I expect I’m the same as every other writer out there: I have at least four potential novels, and more short story ideas than I can count, vying for attention. I used to keep a running list of “priority” topics in a naive and earnest attempt at organization: I’m a business analyst and project manager in my life away from the page, after all, and shouldn’t detailed organization be part of my gig?
Unfortunately, as anyone brave enough to hang out in my house can verify, I seem to use up ALL those skills in the office and leave little for my real life. However, a universal truth about life is you get out of it what you put into it. Therefore I’m putting real effort and energy toward evicting some of these long-suffering characters out of the boxes in my headspace, onto some version of a pagespace. Ideally this will end up in publication, but for the moment I just need to start listening before the constant banging (of drums AND people…I do write fantasy AND romance after all) drives me crazy.
I’ve decided a way to be accountable to myself and them is to start blogging about the whole thing. That way, I’ll track this process of actually finishing a full novel instead of getting distracted by yet another idea or house move or new dog or that chocolate on the counter…
See?
It’s time to try something different. I have an editorial schedule set up for the next six months, because I had a moment today of insanity motivation. At least once per week I’ll update on the progress of the first book (more deets on that below), and on Monday’s I’m re-instituting an exercise in mythology.
I have another blog, No Pithy Phrase, where I put all the random crap in my head (if you write and you’ve never read Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones you definitely should: clearing out that space before creating is so important!). I also had a project for a bit where I’d write about various myths: I’m moving that project to this site because most of my mythology and historical fascinations directly impact writing. So Mondays will be for mythology, Fridays will be a progress report, and whatever happens in between will be the unpredictable twists that always happen when I outline a story.
Since today is Friday, let’s start with an introduction on the first book, which as a WIP (work in progress) isn’t fully titled yet but we’ll call Banshee.
A banshee (or ben sidhe if you’re into Gaelic) is a fairy woman connected with prophesying death, usually of a family member, in Irish mythology. There is significantly more to the mythos surrounding banshee, but for purposes of the novel we’ll just say one has found her way to Lake Superior and is determined to fill an ancient vendetta. Sadly, her victims have no idea why she’s after them, the police think it’s possible one of them is involved in a series of recent gruesome deaths, scary supernaturals have shown up in an area that’s been peaceful for a thousand years, and the local fae community is terrified she’ll destroy them all.
If her prey can’t figure out how to stop her and she wakes up what sleeps in the bottom of the lake, she just might.
No Pithy Phrase 