currently about 40% through the first round, though I had really hoped to be at 50% by the end of the weekend. But, I got distracted by some other stuff. Bad, Bernard, bad.

I did, also, not make the progress I wanted on Book Three. On Friday, I wrote the Prologue – which I think turned out well. I can’t show anyone for a while as it has some spoilers from Book Two, but I like it. I was planning on starting writing Book Three on my normal writing schedule, but I decided to postpone starting Book Three until I’m finished with the first round of editing on Madness. It’s just too much work all at once and I want to keep a good pace on getting Madness published. I’ll have plenty of time while I’m waiting for a few readers to give me feedback on Madness. So, in the meantime, I’ll probably just write a Chapter on each Friday until I’m finished (which should hopefully be only two weeks or so).

That’s about it for this week. Just chuggin’ along with a lot going on. I’m excited to get some Advanced Review Copies out to some friends for feedback. Unlike Honor, no one has been given any sort of spoilers on what occurs in Madness – not even my wife. I wanted all readers to go in completely blind to simulate new readers as much as possible. My wife and a few others had heard some important details within Honor prior to reading it, which had an effect on their impressions since they knew what was coming.

Back to editing I go!

Mmk, getting back into the swing of things now after taking a vacation. A disruption in my ritual is always risky. I like to keep things consistent and not threaten breaking the habits I’ve formed. Luckily, I was able to get back into my routine without too much issue – though some obstacles here are there.

This week was spent trying to work on editing of Madness, primarily. I didn’t get through the level out output I was planning on, which is a bummer. I was hoping to be at Page 100 of 224 in my first draft’s document by the end of the weekend (starting at 32). So far I’m up to Page 57, so pretty far behind. It isn’t too big of a deal overall. I bit off a bit more than I could chew with the goal of 68 pages over the weekend, but it pushed me to at least make the current progress, at least.

My goal is to be finished with the first round of edits by the end of the month. I think if I buckle down and edit on weekdays more often – even just 3-5 pages per day – I can make that goal without much issue. From there, it’s onward to some Beta Readers for feedback.

Also, I’m starting to look into some Fantasy Blog/Review sites. There are a handful out there. The main issue is that these sites are obviously going to be receiving content non-stop. It can take months or even years for them to get around to your book, if at all. There are some that allow you to pay to sort of short-list your book, but it can be quite expensive. We’ll see what I find. I didn’t do any sort of advance reading to known blogs or reviewers for Honor, so it’s something I’m considering this time around.

Onward to future work! I drew out a loose outline for Book Three this weekend and will be ready to start writing next week. It’ll be difficult to juggle writing Book Three and editing Madness, but I need to maintain momemtum. I’m really excited to get started on Book Three and think a certain audience will definitely enjoy the story I have planned. One can hope.

That’s all for this week, see you on next Sunday!

Holy dwarf ears am I exhausted. My wife and I just returned from a vacation for our anniversary, so I apologize for missing this week’s Writing Prompt.

With the trip, I didn’t get to do any editing (currently at about 10% in). I had planned on editing while on vacation – and even sat down a few times in the early morning since I still woke up between 3:00 – 4:00 a.m. out of habit – but I decided to let it sit for a week and spend some time with my wife instead. While I certainly don’t regret that decision, coming back and knowing how far behind I am sure has me stressed out, hah!

I have a day to recover and relax tomorrow before heading back to work, so I think I’ll try to get a good chunk pounded out. I may need to go to the library or something so I don’t have any distractions, but we’ll see how it goes. I’m pretty exhausted, don’t ye doubt.

I did work on some different tree alterations for a city map of Jesmera that I’m playing around with. I’m not sure if I’ll add it to Madness yet, but we’ll see how it turns out. It has less relevance to the plot than Wiston, but still has a bit of purpose (just as a slight teaser for those who were looking forward to some more elves).

That’s all for this week, folks! I’ll be back on track now for the content, thanks for your patience.

