I think the best way for me to write, and to track my progress, and to really think about why I write, what I write, and how I write is to keep a public and separate blog. Additionally, I want to talk about my writing blocks openly and honestly because there are most definitely reasons why I do not write and occasionally when I struggle with things.
I’m working on my third novel, a manuscript tentatively titled “The Eighth Sea”. It deals in a world with which I am very familiar–I’ve been writing in this world for 8 years, though I really only began to discover it, and intrude upon the privacy of its citizens two years ago. The World doesn’t have a name that I know of, though I am sure it has a name. If there’s one thing I am sure of, it is that everything has a name, even that which is unknown.
I deal mostly in a country called Falor (FAH-lore). In terms of worldbuilding, I suppose I don’t know as much as I should. I venture through my own creation as though I am a visitor from Ellion, Falor’s southern neighbor. Culturally, Ellion is quite different. A strong current, known for whipping up storms, cuts Ellion off from major sea faring trade routes and a huge mountain range splits Ellion and Falor. The Ellions developed quite differently than Falorans. Falorans consider themselves very cultured, perhaps even highbrowed. It is a matriarchal society, likely stemming from the fact that the trading economy takes away the men in the family for months at a time. In fact, the Queen is the ruler of the country while the King, if there is one, is more of a figurehead. Only a nobleborn can be King though the Queen may marry whom she wishes. In my timeline, the Queen (Analei) was murdered about 15 years before this story takes place. She was a young Queen, with few living relatives, and she had just borne a son by her husband, Lord Alexander ‘The Falcon’ Sarjio. This leaves Falor in a dilemma, as its been almost eight hundred years of continually monarchy with a female heir. There are prophesies warning against male heirs, saying that they will bring down the monarchy and lead Falor to ruin. Falor, in tES as I will abbreviate the novel in progress, is recovering from decades of war. There’s not much farther it can fall.
In my novel, the prince-heir overhears critical information while wandering in disguise around the harbor outside his palace. The captain of the ship spots him and orders her (yes, her) henchmen to find the eavesdropper. They find him, kidnap him and take him back to the ship. The prince-heir, Zair, is held prisoner then with a crew of men and their slightly diabolical and arguably insane captain. The Captain’s name is Cale with an accent over the e (Kah-lay) but I haven’t figured out how to make that symbol yet. She is born of a mortal woman out of an immortal…a god by the name of Dakkan (accent over the second a but I haven’t figured out how to do that, pronounce his name Dah-kan). She is not purely mortal, nor immortal. She can be killed in two ways and those are laid out in the story. She , however, is on the search for immortality. There exists in legends a sea called the Eighth Sea that is ‘frozen in time’. Those who reach it first will be granted immortality and the ability to sail all over the world, accumulate wealth, and while they will feel as though they sail around the world, they’ve never really left the Eighth Sea. They will never come in contact with anyone they met or knew before they reached the sea. Only one ship may reach the Sea and in all these years, no one has reached it . But Cale has a map. She bargained with her father and won a map. This does not guarantee she makes it, but it does give her better chances.
During the course of sailing to the Eighth Sea, Cale and Zair strike up an unusual friendship. This is where I am now. Well, sorta. I’ve been writing in very bizarre scraps of scenes and piecing it together as I’ve gone. I’m fascinated by their friendship and I’m not in complete control. I wanted it a certain way, but the Zair inside my head keeps pushing it a different way (he’s so like his father, the Falcon, a character whom I’ve written for years and truly love). I know what happens for the rest of the book, but I don’t want to give it away and the details are changing.
Right now, the first three chapters have to be rewritten. I changed the way Zair ends up with Cale. So I’ll need to write that (this will be the 10th draft of the first three chapters…this story used to be called Heir and it was not based at sea). And then I want to begin to piece together these scenes of friendship into something coherent. Those are my writing goals for the next three weeks. I am aiming for 10 to 15 pages of work. I measure on MS Word by single spaced, normal margins, size 12 Times New Roman.
My problem? I’m a third year university student in the States and I have a massive research project this semester. Whew. Too much writing. I am working on tES as often as possible but I cannot guarantee that I will get a ton of writing done before the end of the semester (Dec 10th). I’m trying to set reasonable writing goals for this reason. Reasonable means attainable right?
