September was a fairly laid back month for me. I wrote a couple of chapters of DARK LORD IN TRAINING, did some brainstorming work on both my untitled epic fantasy and THE MERMAID AND THE BEAST, and even wrote a little bit on the latter to try to get a feel for it. I had hoped to post a new chapter of DARK LORD IN TRAINING to Wattpad every week, but that didn’t pan out. I hit a bit of a brick wall on the coming chapters, so I need to figure a couple of things out before I can continue writing.

In almost-cool-but-not-quite-there-yet news, I’ve nearly written over 100,000 words this year! Considering that REBEL ENGINEER’s first draft was only 48,000 words and that’s the only book I’ve finished this year, that means I’ve written over 50,000 words of brainstorming, outlining, short stories, blog posts, and other writing miscellany this year. It adds up!

September Word Counts:

Blog posts: 253
DARK LORD IN TRAINING: 3,499
Epic Fantasy: ~200 (1 page brainstorming)
THE MERMAID AND THE BEAST: 1,969 (brainstorming + possible prologue?)
Short Stories: 640

Total Words for September: 6,561
Total Words for 2017: 99,278

Plans for October:

I will probably end up waffling between DARK LORD IN TRAINING and THE MERMAID AND THE BEAST again, working on whichever one strikes my fancy. After writing a bit of prologue on THE MERMAID AND THE BEAST this past month, I realize I need to do a bit more preliminary work on it before I can really start writing the story, so it’ll probably be mostly brainstorming and outlining that this month, with the hope that it will be ready to draft starting in November, for NaNoWriMo. I have some character things to iron out, and I need to decide on a few plot elements that still feel a bit wishy washy and coincidental in the grand scheme of things. I want to honor the original tales (and the versions we’re most familiar with) all while letting the story evolve and stand on its own terms. I want readers to forget that they’re reading a mash-up adaptation of two beloved fairy tales and love the story for what it is. It’s a tall order, but I think I can do it. I just need more time to hash out all the details.

As for DARK LORD IN TRAINING, once I untangle the events of the next few chapters (it’s a Dark Lord Conference, so it’ll be fun once I do), I should be able to start writing that again, hopefully resuming the chapter a week schedule I previously had going. I would love to finish DARK LORD IN TRAINING soon, but it’s turning out to be one of those books that I just can’t force, no matter how much I tell myself I’m going to properly work on it. I would love to have it done by the end of the year, but more realistically, it’ll probably be next summer or so, at the rate I’m going. The good news is that I am about two-thirds of the way through the story (as best I can tell), with over 63,000 words on it so far, so there’s not a whole lot left to write. (Though editing the thing is sure to be a nightmare.)

Of course, as I say all this, if I hear something back from the editor who has REBEL ENGINEER soon, all of this may go flying out the window in favor of editing that, but it doesn’t hurt to make plans in the meantime.

Upcoming Events

October 21st: Arkansas Tech University, Alumni Authors Corner, Baswell Techionery, 1st floor, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Join several Arkansas Tech alumni authors to discuss their works. (Table: 10-11; Panel Discussion: 11-12)