Alright, as mentioned in a few other posts this week, Madness is now complete (first draft). That means it’s onward to editing. I’m going to be juggling a few different tasks over the next few weeks between editing Madness, re-editing Honor for an updated edition, and even working on Book Three. It’s going to be a busy time, but everything should go just fine.

Also, I’ve started creating a map of Wiston for Madness, shown below.

It’s a fun little project and I think I’m going to build a few more maps out in my spare time of some of the other cities such as Tarabar, Jesmera, and maybe even the Zharnik orc’s village for fun.

That’s all for this week’s update, lots to do! See you next week.

Whew, just about finished. I’m up to 133,500 words for Book Two (can’t wait until the Title is announced on Thursday so I can stop saying ‘Book Two’) with only two or three chapters left!

Part of me considered just knocking out the last of it today. A big part. But, I like to keep a steady progress and not rush in order to avoid mistakes. Next weekend, I’ll read through my last few paragraphs and finish the first draft with a refreshed perspective. A lot of times my thoughts from Sunday’s writing session will change when I next sit down on Friday to pick up where I left off – for better or worse.

Also, once the first draft is finished, I’m moving straight into Book Three (oh god, now I have to call that one ‘Book Three’ for the next 6 months). I like to maintain momentum and keep it all fresh in my mind. I’ll be working on editing over the next few months, then hope to get it published sometime between June and September. Ideally, June is what I’m striving for, but I made mistakes with Honor due to being too eager to publish. Mistakes I wish I had caught prior to publication that I’m now working to correct. So, I’ll be taking Book Two a bit more slowly in order to avoid making the same mistakes and hope the end result will be all the better because of it.

This week also marks the first Free E-book promotion for Honor, between February 15th – 19th. So far, the promotion is doing great and a lot of new readers have picked it up. It even made it all the way to #12 in Epic Fantasy on Amazon. My goal is to reach the Top 10, but we’ll see! It’s been a good learning experience and I have some future marketing plans for both Honor and M– (oops, almost gave it away) Book Two.

Keep an eye out for some future content, check out the Skirmishes if you haven’t yet, and join me in the anxiousness of getting Book Two ready for print.

See you on the battlefield.

Hello!

Book Two is very, very close to completion for the first draft! I put in a bit of extra time this weekend and got another chapter done (it was mainly hard to stop writing, since I’m at the final bit where the stakes are really high). I think I have between 4 – 6 chapters left before its complete.

So, that’s pretty exciting – and terrifying – but exciting.

It should only take 1 – 2 more weeks to finish the first draft, which is right on schedule. I started writing Book Two on September 1st, so it took 6 months to write, which is my goal. Normally, I would start right on Book Three right away in order to maintain momentum. But it may be delayed a month or so while I work on editing Book Two, we’ll see. If it’s only a month it shouldn’t be too bad, but I’d like to jump right in and transition immediately.

On another note, Book Two now has a Title! I’ll be revealing the title on February 19th in the week’s Fifty Word Fantasy Prompt. The third place Title option was this week’s Prompt, ‘Swarm‘. On the 12th, the runner up Title option will be in the Fifty Word Fantasy Prompt.

I’m really excited to get to reading and editing Book Two. I haven’t read any of what I’ve written (excluding the Prologue) yet. There will be hundreds of mistakes and probably a few sections in need of a rewrite, but it’s all part of the process. Hopefully readers enjoy this entry – there is certainly a lot of intense scenes with high stakes and even more action than Orcblood Legacy: Honor.

But, you’ll all have to let me know what you think!

That’s it for this week, check out the update next week to see if the first draft manages to get completed.

Hope everyone had a good weekend, it was pretty busy here (I say that as someone who likes their weekends to be entirely empty – so ‘busy’ means one thing planned basically).

I went out this weekend with my cousin who is getting interested in writing. After reading Orcblood Legacy: Honor, he’s discovered an interest in Fantasy – which is awesome! I’ve given him the first trilogy of R. A. Salvatore’s Drizzt series, which was the series that got me deeply involved in Fantasy. Hopefully it will serve as an inspiration for him as well. It’s a long series, but one I’d recommend to any Fantasy fans.

