Progress (finally)

It's been a while since I updated this with anything at all. Most of that is because my writing has been slowed to a crawl, and then an outright stop several times. I keep running into these seemingly insurmountable blocks that I can't seem to overcome.

I've tried setting the story for book four of the City of Angels series aside, and starting on another project (several times in fact) but that hasn't gotten me anywhere.

At this point I've started an entirely new series in a different world concentrating on a single werewolf pack, that one barely got past the first three chapters before I just froze on it. I literally just kept staring at the screen completely lost. Well when I wasn't writing something down and then deleting and starting over again and again.

Then I tried kind of a prequel type series opener. Same world as the City of Angels, but set about 150 years earlier at the very start of the Supernatural Emergence in the United States. Got pretty far on that one before that story locked me down too. Had everything all planned out and everything, and I couldn't get past the block.

Attempt number three was a story I've been kinda working on off and on for a while. Supernatural based but more magic and demonology related. Not sure if its going to be its own world or part of the same as my other books yet. It can go and fit in either way very easily. But even that one got me blocked. I'm thinking that one just isn't ready yet. I'll keep in on the back burner even if I abandon the other two, mainly because I've actually put a whole lot into the story over the years that I've been working on the world my stories take place in.

The fourth story, well this one is actually going pretty well. It's a new series with a new character that's set in the same world, just on the other side of the coin. I think the reason why this one is actually going so well (as of this writing I'm starting on chapter 11) is because its so different, while being so similar at the same time.

Heaven and Flavius' story so far (Nightwalker, Cherubim, Nemesis) takes place as supernaturals within the supernatural world and everything that entails. The politics, the interplay between the various groups that make Los Angeles and southern California their home. This new setting however, while touching on all of that, and as of this moment including at least one character from City of Angels, deals with more the human/law enforcement perspective when it comes to the supernatural. More crime scene related sorts of stories.

It's actually writing itself pretty easily, while at the same time causing me another headache because the main character in this story was supposed to be introduced to Heaven and Flavius in their next book. Now That's going to have to be completely overhauled when I am able to go back and continue on with book 4.

No regrets though. If I do this right, I can see this working out to my advantage in the long-run. That's what I'm hoping anyways. I know doing two series at the same time is relatively difficult to pull off, but being in the same world and semi-interacting with each other, both sides having consequences for the other, I think it'll end up benefiting the overall story and my writing in general. Who knows.

Looks good so far though.

Plodding along

It's been a while since I've managed to get any writing done at all. Not that I haven't been writing, it just hasn't gotten anywhere for some reason. I keep running into this wall in every story I've tried to start that blocks any further progress. It just saps the creativity right out of me and I'm forced to pull back and try something else just to get something written.

Not sure what it is. Maybe dissatisfaction with the type of story. Maybe with the world I've created. I'm not really sure. Maybe it's just that I've got so many competing ideas running through my head it's hard to stick to just one.

In any case I'm not progressing all that much at all with the new City of Angels story. There's this block there and maybe I'll just have to abandon that story and move on to another that I've got planned for the series. Not sure yet.

I've tried starting up a side project, same world just different characters and location. Can't get much farther than the first few pages with that one before it fades away. No matter how many times I alter and rewrite it.

I think the best thing to do is to step away for just a bit and start on one of the two other projects I've had in mind. One is a sword and sandals type fantasy, the other is more urban fantasy but different than City of Angels. Different setting, but same sorts of paranormal involved. Just not as open. Different structures too as far as the supernatural goes. Mostly anyways.

And it all started with listening to Abba and suddenly envisioning a crazed werewolf dancing around to Dancing Queen. Maybe the creation of this character and the world around him and the main character will spark something I can actually get going. Here's hoping anyway.

Gotta do something to get back into the swing of things. If this doesn't pan out not sure what I'm gonna do. Sci Fi maybe?

Best not think about that.

Starting Fresh

Had to deal with a hard drive crash and unfortunately rebuilding my entire computer piece by piece to try to figure out where the problem came from. That took a while.

What this meant though, was that I lost the entirety of the manuscript for the new City of Angels novel I was working on. I have an earlier version saved to one-drive, but so much changed from that version to the one I was working on, that all it's good for is being used as a reference. That's it.

So, I'm having to start completely over with the story. I'm trying to look on the bright side though. Starting over fresh when I've already had so much done, means that I can tweak the ideas and plot elements to make it all better. After all, I have a habit of starting over fresh and rewriting everything early on anyway and that's always had a good outcome. I'm just not used to ever having done it so late in the writing process before.

I had almost 90k words down, and now i'm sitting at just below or over 9-10k right now. Not sure which one it is. It's a pretty big setback, but I'm relatively certain I'll be able to recover from this and that it will turn out better than it was before. That's the hope anyways.

I've already managed to shift the opening chapters enough that the story if flowing quite a bit faster than it was previously. Some of the ideas and plot elements from those now long gone chapters will invariably be incorporated into later chapters, so I'm not overly worried about how things are turning out.

I can take the best elements of what I had written before the crash, and just not write the parts I was a little shaky on. All mixed in with new ideas and other things I've had rolling around in my head this whole time.

Silver lining.

In the end, SUNDOWN will get finished, and it will be better than it was before. that's the hope, and that's the goal. Can't let the loss of that much work get you down. At least not for too long. Gotta keep going. Gotta keep writing. That's what matters. That's whats important.