Worldbuilding for Gunpowder Fantasy
Hey all,
I’m considering writing/producing a “Worldbuilding for Gunpowder Fantasy” series for YouTube.
What do you think? What aspects would you like included in it?
Leave a comment and let me know!
Quick Update
Hello World!
It’s been a while since I’ve posted, and I apologize. I’ve been dealing with life and drama. But have no fear, content is coming and I’ll be back to writing soon.
I’m going to do something odd soon: stream my writing on Twitch! Keep your eyes peeled for more info in the coming days!
Building a Shared Universe
In letting Series2:Book 1 (which I haven’t totally settled on a title for yet, but I’m leaning toward “Loyalty Betrayed”) settle for a few months, I turned my attention to planning for another part of the Griffins & Gunpowder world. Typically I’ll take this time to write short stories that expand the world in some small way, or give background to a character or situation. This time it was all about world building.
The problem that I ran into was that I had two different story ideas that I wanted to work on: a political intrigue drama and a criminal empire story. They’re both set in Post-Series 2 Andivar, so they already shared a bit of the same storyline so it was a natural leap to have the two loosely connected.
What I’ve found in laying the groundwork for this shared storyline is that a timeline is essential, even if characters from the two stories never cross paths (though in this case, the two stories will cross over at least a couple times, though the interaction in the early going is minimal), it’s important to keeping everything straight. Especially in the age of the internet where readers congregate to put together theories and compare notes.
Have you read any good shared-universe stories? What were some of the things that you liked or disliked about them?
Took A While
But I’ve finally finished marking up the first round of edits for Series2:Book1. This was a “high-level” pass looking for story holes, missing information, too much information etc. I did a little line-by-line editing too, but it wasn’t the focus since I’ll be rewriting quite a bit.
I have to say, it felt good to get this done so I can move on to making the changes, but I’m always astonished/ashamed of the amount of red ink that I lay down in a first edit pass. It’s only a first draft, but I thought it was a lot better when I wrote it. I guess that’s why they tell you to leave a book set for a while before you edit it.
Now I have to go through and apply the changes and then I’ll make a second pass, which will be more line-by-line in nature.
On another note, I’ll developed half a dozen new story ideas (some set in the world of Zaria) that I think will have some promise. They’re WAY down the list, but at least they aren’t knocking around in the back of my head while I’m trying to work forward. =D
In the Interim…
The writing on Loyalty Betrayed is complete, but the book is far from ready for queries, so I’m taking my own advice and letting it sit on the shelf for a little while before I pick it up for rewrites and editing.
In the Interim, however, my mind keeps spinning. I’ve decided to take this time to try something slightly different.
New Work in Progress is Complete!
As of approximately 1:30 AM Central Time, my new Work-In-Progress is complete!
Loyalty Betrayed clocked in at 118,718 words spread across 62 Chapters and an Epilogue.
The first few chapters aren’t where I want them to be, so the next thing on the list is the arduous task of rewriting the first few entries and then going over the whole thing for complete edits. I plan on leaving this alone for a little while, so in the meantime I’m going to plot out the next story and the short stories built around this main character.
Eventually I’m going to submit this to agents and editors and hopefully get picked up. We’ll see!
Updates on Things
So it’s been a little while since my last post, but between finishing out the 2nd to last semester of my BA and the holiday season (which makes both of my jobs madhouses) I’ve not had a lot of time on my hands.
However, I have managed to get a bit of writing done. I’m at 50K words for my new Work-In-Progress which is a new series set on the other side of the world from The Cerberus Rebellion and The Hydra Offensive.
Right now my plan is to get this novel finished, polished, edited and then start querying it for traditional publication. At which point I’ll return to working on The Centaur Incursion.
The ideas for new series and storylines continue to flow and I realized the other day that I’m going to be writing Gunpowder Fantasy for a very long time. Which is something I’m entirely ok with.
I’m also in the process of setting up a Patreon. I think I want to get to the Query step on this new WIP before I launch it, but it’s nearly finished.
Right now, my goal is to have the first draft of this new novel finished by summer, an ambitious task but I think I can handle it!
The Hydra Offensive is LIVE!
Go, get it now! And while you’re at it, visit these awesome blog tour hosts for my Launch Day Tour!
Straight from the LibraryIt’s Raining Books
Blog Tour 2015!
As the release of The Hydra Offensive on Sept. 21st gets nearer, I’ve got a blog tour going to promote The Cerberus Rebellion!
So if you can, go visit today’s hosts at the Indie Author’s Blog and leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of The Chesian Wars collection!
Book Tours Coming Up
With The Hydra Offensive set to release on the 21st of next month, I’ve got some book tours planned through Goddess Fish Productions. They handled the tour for The Cerberus Rebellion and did so brilliantly. When I have a list of sites, I’ll be sure to post them but for now, here’s the banner for the Book Blast Tour for Hydra’s Release.
Gunpowder Fantasy 