Writing Report – 19 February 2018

As I stated in Weekly Writing Update #3, I intend on trialing a new style of alerting the public as to my writing schedule. I start that today, Monday February 19, and I hope that this style of report, along with the Weekly Writing Update, will serve to help people better understand the scope of the work I am doing.

Progress Report: Monday 19 February

Focus of Writing: Chronicles: Ascension

Word Target: 2,500

Words Written: 2,516

What I Did Today: Monday is a day I am learning to enjoy more and more. In the past I used to not want to write on a Monday, because my brain had this imbalance that prevented me from wanting to write. Since I started my 48 Week Writing Challenge, I have overcome any apprehensions I had about writing on a Monday.

For Monday, the novel I am working on is Chronicles: Ascension. I will give a little overview of the book. Ascension is a science fiction novel based in a universe I created a decade ago. I do not follow a particular formula for it, and instead I wish to focus entirely on character and plot. Like The Elder Ones, the antagonist of the novel will feature in more of a supporting role based on how much I use them, but they are still a featured character.

The plot, on the surface seems relatively straight forward, being about war in space. There is so much more behind that curtain that drives the novel in a different direction than the prologue suggests. A lot of the conflict in the novel derives from events preceding the plot of the novel, and I make sure to fill in those details as I continue along towards the end of the plot.

For the style, I have adopted a singular first-person style for this particular novel. This means that the reader only knows as much as what the focus character does. As the timeline goes on, events continue to occur and the protagonist finds out about these only after the fact.

As is my staple, the main character is a female, but the society she is a part of does not define gender roles so black-and-white like. I like to showcase a female lead that is not worthless and therefore, Kile Sa’an has a lot of nuance and gender-defying conventions to her character. The first thing a reader will notice is that the society that Kile is a part of – the Expoletian Empire – is a male-dominated militaristic society, yet as the novel progresses, I subvert the male-domination and showcase a diverse and accepting society that caters to the wishes of everyone that is a part of it.

Concerning the work I did today, February 19 2018, a lot of it was slow-burn character building for the main cast that will feature for most of the novel. I give a brief insight into their personalities and show a very clear race distinction that is a remnant of an era from before the novel started. I intend for Ascension to highlight what the universe is like. There are sections of the plot that will link back into the screenplays that I wrote and have adapted this idea from.

 The Best Sample From Today: The best writing I did today is less focused on the characters in the novel and more on building a picture of the world around them by placing them in a situation and having them describe why a certain event happens as a result of a simple action.

There were no words to describe the feeling of the Expoletian Flagship as it surged forward through space. Unlike other starships that had at most four engines to propel them, the Malevellum had six Gorgons. They were not small engines and one was as long as most cruiser class vessels. The Gorgons were the main reason the Malevellum remained in service as long as it did.

The sequence gives off a sense of the sheer scale of the universe I have built to write this story. It highlights how insignificant a person is in the scope of the world. I spend a lot of time building up how powerful the Empire the story is written about is, and then one sees their technology to see how little any of their egos mean.

The idea of a ship that caliber serving so long is not something heard of often. The Malevellum, being a main battlecruiser, would be a prime target for sabotage and any assault worth anything would focus on the vessel with everything. What it does is it makes a character out of the Malevellum

How Productive I Felt I Was: Due to my decision to delay the reveal of what Antagonist Rainer’s motivations are in favour of focusing on character and world, I am happy with the results. While it might not be my best work, I tend to do the best work of anything I write in the end portion of the book where I wrap things up. I was not up and down with my work today, and I accomplished what I needed to in a short time. The feeling of accomplishment drove me to feel good with my work and I think that writers need to set a goal for themselves every single day of the year.

Overall, I felt that this week was a step up from last week, but the bar I have is still low. A slow build is what I am after and the better I write, the closer I get to the climactic sequence of Ascension.

 What I Intend To Write Next Week: The focus for next week will be on finishing preliminary introductions of the main cast. Of particular note next week will be the introduction of the setting for the majority of the novel. While not a bottle episode, Ascension will be primarily located inside a single scene – that being the ESV Avenger, which I will describe in more detail with next week’s update on Chronicles: Ascension.