Week 1 of Weekly Postings

Hello to all my readers!

This starts my weekly journey into writing a blog post every week. This past week, my husband and I went to Louisville, KY. There he attended conferences, and I had time to write. The backdrop of my writing consisted of a nice cup of coffee, a little quiet, and some background noise to help me get into the mood. For a great immersive writing experience (if you are so inclined), I enjoy listening to Abbie Emmons’s Write With Me on YouTube. Abbie has a great selection of different immersive writing for all different genres. Check out Abbie (not a paid sponsor).

As I mentioned in my last post, I am currently working on a fantasy story. I’m not entirely sure where it is going. But I do have a good backstory and environment to work in. I’m not sure if this is going to be a series or where it is planning to go. I don’t have an ending yet, but that is part of the journey.

What I do have is a world and a prophecy and a protagonist, but I believe the antagonist is going to be more than just the local bully. It is on a more grander scale that I have imagined.

Writing this work-in-progress also has me thinking of the very first novel I wrote. I started on my own fantasy novel in December of 2011. I had this idea; I had this ending; and, I knew I wanted to make a trilogy, but how would I get there? It took me about 6 months to write that novel. It is pure trash, but it was a start. I named it my Chosen Trilogy. The first book was supposed to build the world and give as much exposition within it. The second book was supposed to build on the second novel in which a battle would ensue. The third was supposed to have the resolution, which I toyed with many different endings. I had a lot of inspiration with both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis and their respective fantasy worlds. My story definitely had some Judeo-Christian themes to the world building. I had a monotheistic world that also had four lesser gods (i.e. Tolkien and The Silmarillon). Those four “married” their opposite to create the first man and woman. And from that first man and woman grew the world. And writing about it now lets me know how lame it sounded. I digress.

But what I really wanted to convey in this novel is my love for fantasy. I’ve mentioned before how much I love J. R. R. Tolkien and The Hobbit was really my first introduction to the world of fantasy. From Tolkien, I moved on to Harry Potter because I was part of the Harry Potter generation. Now, I have A Song of Ice and Fire to add to my list of fantasy that I enjoy.

I think what is fun for me is the world building. Somethings you learn later in life, and that is why my earlier writings seem bland to me is because I didn’t delve deeper into the the world building myself. I think if I rewrote The Runner, it would be a slightly different story. The fact that my backdrop for that particular novel was set in Georgia (the state I live) should have been so easy for me to describe and write about. But when my protagonist began to expand to other states I had never been to soon became a fun research project. This was very true for When the Bough Breaks in which my protagonist leaves Georgia to go to New York. At that time, I had never been to New York. The farthest north I had been was North Carolina. I did a great deal of research for that one.

Normally when I write, I have the ending in mind. With The Runner and When the Bough Breaks, I knew how my stories would be ending. This I’m not sure where it’s going yet. I have my world, and I have my protagonist. I can’t wait to see where they will lead me. I’m nearing 10,000 words so far. What a great way to get me out of a writing hiatus.