Oy vey. It’s once again been a while since I’ve posted here. Well, in my defence, life has been busy recently, and that’s impacted everything writing-related, including BS&K. Not that I’m complaining, though; Spring 2024 has actually turned out to be a pretty exciting time for me, when it comes to my personal life.
This, however, is not the place to get into that. This is the writing update, not the personal life update. And…well, again, because of how busy everything’s been, the writing progress has been mixed.
First, the bad news. I got stuck on DreamHackers Ltd. AGAIN. In the weeks following my editor’s feedback on Nightmares Inc., I tried again to get a draft going on DreamHackers. And, just like every other time, I got a few chapters in before getting bogged down. This time, it was all the inconsistencies from book 1—many of which I still haven’t figured out how to resolve—that wriggled their way into the writing for book 2 and just made me freeze. Every time I thought I solved a problem, two more rose in their place. Eventually, I had to stop and shift my focus to other projects. Perhaps, I thought, taking a break from DreamHackers and coming back to it later with fresh eyes would help.
But, then again…well, I’ve done that with this book, what, five times already? Getting even a substantial chunk of a first draft out for this thing has been nigh on impossible. Perhaps part of that is because of the way the two books are structured; rather than a typical sequel, DreamHackers Ltd. kind of runs parallel to Nightmares Inc. in terms of the timeline. This means that I have to sort of make sure everything I do in the second book lines up with everything that went on in the first book. I can’t go much deeper on that without getting into spoilers: I will say, though, that pulling this off has been much harder than I could’ve anticipated.
Recently, though, I had an idea. I haven’t put it to the test yet, but it’s something I feel might help. All this time, I’ve conceptualized DreamHackers as the sequel to Nightmares Inc., as the companion piece…which, really, it is. However, not long ago, I wondered what might happen if I approached DreamHackers as its own book, as its own fresh start on the narrative, and then just let it take me where it would? And then come back to Nightmares Inc. and alter that book in order to fit together with DreamHackers? I’m not sure if this’ll be any more successful than any of the other methods I’ve tried, but I figure it’s at least worth a shot.
Anyway, the news isn’t all bad on the writing front. Work on the Kosan rewrite has begun again, and although the progress is glacial, it’s at least been there. I’d guess I’m at least a third of the way through the actual writing: I’ve drafted a formal outline for the rest, and am now slowly chipping away, though again, the progress has been much slower than I’d have maybe liked it to be. Originally, I’d hoped to be done the Kosan rewrite by the end of June, so that I could start rewriting Keepers of Eternity in July. Now, though, I don’t think that’s feasible; unless I shift my focus entirely onto the Kosan rewrite, it’ll likely be at least a few months until this thing is done. And, with how busy my personal life has gotten, it could be even longer.
Oh, and there’s also the fact I’ve pivoted back to the Usi books, in the wake of my latest round of DreamHackers frustrations. Yep, I’m finally giving Zuza a chance to strut her stuff again; and although I’ve mostly just done revisions on what I’d written for Usi 1 last year, I can already tell the past year’s worth of additional worldbuilding and character development (done mostly in my head) has been great for this story’s development. So, too, has reading a bunch more fantasy in the past year: broadening my reading horizons has given me new places to draw inspiration from, which, in some ways, has helped me flesh out the world of Xerinia and the characters I plan to write in it even more. There will still be issues, no doubt—could be a full truckload of issues for all I know—but I’m feeling confident enough in that story again to at least pick up where I left off.
The thing about Usi 1, though, is it’s gonna be long. It’ll likely be the longest book I’ve ever written, actually. I expect it to easily cross 200,000 words; could be it creeps toward 250,000, or maybe even higher than that. But, as I’ve said before when talking Usi 1, this is my first crack at epic fantasy, and epic fantasy tends to be long. And I’ll need that space to tell the story I want to tell, starting, of course, with Zuza, the series’s main protagonist, and perhaps the most vividly-realized character to ever exist in my brain. I’ve alluded to this before, but she really does feel like a whole other person, living in my brain. And she gets really annoyed when I don’t work on her story. She’s kind of passive-aggressive about it, but trust me, I can tell. I can feel it.
But, I am just a human being. I wish I could write 10,000 words per day in the blink of an eye, and get, like, 10 books written a year. Actually, heck, 10 a year still wouldn’t be enough to satisfy me. 10 a day might not even satisfy me. Knowing there’s no possible way to feel like I’m doing enough is actually sort of comforting in a way, though; it helps me take that little nagging voice in the back of my head less seriously. I can tell myself more easily: just work on finishing this one. Just worry about this one for now.
Anyway, I think that about does it for now. I’ll try to get another update to you all in a reasonable time, though again, life is busy, so who knows?
As always, until next time: have fun, stay safe, keep reading.
