Blog No. 395
A few days ago I was struggling with my daily writing and hit a wall. (It may have been some time last week, time has stopped having much meaning in March). I’ve since gotten back on track with the Invasion Novel (for the most part). Instead of doing nothing that day (something that had been happening more than I’d like) I opened up a blank document and wrote my daily word count towards a new project. I’m not sure when I’ll get to spend much time with it, or how far I’ll go, but it was better to work on something rather than nothing, right?
I’ve been watching a lot of anime for the last few years. There is a website I found that has a vast library of content for streaming, so I started with some of the shows I’ve always wanted to see, then followed a trail of recommendations through many more shows. One of the themes I’ve enjoyed is people waking up in new worlds or playing virtual reality games that are indistinguishable from real life. It’s a specific genre called isekai that has gotten rather popular. I’ve wanted to try my hand at that kind of story, but didn’t have a specific idea or plan.
Another itch I’ve been wanting to scratch was writing a serial story. Part of the original idea to create Adventure Worlds was to write serials, but it was also meant to have multiple authors involved. There are plenty of other websites like Wattpad that are designed for serialized stories, some of them even offer publishing contests. Being published is my ultimate goal, but through an agent, so the contests aren’t the draw for me. But several authors have gained large followings from their serial stories. If I can write a story that I’ve been wanting to explore, do it as a serialized story on a website full of readers, and gain some new fans, why wouldn’t I try?
I’m only done that one day of writing, though. The Invasion Novel is the more important project. I’ve managed to get over 100 000 words and I’m starting to wrap things up, but it will be a lot of work to get to the actual end of the story. I suppose having the serial as something to work on when I’m stuck on the novel is a good thing, but I can’t let it distract me. Who knows when I’ll get a chance to put in some real effort towards the serial. Maybe when I’m done the first draft of the novel and could use some time to let the story sit (and for me to get nice and critical of my own writing).
There are a lot of loose ends to deal with in the Invasion Novel and as I’ve said, the endings are often the hardest, but I’m excited that I’m getting close. The second and third drafts are going to be a ton of work, but getting the first draft done will feel nice. I still want to start the next novella in The Synthetic Albatross Series in August, so I have from now until then to work on both the Invasion Novel and the Serial. Not a lot of time and I may be putting things on hold to work on the novella. I hope not. Getting at least the first draft finished by then is necessary. Not only for my own ego, but if I have to get back to it after the novella is written, it will suffer even more than it has from taking so long to be finished.
I can’t think about it too much. There is more than a month and the way things look, I should be able to get it done with time to spare, but I’ve thought that in the past and been wrong. The best thing I can do is to keep working (and not let myself get too far off track and write way too much by avoiding the ending). I have no idea when I’ll be able to go back to work, so this has been a good test. I still need to be quicker with my first drafts (and better overall to be honest) but I have to take this step to get there. While I’m not going to complain about the free time (and doing what I have to for the safety of everyone) I do miss going out to write. Though, by the time that’s allowed and safe, I’ll probably be working again. Oh, well. Time to get back to it.
Ben Van Dongen 