Overall, he’s got some cool ideas on a plot he’d like to work on and I’m pretty excited to see what he puts together. Writing is something I always try to find more people to talk to about, but it’s pretty difficult. Most are pretty secluded, among a few other quirks. I hope it’s something he comes to enjoy, as I have, but we’ll see how it plays out. He’s young and there’s a lot to discover – both in writing and out.

As far as writing this weekend, I was really excited to get some scenes in. In the final act, some of the major events that I’ve had planned for months are finally making their way onto the pages and it’s great to be able to get them played out. For any who read the Skirmishes, there is an Easter Egg hidden within Book Two that only those who have read them may realize. The story will make sense even without knowledge of the Skirmishes, but it’ll certainly be much more impactful if you’re aware of some of the side events I’ve written about on the site.

There is still a lot left to go! I’m currently at 116,000 words and on Chapter Sixty. I would estimate probably 10 or more chapters left, but it’s hard to say. There are still a couple of major events that need to occur. It’s some back-to-back action that I hope will leave people on the edge of their couch cushions, eager to flip the page and forcing themselves to stay awake to keep going. But I’m a bit biased. 🙂

Only time will tell, I suppose. My wife and I go on vacation at the end of the month and I’d like the first draft to be completed by then. So only 3 more weekends left until then. Pretty exciting to almost be done. I’ve already got some plans for Book Three and will probably start on that almost immediately after I’m finished with Book Two’s first draft and attempt to juggle editing and writing between Book Two and Book Three. Damn, I really need to think of a name for Book Two, we’re getting too close now and I hate identifying it as ‘Book Two’ all the time.

A battle for another day! See you all next week!

Good morning! Sorry I’m a bit late on this, I got carried away yesterday.

We’re in the Final Act of Book Two and all of the intensity and high stakes are starting! I’m excited for next week’s writing sessions to see what happens.

Also, I made a post on Imgur that made Most Viral regarding my favorite author, R. A. Salvatore. He’s the writer for the Drizzt Do’Urden series, which is the largest inspiration for Orcblood Legacy. When I read his books in my teens, it was really the start to my love of Fantasy that sparked the interest in writing. To be honest, I can’t (or rather don’t want to) go back and re-read them, despite them being stories I love. Now that I write my own books, I see a lot of things that I don’t like in his writing – or that just differs from my preferences.

I still loved those books and fondly claim them to be my favorite series (next to Orcblood Legacy, of course!). But I don’t want to ruin the magic when I start picking them apart from a written perspective. My teenage mind didn’t care about plot repetition, immortal characters, or the lack of a structured magic system. At the time, I only cared about the story and its players. Writing is a completely different beast than reading and it changes your perspective a lot on the things you normally would just look past. Even now, I can’t watch movies without automatically pointing out the plot holes. It is frustrating, to say the least.

In any case, all writers get inspiration from somewhere. It’s important to remember the things or people that brought you where you are. While I may disagree with the way some of Salvatore’s books are written, I will never deny that they serve as the primary influence behind my own.

That’s all for this week, folks!

Hello, hello!

This week had a lot happen and has been pretty exciting. First, the cover art for Book Two was finished and looks phenomenal. I can’t wait for everyone to see it. I will probably be releasing it in a sort of promotional announcement closer to publishing, most likely in Summer (2019).

Also, a lot of new details were added to Book Two. Last week I mentioned that I made some last minute changes to some side plots. This week involved getting those stitched together and meshing well (in addition to writing them). I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, but we’ll see how it goes in the editing phase. All I can say is that for any who are keeping up on the Skirmishes, there are going to be some fun little tidbits in Book Two for you to look forward to.

Overall, this weekend was spent installing two new POVs to get a better insight into some of the characters, as well as fleshing out some of the finer details in the Final Act.

That’s pretty much where the progress stands right now. We’re just about to enter the Final Act of Book Two and there is a lot planned. The stakes are high, the fights are intense, and anything can happen.

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Hey everyone! Happy Weekend!

