Welcome to The Ready Room, where I explore random topics to help you kick off your week.
This week I’m introducing a new segment on my blog, Writer Thursdays. I’m in that strange in-between phase again where I’ve got a completed book out to readers to rip apart at the seams and I’m gearing up to tackle the next story. On Writer Thursdays, I’m going to blog about where I am in my process, what crafting techniques and ideas I’m using, what I may be doing to overcome writer’s block, and essentially at the end of the segment, have a solid list of crafting articles and ideas for writers to pull from.
The Story
I’ve gone back and forth on this for several weeks, and I know what I’d tell those in my writer circles: find the story that calls to you. I’ve got six (badly) written dumpster fires that need love, and I want to tackle all of them. Three in particular need a lot of spit and polish, but I’ve also been weighing the idea of merging two of them into one tale.
But, after all is said and done, I’ve decided to return to my dragon fantasy universe and throw down the tale of Jadha & Ronin, introducing readers to the system of gate worlds attached to the Well of K’andvat.
Title & History
Dragon Spirit was a 2013 Nanowrimo project, and my first venture into the Infinus universe. In fact, it was the first dragon novel I ever wrote. The current word count is somewhere around 50k and the tale traverses four different gate worlds and the world inside the Well. I already know I’m going to be merging two of these worlds into one.
Although the title currently tells me everything I need to know about the novel, I don’t like it. It’s too plain and a little too on-the-nose. For this universe my current method for naming books is:
____ & _____.
So, to take the first step into bringing this tale out of the dumpster and into the light, we’re going to retitle it to a working title. Here’s a few options, but feel free to add more and let me know in the comments which one calls best:
PETALS & DUST
DUST & BONE
LEAF & SAND
Note: Jadha’s travels take her from rolling green hills to desert sands to vivid green jungles to an ice world. Go!
Genre
Recently, I had a small epiphany about myself as a writer. I love monsters and spaceships and fantasy worlds, but I also love a good, strong romantic element in a story. As soon as I meet the hero/heroine in any tale, I’m already searching the pages for their love interest. If there isn’t one, I sometimes start detaching from the story. Although, this isn’t always true. Throw me into the worlds of Glen Delaney, S. M. Roffey, Lara Lillibridge, Stephanie Sauvinet or C. M. Fick, and no love interest required. Start watching the bookshelves for these stellar writers.
I digress…
I am not a romance writer. I keep telling myself this over and over, but the truth is… I might be. Although I label myself as a fantasy and science fiction writer, I always write romance, and any of my stories only need a few touches here and there to turn them into a [genre] romance. I may or may note have done this recently.
So with this new book, I’m going into it as I always do, following the ridge along my structure mashup to lay the groundwork. But this time, I’m going to be researching romance beats to add into the structure. Partly to learn a new skill and partly to ensure I can take this story either way, into fantasy or fantasy romance.
Note on main image: I was unable to source the original artist. If you happen to know who it is, feel free to contact me and I’ll add credit line in. 🙂
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