Mythology from Mythology

I got a little sidetracked again tonight, but in a very productive way.

First off, I finally got a name for another character that I'd had on the list for a while. The name suits him very well, and Ive developed his personality/character a bit from it. I havent had any physical interactions with him yet, its all been through dialogue of other characters, but his piece of the puzzle is slowly starting to come togther.

Where I got sidetracked, though, was in thinking about how real world mythology affects the mythology of my story. I ended up Wikipedia-ing some Irish folklore and Judeo-Christian mythology, and this research helped me spruce up details for later down the road. It helped to loosen the "constraints" of the world as I have it currently designed.

That being said, I didnt get much new story down, so my outline is pretty similar to where it was last night. However, I have some more background to build off of, which I think is more important at this stage. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to finish off this chapter and start on the next one, although Im not sure where its going to start. I think its going to be a long one, so I know what the weekend has in store for me.

No time is wasted time

...unless you spend almost an hour trying to force a name on a character by looking up word meanings in different languages on the Internet. This is a trap Im going to have to be careful to avoid in the future. A perfectly good name came to me before I even sat down, so I am looking back on the time spent not advancing the outline with sad eyes.

If I ever get the "No, thats not good enough" vibe, I need to remind myself that this is just an outline. I can change the name later.

Of the Airship Academy

Tonight I wrapped up the largest chapter outline I've done so far. It turned into something far bigger in scope and much more interesting than I had initially intended. The big ticket item for me was to introduce Terria, but it turns out she only had a very small part. In fact, her role in this first book may be minimal. I know of at least one more scene where she will appear, but other than that she may not be around.

This is one of the surprises Ive discovered that comes with breaking down your ideas on paper. The story just seems to write itself, at times disregarding your original intentions. I had planned on introducing Terria as somewhat of a heartless bitch with a large role, but this first story doesnt have much use for her so she gets cameo appearances. Id love to see more of her but if its not what the story needs, then I'll save her for later.

Instead, Sam came into the picture and with a bigger role than I had conceived for him at first. Im not sure how many more times we'll see him in this novel, but so far hes had a major influence on the main character in a way I didnt expect.

Oh, and also, the idea I had for the airship was just really flipping cool. I cant wait to describe that beast in all of its glory.


Outline Progression

Chapters Completed: 5
Rough Word Count: 3586

The Writing Writer

This post has nothing to do with Coheed and Cambria.

OK, so I'm changing the purpose of this blog. Originally it was meant to be a journal where I could write about abstract ideas that I was incorporating into my novel. Yeah, this is another one of those blogs.

In the past I've started up some sort of blog or note systems to communicate my progress to whoever was listening. But in the end I defeated myself before I even began by posting schedules and other riffraff that had no business being out in the open, let alone being put to paper at all.

Ive thrown out the schedules, thrown out all sorts of restrictions and boundaries. Im not sure if I will even continue writing in this blog, as its just another distraction from what I should be doing. That is, to say, writing.

Thats why Im changing the purpose of this blog. Rather than a form of communication to the outside world, Im going to use this as a personal journal of my journey to get this job done. Everything I write in here will be to support myself and my writing. Im leaving this public for now, for anyone to read, but at some point I may change that.

This story is all I have left of my "dreams." Its been floating around in my head for, I dunno, ten years? It has become this huge, epic beast and it is very, very intimidating. It could either be world-changing or it won't get published at all. I feel I've finally found a solid starting point, so hopefully there won't be anymore "hey I've written four chapters!" and then starting over from scratch on a new story.

For the past few weeks Ive been writing a chapter-by-chapter overview to get things started. When I was writing the "original" novel in college, I spent my time between classes writing an overview that turned into a 40 page achievement. The only problem is that that novel is the fifth one in the series, so I wont be looking at it again for quite a while.

Ive been having a lot of fun with the new "first" novel. I started pulling ideas together around April (I think) and it has evolved quite a bit since then. Ive surprised myself with some of the ideas Ive come up with. There were a couple instances where I was laughing and flailing my arms wildly in the air as I danced around the living room. Well, not really, but you get the idea. Some awesome heart-wrenching, plot-driving twists that make total sense and are just, well, awesome!

Im having a bit of trouble keeping focused at the moment because Im about to jump into a couple exposition-driven chapters, and a lot of the fun/actiony stuff doesnt come until later. But Im still finding new and cool things to write about that are building up the characters.

Hell, these first three books (aiming for a trilogy, then two more trilogies after) are going to blow away everything I thought up for the original novels. Its a very traditional supernatural fantasy/scifi, as far as plot goes, but holy magoly is it epic.

So I guess I should get back to work on the overview now. From time to time I'll probably come on here and post my personal thoughts on characters or chapters or plot lines. Im going to do my best to keep things spoiler-free, but if it gets to the point where I HAVE to talk about something to help me progress, I may privatize this blog. I'll also post my progress so I can look back and see how long it really took to do all of this. I'll need that reassurance for if/when I start working on novel #2.

"...And the only sign of life is the ticking of the pen
Introducing characters to memory like old friends..."

True Identity

One's true identity is often withheld from society. We all have friends who know who we really are, yet to strangers we keep ourselves masked. What is this fear that drives us to live in shadow? If we can feel comfortable around friends, why not around strangers? Around people who dont matter to us, who have no influence on our lives, and who likely dont care what we are like? People who will look at us for 15 seconds and then never look at us again? The human mind is a strange thing, indeed.

The Long and Winding Road

If there is something I have learned, its that to build something special you cant hand out pieces of it before its complete. If you do, it will never be complete, because you'll never get those pieces back. Instead, you have to be clever. You have to hand out pieces in code - a code that no one will understand. A code no one will break. A code no one will even realize is code to begin with, and thus these coded pieces are never out of your reach. They can always be pulled back and put into your masterpiece, and no one will know that it was right under their noses the whole time. And if your masterpiece is masterful enough, you will be able to decode the pieces in such a way that those who had held the code will remember them in their coded state, and they will be awe-stricken. Consider the CWS blog my code to you.

What Hath Been Wrought

At long last, the Crimson Wing Society has begun to awaken from its slumber...