Had a few great writing sessions this weekend – a lot of new, unexpected changes were made to Book Two that should add a lot of drama and intrigue! It’s a risk, but overall I think it’ll make the story much better. This is one of the reasons I write in the process I do, there’s always room to adapt as the story sees fit.

Additionally, I spent some time this weekend learning more about Photoshop to put together a Promotional Ad that is out circulating Facebook right now. I’m no artist, but think it turned out well enough.

I got some progress updates on Book Two’s cover that I’m really, REALLY excited for. I love getting the covers designed. It’s one of my favorite aspects of putting the book together and so far I love how it’s turning out. Here’s a quick sneak peak that you might’ve seen already if you follow the Facebook page!

I’m hoping to get another progress update next week. I may put it up on Facebook or on the site, but I like keeping the suspense – we’ll see! If you follow the Facebook page or subscribe to the side on the sidebar, you’ll be able to see when it goes up!

That’s it for today, check in next week!

Whew, what a weekend. I fell behind and missed Friday due to a health procedure, but was able to get a short chapter completed on Saturday and a long one in Sunday.

I’m a bit worried, as the chapter from Sunday came with a large last minute change that drastically affects the plot in the remainder of the story. So, I need to be wary of piercing through the previously-laid plot and not add new holes.

Last minute changes like this are extremely risky. I’ve done them a handful of times between both books and so far they’ve turned out alright. In this case, the original scenario I had planned was a bit bland. The new direction is much more intense and dramatic, adding a lot more interest for both me and my reader – I think. We’ll see how it goes!

Other than that, not too much to report. Sitting at about 90,000 words in Book Two. I’m expecting to need at least 125,000 – 150,000 in this one, especially with the new route I’ve decided to take. The goal is to be finished with the first draft around March 1st.

Happy New Year!

I don’t have much to report this week. I made some progress on Book Two and got my date’s confirmed for an event at my local library in Spring. I hope everyone had a good holiday!

Book Two is currently at 85,000 words with probably at least 10 chapters remaining. We’re getting closer to the final act/events, so it’s getting pretty intense and thrilling.

Sorry for such a short update, see you next week!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! (Soon)

This weekend has been busy! There were some long chapters during writing sessions – starting off the weekend with my normal writing time disrupted and postponed (successfully, for once) until the afternoon – and a Christmas get-together with the family. My brother got me a nice little showcase for my book and some prop stands for Book Signing events (image below).

It’s hard to tell how long Book Two will be. So far, I’m up to +75,000 words and still have much to add. Though, 50,000 words is still a lot of time left, so it’s hard to judge. It’s exciting to be so far in, but also a bit worrisome to have so much left to do at this point. I can’t squeeze it all in to keep it under an arbitrary word count – but neither can I make the book 500 pages.

Overall, a productive weekend – with more to come. Thanks to the holidays, I’m off from my day job on Monday and Tuesday the next two weeks. I plan on picking up a writing session on each day, which should add another four chapters, hopefully!

Don’t forget! Tomorrow is the last day for the $0.99 eBook Sale on Amazon (US site only)! 

Keep an eye out for any other upcoming sales or promotions by subscribing to the blog or Like the Facebook page!

Not much has happened this week outside of writing. I got some Christmas shopping done and had some doctor’s appointments, still waiting to hear back. My wife and I have already told each other what we’re getting for Christmas. I’ll be excited to post one up on here around next week’s update.

Onward to writing! I got a lot done this weekend. Three good chapters that were really exciting to write. I’ve probably mentioned this before, but having two separate storylines in two entirely different settings is really fun. Challenging, but fun. The drastic differences between the two environments can be hard to hop between mentally, but throwing on some appropriate ambiance music helps a lot. 

I released the Prologue to Book Two this week as a teaser for what’s to come. It doesn’t go into detail on other events and no spoilers are given, as it actually takes place early in the past, before even Orcblood Legacy: Honor takes place. (Note: This shouldn’t be necessary to say, but it is mature content containing scenes of violence)

That’s about all for this week! I really need to start reading through Book Two’s current progress and make some edits and remind myself of some of the earlier events. This book will probably be undergoing some heavy edits, as I plan to take more time to go through it prior to publishing. 

