3/17/14 The current projects list for my writing has gotten out of control. On one hand I feel like I should be excited; the more stories I write, the more books I'll eventually submit for publishing. At the same time it's really frustrating! If I were only working on one or two books at this moment then the chances of their already being done would have been high. It would be so much easier if I could cross off one or two from my list, but none are at a stage where I can just sit down and easily finish them. Four of my current projects are still in the beginning stages of character development and world building. Two are in the middle section where I'm working on a delicate weaving of plot and drama to get to the climax. Two are in the pre-planning stage of outlining the story. Lastly there's Magnified, which is lost in the lala land of 'I've never written a story this long before and I want to do it properly'. Here's the list of all the documents currently open on my computer with the expectation that I would be working on them this coming week: Stand Alone Titles: Magnified Ge-Mi Series: The Oracle's Golem The Oracle's Air The Oracle's Water If A Butterfly Don't Fly Kelpie Blue Anthologies/Collections: Lynden Leaves Dragon Consultant I've had to do an evaluation on what I could actually accomplish in the coming weeks and what I should really be working on. Magnified is stalled, but there's no way I'm giving up at this stage so it stays. Ge-Mi, on the other hand, needs another reboot so I've chosen to cross it off the list for the time being. I will get back to it once the rest of the list shrinks a bit. While thinking through my Oracle Series I came to the realization that I needed more time to pass between the end of Golem and the start of the Water book. Instead of Water being book four, Air will have to be my next project, but not until Golem is actually finished. Number one on my need-to-write list is The Oracle's Golem. Since I already know exactly what's going to happen, I just need to sit and write it. Hopefully I'll have it done soon! I've crossed Air and Water off the list until after Golem is submitted for publishing and I will probably keep them off until Golem nears its release date. My Out of Underhill Series is still a work in progress. Butterfly finally has a potential villain and Kelpie Blue is going well. They both need a lot of work and attention to really grow into full stories, but that's true of any book in the beginning stages. Butterfly still has very major characters that need to be introduced, including the love interest and the bad guy(s). Kelpie Blue needs to have more plot than just in the moment, something that will carry the story from cover to cover, and I don't know what that is just yet. I'm sure I'll get it all eventually, but I don't dare cross either off my list until then. Last on my list are two anthology calls I'm trying to answer. They're both for Riptide Publishing, but only because I've very forcefully kept myself from even thinking about LT3's new call in order to keep my workload down. Both stories have very tentative working titles that I'm certain will change eventually. I would tell you more about Lynden Leaves, but my Mom reads this blog and it's a story she would not be comfortable learning about. Go to my current projects page for more info. The call Lynden Leaves is for asks for a maximum word count of only 15K and I just crossed the halfway point in terms of word count. There are two more big scenes left to write and then all the little wrap-up bits. I could potentially finish writing the story in the next few weeks, so I should be able to cross it off my list soon! Dragon Consultant is so new on my to-do list that I can still smell the factory shrink-wrap all over it. On Saturday I had a vision of five young dragons in human form peering over a table in fear/curiosity while my main character dealt with an idiot. They were adorable, which is my weakness, and I had to sit down and write. I wrote 5K in just this one story this past weekend. Why am I starting a new story when I've already got so much on my plate? No idea. If you have an answer or a way to keep this from happening, feel free to enlighten me! Riptide has two calls this story could fit under. It really depends on how the story pans out in terms of content and length. First is their shape shifter call, which is a minimum of 50K words. If Dragon Consultant reaches that length then I'll submit for that call. The other call is a YA style "Sweet Romance" of only minimum 25K words, so if Dragon Consultant ends up being short and sweet I'll submit there instead. Which means my list has shrunk a little bit! Yay! Here's what it looks like now: Stand Alone Titles: Magnified Series: The Oracle's Golem If A Butterfly Don't Fly Kelpie Blue Anthologies/Collections: Lynden Leaves Dragon Consultant That's still six stories! Yikes! I guess now it comes down to planning and past experience. Planning states I should get the most imperative finished and the easiest. Golem is overdue according to my own schedule, so I need to buckle down and finish it. Lynden Leaves is probably the closest to being done on that list. They are the two shortest stories too, which means they should be quick to finish. If I focus on just those two and get them done then the list drops to a much more manageable level. Past experience tells me that the stories most likely to get worked on are the ones my muses are most interested in at this very moment. Dragon Consultant is high on their list, as is Lynden Leaves. Which means I have a winner! If I can focus everything on Lynden Leaves for the next few days I should have it finished.
So now I have the list whittled down to three books. It's still daunting, especially if I remember everything still waiting (and some edits I'm also working on). Nothing that got crossed off my list is permanently gone, so at some point the list will grow again and try to overwhelm me. Still, it's good to have it all figured out for the next few weeks! I'll keep everyone updated on my progress, so please wish me luck.
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April 15, 2023 AuthorMell Eight is an author writing with NSP. For more information about Mell and her writing, please visit her website: http://melleightfiction. Tags
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