I’ve
finally completed the rough draft of Swordsmaster.
It currently stands at just over 57,000 words – by far the longest thing I’ve
ever written, and yet not as long as the 70,000 words I had expected. Of
course, that count was supposed to be for a COMPLETED manuscript, and
Swordsmaster is FAR from completed.
Still,
I have reached the END, the DENOUEMENT, and for that I should allow myself to
celebrate.
Yay.
I
can see why some people NEVER finish their novel. Heck, right now I am SOME
people – at least until I complete what needs to be done.
What
have I learned?
Every
writer has a process that works for them, and although mine might vary slightly
due to each story’s needs, by and large my process stays the same. I thought I knew
mine pretty well, and that I just had to stretch things a little to go from
Short fiction to novel.
I
was WRONG.
My
internal editor can stall a short story, but it is DEATH to a novel. There is
no way I can write every word perfectly to begin with, and the added volume
increases the chance that my writing will stall from not being to get the
exactly right word in every spot.
There
are inconsistencies throughout, some just from my poor memory, complicated by
the writing being extended over seven months. I tried to help this with notes.
And notes about the notes. And notes about the notes about the… you get the
idea. Other ones have to do with tone / voice, which was hard to maintain over
all the stops and starts of those months. Or because when I was maybe 20,000
words into this when it occurred to me that this might be a Young Adult novel,
and that changed the way I was writing it.
And
mostly because I realized partway through this that I could not manage the
writing the same way as a short story. You see, in short fiction, it would take
almost no time at all to flip back a couple of pages and put in something I
forgot, or fix an inconsistency, or add details, and then I could get back to
writing and finish the story. With more words came more opportunities to go
back even further and fix things, and that becomes its own drug. I realized
that if the overall story framework was going to have any hope of working, I
would have to leave holes in the details until the foundation was laid in.
There
are notes in the margins throughout, reminding me of just SOME of the things it
occurred to me I would need to address. I have learned A LOT, but I have a lot
left to learn.
There
is so much research I still need to do – about medieval commerce, agriculture,
weather, sea vessels, weaponry, wildlife, religion, culture (yes, I can go on
and on) – so many questions that I didn’t even know to or how to ask until the
basic story played out.
So
that’s what I have now – a plot that works, with characters that need more
fleshing out, settings and a world that need more detail, and all of which
needs to be wrapped up in a consistent and appealing voice.
For
now, I’m going to take a break from Swordsmaster
to write the last two short stories I need to make this year’s goal. And then
it’s “once more unto the breach, dear friends!”
Just
saying…
<<<>>>
So in the continuing
saga of William’s attempts at marketing… My next ePublication will be Cats of War I - a collection of my first
three Herc Tom, Champion of the Empire
stories (“Purr-Mission”, “Nipped in the Butt”, and “Cat and Mouse”.) The
stories are set in a cat-dominated world and include space adventure,
treachery, political intrigue, germ (and other) warfare. And yes, it’s
humorous, too.
RELEASE
DATE: November 20th
The
collection is available as a pre-order at multiple online retailers for a
REDUCED PROMOTIONAL PRICE from now through its release. The price will increase
after the release weekend.
IN ADDITION
– if you purchase Cats of War I on Smashwords, use coupon code WF25Z at checkout to save an additional 67% off the $2.99 promo
price (that makes it only 99-cents – such a deal!) This coupon is only valid from
now through the end of the November 20th release day. Here’s the Smashwords
link:
And here’s
the Amazon link for pre-ordering Cats of
War I: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017E9TPFK?*Version*=1&*entries*=0
<<<>>>
William Mangieri’s writing (including his
latest story collection And Yet Still Even
More Things I Could Get OUT OF MY MIND) can be found in many places,
including:
- His Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008O8CBDY
- Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/william-mangieri?store=book&keyword=william+mangieri
- Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/NoTimeToThink
- Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=william+mangieri&sitesearch_type=STORE
To CONNECT WITH HIM (and LIKE and
FOLLOW), go to
His
site on Wordpress: https://williammangieri.wordpress.com
“William
Mangieri’s Writing Page” on Facebook at:
His
Goodreads author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6893616.William_Mangieri
Or
on twitter: @WilliaMangieri