See you next Sunday!

Happy weekend! There is a lot to bring up for this week’s update.

Thursday, I met with my local library and discussed hosting a Writing Discussion, which will be taking place on Thursday, May 23rd, 2019. It is quite a ways away, but I’m looking forward to it. They also were gracious enough to accept four donated copies of Orcblood Legacy: Honor, which will be available for patrons to check out within their New Release and Local Author sections.

Later that same night, I went to my grandfather’s wake as he passed away earlier in the week. It was good to see some family that I hadn’t connected with in a while. Also, the word about my book had spread and – to my surprise – many were asking questions about it. A cousin of mine even mentioned his shared interest in writing, and he and I met today to discuss writing. I think it’s something he’ll come to enjoy, as I have.

We had some great discussions about writing and things to consider that don’t often stand out at first glance. Logic, reader perspective, and realism to name a few. Hopefully he doesn’t find it too overwhelming, as many do, and continues with his interest. If not, we’ve all been there, even myself.

Now, onward to Book Two. My health took a hit this weekend, but I managed to get a short chapter in on Friday, and a long one in today on Sunday. Saturday was a bit of a loss, unfortunately. A combination of a decline in my health and my daughter deciding to take her feral spirit to heart. Also, I shot myself in the foot a bit, and didn’t do some research in advance and made a last-minute change in an important part of a new race’s introduction on Saturday. That really hurt the word count, but now all of the details are fleshed out and I shouldn’t run into any more trouble with that particular issue. 

As always, I won’t give away too much detail, but Fangdarr is feeling much more at home in the new area he just walked into. That is, until some harsh demands are made and his rage begins to build. Next week’s writing sessions will be pretty eventful and I’m looking forward to them. It’ll really be one character’s time to shine, to say the least. (Disclaimer: Actually, as I just finished writing that last sentence, I decided to make a change in the flow of the story. Woe to the whims of writing.)

Tune in next week!

First, I’ll start by saying that Orcblood Legacy: Honor is officially in its first bookstore! I met with a local shop and they’ve agreed to put the book on their shelves, as well as do a book signing event in early 2019. 

My next goal is to try to get onto the shelf of more stores, including the name-brand chains such as Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million, etc. It’ll be a difficult process that may not prove successful, but I’ll try my best to get Fangdarr out into the world. 

If you’d like assist, Orcblood Legacy: Honor is already available on their websites. The more orders they sell on their website, the less risk they consider the investment and the easier it will be for me to convince them that Fangdarr is a ma— err . . . an ORC of the public!

Barnes and Noble

Books-a-Million

As usual, I wrote some more on Book Two this weekend. I won’t give away spoilers, but it’s been a really fun set of scenes to write, with more planned. Let’s just say Fangdarr is far from his homeland and in a world vastly different than his own. 

That’s all for this week! Subscribe to the Blog on the sidebar to get notifications when new Blogs get published and see you next week!

Back on track! This weekend’s progress was back to normal, completing a chapter in Book Two each day, for a total of 7,500 words. I’m at the estimated half-way point of the word count I’m expecting for the completion of the story, so we’re trucking along smoothly.

With this week being Thanksgiving, I was worried I would not be able to manage to get my normal output back on track (after the previous two weekends suffering about 50%). However, I was able to buckle down each morning and knock out the chapters.

I was surprised to learn that a few of my extended family members had picked up the book last week. It has some pretty explicit and mature content that they had not reached within the story yet, so we’ll see what their opinion is like once they hit that mark (and the end)!

Also, I’ve got some plans to work on some neat little bookmarks to put around town at local libraries and bookstores as a means of gathering interest. The weekend’s plans have gotten them a bit delayed, but hopefully I’ll have something to show in the next week or two.

That’s all for this week’s update, it’s been a long weekend full of family socialization and early morning intense writing sessions to get back on track. See you next week!

