As some of you may be aware, I am currently writing book 2 of, “The Beasts of Men and Gods” series. Titled, “Forgotten Fathers”. As it stands I have planned a whopping 51 chapters! That is 14 more than book 1. To add to that, these chapters are considerably longer. Where Book 1’s word count hit at around 80K. This one is already at 135K. My guess is that book 2 will reach 175K by the end of this leg of the journey. But this is only a guess.
I must say, it has been exhilarating, exhausting, and frustrating at times to make progress with this one. Why? You ask. Well, as a writer of fiction, I literally have to imagine all the scenes in which I create on paper. And some of these scenes, while amazing in my head, don’t always translate to paper how I’d like them too. Along with that, I plan my stories around key scenes that I have been thinking about since the story's conception. Which means, some scenes and chapters fly out of my head and stick to the page like fly paper. Where others I have to create on the fly…I did not mean to use “fly” like that. But I’m keeping it. What I am trying to say is I have key elements, or scenes that I WANT to play out, and from there I must connect these important scenes together using more storytelling. Undeveloped storytelling. It can be frustrating to say the least. Thankfully, like most things perseverance wins out.
Overall, I am happy with book 2’s trajectory and story throughout. It has played mostly to my original plan; big picture. Small stuff has come up while writing that was surprising and exciting. I won’t tease you further with promises of details. However, I will say that my hope is to have the first draft completed of book 2 by early July. And at the first draft’s current state; it sits at exactly 14 more chapters left to be written. So I have much to do in a short amount of time. Let’s hope I don’t get distracted with worldly devices, or creatures for that matter…You know–family, work, and literal technological devices…
Moving on from book 2, which has been my primary focus over the past year. I have also been working on another project. And that project is book 3. Titled “Cataclysm”. Why would I be working on Book 3 when book 2 is not yet complete? Well, it turns out that deep inside this epic fable, the third installment holds a HUGE backstory. One that I needed to flesh out during the writing stage of book 2 so that I may better understand a character’s motives and other wonderful things. And so the intent was to halt all progress on book 2 so that I may complete the leg of the story.
However, this backstory is gigantic. It actually overwhelmed me as to how vast the story was growing. In the end, it will be wonderful when I finish it. Both as a milestone, and as a physical piece of something that has been percolating in my mind for years now. Unfortunately, while writing it I felt myself petering out, energy wise. Creatively I felt stifled. I needed to turn away from one project and back to another. Which is Book 2, thankfully. So I intend on continuing work for this part of book 3, just not as heavily as I intended originally.
As to when I hope to finish this particular section of book 3? That is yet to be determined in my wee brain. My hope is that I finish it around the tail end of summer. Summer will be a tall order I’m afraid. For one, I will hardly be in state the entire month of July. Yay, family fun! Yay traveling! But sadly, I will most likely be unable to progress much of anything other than a handful of notes while out and about. I am hoping that the adventures will do my soul good. My soul fuels my creativity and drive to complete projects. So all in all, I am hopeful.
Finally, I will announce/mention(SORT OF) one more project that I have been working on here and there over the past year or so. I won’t even give it a title yet. Even though I am pretty sure I have one set. It is much different than my current fantasy series. It is loosely based in my surrounding area of Kitsap County Washington. It will be focusing heavily on one character. Much different than the many main characters in Beasts of Men and Gods(BOMAG). This story is meant to be a mix between science fiction, comedy, and a kind of horror-esque. I think… It is so new, and still so fresh that I really can’t begin to explain what it is.
As it happens, I do have several pages written out and many more notes taken. It will be formatted episodically. Not in chapters as my other works. This one, I am looking to release an episode at a time on some kind of platform. I believe KDP(Amazon) has a new kind of program for this type of release. However, again, I am not yet certain. I will be creating this as I have the mental faculties for it. For it requires a different mindset than my usual stuff. Lots of snarky, witty, even rude dialogue Bold characters. Bolder scenes. And will definitely NOT be for anyone under the age of 18. As to the reasoning behind its more mature content…because I want to. That’s it. I’ve even thought about creating a pen name to diversify my one series from this one. But that choice is for another day.
Before I even dive deep into this one, I need to make great progress on BOMAG books.
Not to mention, have a few beta readers who will give me honest feedback as I finish the episodes. In reality, this one has been in the back of mind to some degree since college. A darker story. Full of sarcasm, insults, tomfoolery, and all types of crazy shenanigans. I really can’t wait to get the first few episodes really written to start gauging people’s responses to it. But again, I can’t give any dates or even a sense of time frame for when anyone reading this will see it poke its head out to the light of day. Just more pots on the fire waiting for it's time to shine.
That’s all for now. Have a great week everyone.