Writer Report: Moving Forward

Bard by BlueInkAlchemist, on Flickr

Cold Streets is a slow burner. By that, I mean it’s taking me a while to really get set on fire over it. I’m working on it, and I like what’s happening so far, I just haven’t carved out a great deal of time lately to put more words in sequence. I have a move coming up in the near future, and that’s going to eat in to my writing time. I have books and clothes to donate, old geegaws to bequeath to others, and the current place needs some sprucing.

My mind hasn’t been idle, though. What was once going to be a multi-novel fantasy series will, I believe, get compressed into one epic volume. After reading some other stories and watching a couple old favorite films, it occurs to me that not everything needs to be a serial. Not ever story needs a sequel. So Asherian and his world of Acradea will appear in a single novel. And, based on the timbre and themes of the rewrite, and how much more of the story I will be including from the very beginning, it’s getting yet another title change. For the time being, I’m calling it Godslayer.

Somewhere between the novellas of Morgan & Seth’s escapades and this fantasy epic, I want to work on a smaller novel, or perhaps novels, with a sci-fi bent. The arrival of the new version of Netrunner on my back step combined with classics like Blade Runner remind me that the future doesn’t necessarily have to be chrome-plated and shiny, or at least if it is, it need not necessarily be that way for everybody. What I like about futures with an even slightly dystopian bent is that super-advanced technologies, be they androids so life-like they act and feel like humans or faster-than-light travel or interstellar colonization, feel matter-of-fact, an aspect of everyday life that you don’t have to spend pages upon pages describing. And I’ve already written a couple of well-received short stories with this sort of bent, and I’m interested in seeing how I could expand the idea. Alien races, perhaps? Maybe a distant but superficially benevolent overlord whose dictates are at least partially responsible for the crapsack world our characters find themselves in? This bears further investigation.

More on these ideas to come. Also to come, more reviews of Cold Iron as well as some other surprises! Stay tuned.

2 Comments

  1. Interesting. I think it’s cool that you decided you want to do a one off story. Lately, in the fantasy world, I notice that just about every book that’s put out is either part of a series, or it becomes part of a series after the success of the first. Not a lot of stand-alones anymore.

    Lately, I haven’t written as dutifully as I should have been. However, this weekend I’m going to try to fix that. I have a few short stories I’m working on, but I have a vacation coming up in December, and a novella I’ve been working on–a fantasy western. I love westerns, and I haven’t seen very many other than THE DARK TOWER.

    Good luck on COLD STREETS.

  2. Stories have different gestation periods! So take the time that you need to write the story you want to write. I’ve been writing a YA novel but taking lots of breaks to write short stories and comic scripts; personally, I think it’s smart to build a diverse writing portfolio rather than focus on one mammoth of a story at a time. So I say follow whatever your writing heart desires!

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