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Grr, another slow week. I’ve been busy with the launch of Orcblood Legacy: Honor and have not put out my usual progress of three chapters per week. However, I was able to accomplish a lot and hope to be back on track at my usual output next week.

This week started the introduction of the new Skirmishes, which I’m really excited for. These are Blog posts that I plan to release weekly and follow the events of a few of the main characters in the Orcblood Legacy series. The events are going to be short-stories that would have been added to the book, and are the real events taking place within the timeline, save for not wanting the book to be 700 pages. 

Their purpose is meant to provide detailed experiences and encounters of events that took place during time skips that were not relevant to the story, but still provide a much deeper level of detail into the characters and the events that led them to where they are now.

Long term, I am considering releasing a collection of these Skirmishes as an additional item, most likely in eBook. Otherwise, I may consider releasing an Extended Version with them all worked in to the story. But first, let’s see how they fare and how many I produce to feel satisfied.

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Whew, this weekend’s progress was slow. I got about half my normal output out due to being sick for most of the weekend, though still made sure to write each day at my normal times.

Despite the slow progress, the content I got done (about 1.5 chapters) was enjoyable. There was a small side plot that was mainly used to solidify a certain aspect of the story (vague, I know) and a fair amount of relationship building between two characters.

Anytime I write about two specific characters and their relationship, my wife goes crazy, begging to see what’s going on. It makes it all a bit more amusing, as it helps when writing the scene(s), knowing she’s going to ‘squeeee’ over the actions that are taking place (vague, I KNOW). In any case, it was a good chance to add more meat to an already budding companionship, as well as add a good amount of background to a character that previously had little. 

As I was writing today, I was partway through a chapter and a very important scene that I’ve been looking forward to. My daughter woke up a bit early today, so I had to consider cutting my writing time short. That brings me to a new point that I know a lot of writers aren’t fond of.

When to STOP writing for the day/session?

This is a tough one. I say that because I tend to be at an equal standpoint on two sides, recognizing the benefits of each. 

First, in my opinion, it is best to stop writing at a part you’re interested in! You read that correctly. Right when it’s getting good, and you’re itching to add that next paragraph that will make the scene really come together – STOP!

‘Bernard, why in Bothain’s forge fires would I want to do that?’

Because, it will drastically increase your interest on your next writing session, trust me. Many people, myself included, tend to stop at a threshold such as a chapter, a change of setting, or the ending of a scene. I understand that completely, and my organizational compulsions often force me to do just that. However, sometimes, when you end your writing session on a clean stopping point, it can be insanely difficult to motivate yourself to start the next scene.

The last session had a sense of finality to it and now you’re stuck feeling like you’re starting from scratch. What’s the law? Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. Don’t stop the train at the station, stop it at the top of the hill, so the only way to go is forward. Ride that slope all the way down and you’ll find you’re at the station without ever having to start the engines. (Crappy metaphor, we can’t all be writers)

Anyway, I will be the first to tell you that my compulsiveness often gets the best of me and I write until the threshold. Frankly, my standard goal is to write one chapter each day (Friday through Sunday). I’ve started trying to disregard that clean cut and pull myself away at the height of the scene sometimes, as it’ll help me the next day. But, there’s a risk.

Normally, I stop at the end of the chapter. With me trying not to do so, it actually cuts my progress shorter, where I might end it a few paragraphs prior to the end of the chapter, costing me precious progress. Of course, it certainly helps me get started the next day, but then I cut my progress again to do the same. Overall, I lose about 25% progress, or less, for the week. It’s not too bad. Really, this is more for those who are having trouble staying motivated.

Right now, I’m pretty set in my ritual and don’t have motivation issues anymore, so it isn’t too often I do this. But it can make all the difference if you find that you sit down to write and you just can’t get going. Once you get your ritual (that thing I keep bringing up that will help you succeed), you can end your progress wherever you like.

Overall, there are many different ways to get you going and make sure you work at the time you’ve allotted to yourself. There’s nothing more demoralizing than sitting down, knowing you WANT to work and not finding the words. 

