Fantasy Opus - Early Edit and Cull

I've been reading through the story so far and I've decided it needs an edit, before I get to the last section of the "Fantasy Opus".

The early part of the story looks good (to me) but the later parts don't flow as well, so I've come to a difficult decision.

Firstly I need to reduce the number of main characters. There are too many minor characters who are under developed and don't have much to do. The narrative will benefit from more focus on a smaller number of key characters. Secondly, the later elements of the story need to be shaped into a better, more compelling narrative, by focusing more on character interactions.

Four characters are going.

The main story remains intact, in fact I've had some good detail ideas for the final chapters. Some of it will require a lot of action, which I'll need to storyboard.

I think my December 2017 goal is looking unlikely, as I want to publish the best that I can do.


⟳ Update 04-03-17:

I'm currently part way through some early editing. Although I've removed four minor characters I've also added over a thousand more words, which gives you some idea of the kind of editing. I decided too much of the story was "show" rather than "tell" which doesn't allow the reader to engage as easily. I'm adding more dialogue, and removing some of the character thoughts to allow the reader to peace the story together themselves.

Bye for now,

John Howes.

Fantasy Opus - 190,820 Words

A while back I started measuring my progress against the word count of other well known fantasy novels. I've now written 190,820 (unedited) words, which is more than Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. In fact it's more than the first two Harry Potter books combined.

I don't have a specific word count in mind, although I expect the final count will be around 300K which is just over 3 Hobbits!

Even after I've finished and edited the novel (which I'm pretty sure will be split into three) I'll need to:

• Design three sets of cover art (and probably a cover for the complete works).
• Create a map
• Format the novel for the Kindle store
• Format the novel for paperback
• Get some Fantasy Bloggers to review it
• Promote it through social media
• Organize a "Click" advertising campaign.

I have no expectations for the work, but it's the biggest story I've ever held in my head, and it'll be a relief to get the entire narrative down in print.

I've spent much of today just trying to come up with a name for a new character, that hasn't already been used by another fantasy author. Accidental plagiarism is a nightmare. My story originally had a region accidentally named the same as a region in the Lord of the Rings. It means I need to do a web search for every single name.

So I now need to write at least 10K words a month to complete the story by the end of 2017. It's a tall order and I'm currently unsure I'll make it.

Bye for now...

John Howes

Fantasy Opus - Half a block & What's wrong with a Red LED?

Hi there!

I'm now 185,000 words into my "Fantasy Opus" and I've got a touch of writer's block (well maybe half a block). I need to join several story sections together in a way which both explains to the reader what the heck is going on (and where we are on the map), but it also needs to introduce new characters and be entertaining in it's own right.

I've rewritten it three times now and I'm still not happy with it. Part of me wants to leave it and come back to it in the edit, but that's not the way I've written the rest. I often struggle to decide how much to describe e.g. "Everyone went to the nightclub, had a great time, and arrived home at midnight" or how much to detail, including all the character interactions.  I normally prefer the latter, but it can make simple parts of the story, quite long.

I'm hoping the fourth rewrite sorts it out. I had a better idea when I woke this morning!

What's wrong with a Red LED?

Something that I was musing with my wife last night.

Back in the 70's when LED lights first started to appear in all our consumer electronics, they were mostly red (the gallium arsenide was easier and cheaper to produce than other semiconductor materials) and they quickly became the staple of every hi-fi and TV power button. Later joined by Green, Orange and Yellow, it was still the Red LED that served as the colour of "Power". Our Bedroom TV still has a Red LED.

But now? It seems the power LED is no longer required to just show you that the device is switched on, it has a secondary purpose:

Illuminating the Entire Room!

The White LED on our Amazon Fire TV box is so bright that it scorches the back of your retina, The Bright blue LED's in our home Hub Illuminate the whole street and the white beast on this laptop is so garish, that I have to hide the computer under a cabinet so I can sleep!

When blue and white LED's first arrived in the 90's they were obviously a big deal, but I think we're over it now. ENOUGH with the over bright power lights.

Bring back the Red LED. You're time has come once more!

Enough ranting for now. Back to the story...

John Howes.