Still nothing on the querying front for Primal Surge although I would like to say that all of our rejections so far haven't been "Wow, this sucks" and more "I don't think I'm the right one for this, but thank you." (If you don't know what I'm talking about, I forgot I was using this one for my more...writing blog and the other for the film/TV blog. Also, I'm still working on the Bride of Frankenstein screenplay. It's just slow because I've tumbled down a rabbit hole and I also didn't have my copy of Frankenstein.) (And I forgot where I was going with that, so if you don't know what I'm talking about, refer to the other blog because that one is in there.)
Jocelynn and I also stopped work on Shards of Entropy, the second book because we're waiting on the first. (I think you'll all be pleased about that one because it is trauma and a half).
Speaking of trauma, boy do I have a manuscript for y'all. So, it started out borrowing the holy trees idea from Lord of the Rings and then the warlock class from D&D. So there'd be like this competition to get the magic to defend the trees. The main character at the time was going to be secretly chosen already, breaking protocol and whatnot. Chaos. Problems.
That has changed.
Also, I lost the original notebook I'd been writing in and spent a couple of months depressed over this and unable to actually write because I couldn't restart it. Eventually I could and now I'm happily plugging along, especially since it's gotten a healthy injection of Cyberpunk 2077. Hyperfixations are a blessing sometimes. I've got the possible plotlines (for now) written on sticky notes and I've got quotes written up to remind me of where I'm going. Next stop: Trauma City. I'm not kidding about that. I chose the parts of Cyberpunk 2077 that absolutely gut me every time I think about them to graft into the LotR groundwork. And then I took an idea I heard at LTUE ("Why is it always the unknowable evil that gets sealed away? Why can't it be the unknowable good?") and shoved that in as well.
Is it connected to Primal Surge? Quite possibly. (Read as: 100% connected). I wasn't expecting it to be connected like it is but that's fine. I did get to finally put my D&D character in it. She may have lost her head. It's fine.
I'm going straight for the gut punches, you guys. And the bits I've been sharing with people, as hideous and unrefined as they are, seem to be being met with tentatively good responses. Also a lot of "OW!" Which is good! That's my goal. Cyberpunk 2077 tore my heart out and I just need to share the love. And also fix that ending because rude. Me sobbing at 2 in the morning was not conducive to literally anything other than fill me with fire and rage and pain.
Ideally this book is a standalone. I don't want it to be more than that.
I'm worried it will be longer than I want it to be. I know I shouldn't worry about the length at this stage of the writing process but I can't help but keep the numbers tumbling around in the back of my head. Alas, poor Yorick.
But, it's fine! The writing is going really well! I figured out where to put the Jasem chapter that has been the first chapter written in both notebooks. First written. Not the first read. And now that it's a single POV for the most part, because I am going to play around with that because if I've learned anything from reading Faulkner it's that you can do anything if you're confident enough and if you lay the groundwork. And my goal is to cause my reader pain so that I can fix it.
And I will. I know how this ends. I've already written it. Well, the last page or so. But that doesn't matter because I know where this is going and I have Cyberpunk 2077 and my original plans as bullet points for me and my wacky discovery writing. But this thing ends soft and gooey and hopeful.