I’ll bring up a few more tips on staying motivated and making sure when you sit down to work, you actually work, so keep an eye out for future blogs (you can subscribe on the sidebar if you want to be e-mailed any time new content is published).

Currently, I am already deep into Book Two of the Orcblood Legacy series (Title pending) – probably around 40%. I started the moment I completed Honor in order to maintain momentum and not disrupt my writing schedule. So far, this has worked very well, as I’m making good progress on the second title before the first is even available.

That’s just the starting point. I plan to hold myself accountable with a Weekly Progress Update, as well as give some tips, details, or any challenges I encountered each week. This is the first!

As mentioned in a previous Blog about staying motivated, I only write on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings between 4:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. And that’s it. I have time to write more, but I write for a specific slot of time on specific days in order to keep a ritual. Once I start disturbing my ritual, my writing will suffer.

This week, I added another two Chapters to Book Two that have been really interesting. I won’t spoil any details, but there is one key thing I want to bring up regarding writing that I encountered in this week’s progress.

Introducing New Characters: 
Many writers plan on introducing new characters – ALL of them – ahead of time. This is a good thing. It truly is. However, it can also be limiting. I plan events loosely in the beginning, but let the story go where it needs to as I write. Other than a loose outline, it’s all written on the spot. This is especially true for certain characters getting added.

In this week’s writing, I actually introduced two characters that were never planned. There was no thought that went into them ahead of time and the original storyline had no intention of them, or their events, being implemented at all. This is a risk.

Needless to say, there is a reason why writers flesh out characters prior to adding them to a story. I do the same, sometimes. However, despite the risk, I truly enjoy the implementation of characters that were not planned. I’ll explain why.

One of the things I have noticed, is that some writers will flesh out their characters first, then build the events around the characters. This can work, but it feels clunky to me. The world was not created with humans being the reason it is shaped in its way, rather the opposite. Humans evolved due to the way the world works. Writing should be the same. 

When you design a character prior to implementation, you inevitably will force that character to be introduced – often in a setting that either may not make sense or in a way that did not fit into the original plan of the story. For example, let’s say your novel is about delivering a magic ring to a volcano (I think this may have been done before . . . but bear with me!). You’ve got the idea in mind for a character that you designed weeks ago sitting on the sidelines screaming, “Put me in, Coach!” 

Now, this character may be the coolest, most lethal assassin that can shapeshift into a wolf on a whim and wields a whip with a pistol attached. You’ve taken this character into your Dungeons & Dragons campaign and had a blast. He NEEDS to make a debut in your story, because you are so attached to that character. But how? Well, don’t worry! Despite the fact your party is already at the edge of the volcano, about to complete their quest, we have found a way! 

Your characters were at the final threshold, just about to complete their quest with everything going smoothly. But, we NEED to implement Wolf-Whip-Pistol-Man, so instead, the party stops because the slightly pudgy one needs to snack on some bread. This gives the enemy time catch up and attack. But wait! We are saved, because one of the enemies happens to be a secret Wolf-Whip-Pistol-Man in disguise, who traveled far and wide just to aid in our quest! We are saved! 

Now, obviously the above is such an outrageous implementation, correct? I agree, 100%. The problem? I actually see writers do this! This is the byproduct of developing a character prior to the world (annnnnnnd a bit of the writer not understanding that you can’t just throw in what you think is cool without careful planning in advance). Instead, if your world is built, the decision to add a character in that exact same outlandish scenario above actually can occur. However, instead of your pre-made character, it can be an orc, or a goblin, or whatever your enemy is. Now, it seems more likely. Give him a backstory and a reason for his treason and you’ve got an interesting character.

This all goes to say that the above is obviously quite an extreme situation, but tries to show the importance of understanding the limitations of building a character beforehand and feeling like you must implement them, even at the detriment of the story. 

So, that was quite a long way to say that implementing a character on the spot can have its own advantages, while fleshing out your entire cast before their time can actually damage your story. It’s important to make sure the flow is not disrupted and that everything makes sense. Your characters, their implementation, and the setting in which they are introduced. 

Keep an eye out for next week’s Weekly Progress Update!