R.W. Krpoun's Blog, page 17

The current project is currently at 74,000 words of rough draft, and my plot arc has a clear shot to the end. It is Floating Hunger, the third installment of the YGAT series. Further development of the series will depend on book sales and inspiration.

Over the weekend I had an insight which may liberate Grog from the doldrums; I will try to get the project moving again after Floating Hunger is finished.

(Not an update, but the Unnamed Project is at 61K words and still chugging along).

Walls, writer’s block, call it what you will, but when a project stalls it is hard to deal with. A prime example is Grog, a fantasy project I began in 2011. As I sometimes do, I wrote an opening chapter based on a vague but appealing idea, and set it aside to blossom in the compost of my mind (there’s some literary flourish!).

Over the years I’ve returned to Grog and pushed the story along, accepting the inevitable stalling as natural for such a free-floating idea; The Zone, Zerk, and A Wastrel’s Tale all followed the same pattern.

Earlier this year I picked up Grog again after finishing The Scared But Willing, and the pieces suddenly fell together. I hammered away at the keyboard as the word count spiraled closer and closer to the magic number (80,000 words of rough draft). Plot twists and story arcs popped up and were hammered into text.

Then, at 67,000 words, the the final arc envisioned (in general) the the story’s end clear…I hit the Wall. I closed out a scene and…nothing.

I know what the final arc must accomplish; the ending beyond the final arc is known. But the basic question of ‘and then X happens’ is absolutely dead. Nothing. Not a plot issue, not a poorly-thought-out character development, just nothing.

What happens next? I don’t know. I do know the outline of how the story arc plays out in outline, but the meat of it, the step-by-step progress of the story, is completely blasnk.

After fruitlessly trying to jump-start my inspiration, I gave up and moved on to the current project, starting from scratch. But Grog remains in the back of my mine, awaiting that spark.

Wastrel’s Tale was the hung-fire story before Grog, stalled at 40k words and living in the tormented part of my mind where the mostly likely stalled project lives, until I was watching an episode of Knightfall (not a great series, but not terrible) and suddenly something clicked and I finished Wastrel in a few weeks.

So even as I hammer on the Unnamed Project (which I will not jinx by mentioning its name here until it has reached the point of no return), Grog lurks in my thoughts, waiting for the spark.

51,000 words of rough draft on Project X. I am poised to leap into what may possibly be the final story arc. It is the best of times, it is the worst of times.

I am still avoiding the jinx; Project X will not be publicly named yet. This is not to build tension, as I pretty sure no one reads this, but to avoid the inevitable writer’s block that will strike if I speak too soon.

Still not willing to jinx myself by reporting what I am working on, but the rough draft has reached 50% of novel length and is still chugging along, so life is good. But I’ve had projects stall at two-thirds of a novel, so I’m not risking a jinx. More as things develop.

I am hammering away o a new project, and the words are coming fast. After Grog’s inexplicable encounter with another wall, I am not going to risk jinxing this project by telling its name or my progress, but rest assured that I am still pounding the keyboard every day, and if I think of something that might interest anyone, I’ll post that, too.

I am the world’s worst blogger; I rarely think of anything that I would consider interesting enough to put here. If you have a question for me (other than about the current project, no jinxes!) let me know and I’ll gladly answer.

I like video games, especially the Fallout series, the Elder Scrolls/Skyrim series, the Far Cry series, 7 days to Die, Hearts of Iron series, Red Dead Redemption series, Borderlands series, and so forth. I’ve tried MMOs (Age of Conan, WOW, Neverwinter, the Skyrim MMO) and was not impressed with any of them.

So when Fallout 76 came out I was disappointed, but finally I picked up the game for my PS4. It turned out to be true to the series (something I could not say about the Skyrim MMO), and a good source of inspiration.

And then something happened: I was hiking through the woods and stopped by a player’s camp to check his vending machines and use his cook set, and he made contact; I didn’t even know my headphones had a microphone. I was low level, he was over 100. He sold me a legendary revolver for half price, gave me 600 rounds of ammunition for free, and passed on some valuable information.

Remember, I’ve never played an MMO as anything but solo or in a group with only text communications before. Since then a couple hit levels bailed me out of some tough places and revived me. And since I’ve leveled up some, I’ve helped out newer players with advice, guiding, and giving out some ammo, Stimpacks, and Radaway.

I had never really experienced the social aspects of of an MMO, and especially one where high level players treated low-levels with respect. It added a ‘we in this together’ sort of feel to the post-apoc setting, and really enhanced the gaming experience. Most importantly for me, it gave me a some much-needed fuel to get in there and write about people interacting.

Anyhow, if you are NW of Morgan Station, stop by and give Adder962 a shout.

Finished a review of Rolling Hunger and posted the revised manuscript, which should be active in a couple days. Other than fixing typos and a few run-on sentences RH didn’t need much work; our editing process had tightened up considerably with each passing novel. We still have room for improvement, though.

Besides the editing, I am still hunting inspiration and hammering the keyboard. In June, as Scared hit Amazon I had hoped to get a third book out in 2019, or at least a major part of a third, but that hope is dimming; still, never say never. The desire is there, the time is there, and now all I need is the sustained inspiration.

I’ll keep you posted.

I’m still writing and hunting inspiration. I also took the time (finally) to re-edit Payload; I added about 500 words, but there were no changes to the plot or action, just a raft of typos corrected and some poorly-worded paragraphs which were smoothed out.

The cleaned up version just went live on Kindle. Meanwhile, I’ll be under the AC banging on the keyboard.

Well, as noted earlier I picked up a stalled project with the working title of Grog. Unfortunately, at 67,000 words and at the cusp of the final story arc, the project has stalled again. None of the varied venues for inspiration have paid through, and it is with regret that I am putting Grog back into the Folder of Stalled Projects. Grog will become a novel someday, but not until the right inspiration hits.

I the meanwhile I am digging out another stalled project and taking a run at it. These setbacks happen all the time, but no matter what, I keep on writing.

I have a computer file (Backed up numerous times) that contains two sorts of projects. One sort is the bright idea that has an opening but nothing more; I write 5-10 pages setting the opening scene, add notes as to the concept, and store it. This way I don’t lose the inspiration. The Zone was one such idea: no plot, just a concept and an opening chapter. Later, the rest of the idea sorted itself out.

The second sort is the concept and hook I thought would go the distance, but which, upon starting to write it, failed. The wastrel’s Tale was one of these; it stalled twice and languished for years until inspiration hit and I finished it.

In January 2011 I started a fantasy novel with the working title of Grog. I knocked out about 18k words and the plot imploded like a thing that implodes. Around 2015 I tried again, and got it to 40k before the inspiration died again, like a thing that was alive and then died (look, I’m not wasting memorable metaphors on a blog post).

So during the editing of Scared but Willing done, I had an idea, and dug out Grog again. The idea folded almost at once, but it created momentum, and I’m at 57k words and have plot elements that should run it for 5-8k more; I don’t have a clear resolution for the novel yet, but I’m within shouting distance of starting the final arc, and hope springs eternal. At 57,000 words, however, Grog will make into print, if not from this attempt, then at some point in the future.

Anyway, the point is I’m writing, and hope/plan to publish another novel in 2019.