Pushing My Way Through It

 It's been a tough few months for novel-writing. Part of it was summer. We had four groups of family visit us over July and August. Kept me busy getting ready beforehand, and for the days they were here. It was good to see everyone, of course! But I didn't get much writing done.

The latest writing news is about the short story I submitted back in March, for the fantasy tavern anthology. In late August I received a group email from the publisher saying my story has been shortlisted!! 

The email said she expected to decide what's in or out by late September, but there's been no word so far. I might post a quick update when I hear back. It would be great to get in, but even if I don't, it's super encouraging to be shortlisted.

Accepted stories will go through a few rounds of editing before publication. Which is fine, since I made further edits after submitting. I think the story is better for it. Some of those edits/additions will make it in, but the current version no longer fits the word limit, so there will be compromises. 

One nice thing about the anthology prompt is I "accidentally" wrote a possible opener for the novel, even though decisions about that are a looong ways off. It's an important early moment in the MC's life. And the action shows the reader a lot about the MC's culture, relationship with her family, the "magic" system, and the land she comes from.

The main story takes place when the MC is middle-aged, but starting 30 years earlier fits better with the antagonist's storyline, which starts at age 6. The plan (subject to change of course) is to intersperse the beginning of the antagonist's "fall" from goodness, with the early stages of the MC's storyline. By the time I get to the MC's inciting incident, the antagonist is a grown man on a conflicting course with the MC's goal. And of course the dragon's story arc needs to be woven in there too. Along with a few secondary POV characters who come in later.

Last week I worked out scene-by-scene outlines of the MC's story, all the way to the end. The actual rough draft is written to nearly the halfway point. Having the MC storyline sketched out gives me a framework for writing key scenes for the two other main POV characters, the dragon and antagonist. I'm about 1/4 through writing those. So my daily struggle is - which character's scenes do I work on? Sigh.

Another struggle is keeping track of the distances my various characters are traveling. Ai! How do epic journey fantasy authors do it? I have maps where I track their locations. I've looked up information on travel by foot, travel by wagon, and travel by horseback, hoping to make it somewhat believable. But when you add in the steep mountains, bad weather, hunting for food... all the things...it pretty much turns into guesswork. That's what editing is for, I suppose. All those guesses you make can be adjusted as needed.

So that's the current state of things. I'll post news about the anthology when I get it. Take care everyone.