Update 9/13/2023: Updated formatting to current blog standards.
First of all–WHOA! Sorry about the lack of updates lately. I woke up Monday morning and sort of had an emotional breakdown out of nowhere (I’m better now, though). Then Wednesday came along, and my sister/roommate decided to take a last-minute personal day due to inclement weather. And as we both have a propensity for video games, I had a feeling Wednesday was not going to be particularly productive, either.
But I knew I had to at least try to get something out today, since you’ve been waiting so patiently. And I thought: what better to talk about than my current writing process!
A typical work day starts with me doing my duty as a responsible adult and scrounging around for jobs (month two of the new place and I’m still looking).
But as soon as that obligation’s out of the way, it’s off to Google Drive to work on my current project, The Victor’s Blade.
Remember when I said I was an over-planner?
Lately with The Victor’s Blade, I’ve been in planning mode rather than actually writing. This is due to a few reasons, mostly because I started writing the trilogy when I was eleven. I’m currently twenty-six, so there’s plenty of plot items that I’ve realized simply don’t work.
Most of my plot notes are in a single Excel-style document. Here’s a glimpse at what it looks like (Uh… spoilers if you’d rather not know early Elven history for this universe):
As you can see, there’s a whooooole lot of tabs.
As you also can (or can’t) see, the color code is:
- Red – Concrete plan; will definitely be going with this concept
- Salmon Pink – Idea, possibility
- Yellow – Idea or plan that contains a plot hole or raises a question I haven’t figured out yet
Currently, I’ve been working on compiling all the notes in this document to a single doc that lays everything out in chronological order. (No screencap of that one, though. Too many sensitive spoilers!)
Oh, additional early history lore spoilers.
If you’re curious:
- Lime Green – Elven history
- Black – Maddokar‘s ancestry
- Dark Red – Misc. history
- Orange – Human history
- Purple – Zelmeon (fairy) history
- Red – Thoranan/Jaranin’s history
- Green – Emarella’s history
- Dark Blue – Temanim/Zaelor‘s history
Lately, working on that chronological document has meant me going through the lineage of Jaranin, the protagonist–which means I’m mostly going through copy/pasting the story of each one of his ancestors, the dates they married and had kids, etc.
I’ve had Jaranin’s lineage about 99% complete since around 2002. So since his lineage is basically finished, there’s not much “actual” work I’ve been doing on it. Currently, it’s just a matter of tweaking some stories I wrote when I was eleven and adjusting the overall flow so it better corresponds to the antagonist’s plans.
As for the actual writing of the writing process…
I’ll let you know when I get there. =P
Anything in particular catch your eye? Are there some other documents you’d like to see more of? Let me know in the comments!
Curious about the pronunciations of those names? Click here!
Want to know how The Victor’s Blade got started? Click here for the origin story.
Photo of keyboard by Neuneu and definitely not my own keyboard, which is filthy and disgusting and otherwise not photo-worthy. Originally posted on Pixabay.
For Him, to Him
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