Friday 23 March Progress Report (Previous Report)
Where My Word Count Should Be: 50,000 words
Where My Word Count Is: 50,021 words
- Overview
The biggest milestone of my writing challenge so far even though I have split my time equally among six novels came upon me today. I can say that with the work I did today, Earth Splitter is now a third completed! In the grand scheme of things, that is not a terrific accomplishment for The Elder Ones as a whole, but the speed at which I am making progress is unfathomable to me.
A lot of my work this week has involved a very peculiar sight. That is one character looking very close at another and detailing what they look like. It is something I do not like to do very often but when I do something like it, I always enjoy the results because it feels incredible to take a different perspective.
- What I Did Today
For today, I finished the Throne of the North chapter in a sort of cop-out way, but that is how a lot of The Elder Ones works. I leave the chapters open at the end so when the next chapter for that character starts, the reader can piece together what happened themselves.
The other part was begin the Horizon’s End chapter that focuses on Abygail for the most part. It is a clear break from the action in the rest of the novel, but no less important as it contains vital character building that comes into play later in the novel.
- The Best Sample From Today
Like last week, this is a long sample, but it follows on for my overarching theme for this week. I said I do not like to write from such a close angle, but there are cases where it is good to shine a light on things such as this.
Gaelìn tries to turn away in embarrassment, but Aby shoots a warm, slender hand to cup a cheek. Aby’s grip proves strong enough to capture Gaelìn’s gaze. For the first time since their inaugural encounter, Gaelìn has a chance to inspect Aby’s face without much else to consider. The first thing Gaelìn noticed was the way Aby’s face flowed. There was very little wrong with the shape and angles present in all of Aby’s bones. Of course, good bone structure is an attribute of almost every female that comes from the Assassin Islands. The things that set Aby apart from her contemporaries was everything else. Her emerald eyes sat atop a petite nose with a very slight concaveness to it. Light brunette eyebrows protected Aby’s eyes from droves of unwarranted sweat in the heat of battle yet they were pristine in their look. It was rare to find a female outside the nobility that cared about their outward appearance the way that Aby did. Most striking about Aby was her jet-black hair.
The sequence is in direct opposition to the previous chapter that had a dark theme to it. There is almost a jovial and childlike sense in this paragraph. Though I remain simple with the description, that is how I like to read about how someone looks. Do not go into massive details about any part of them. Give the reader tidbits and allow them to paint an image themselves.
- How Productive I Felt I Was
There was no real risk with my writing this week, though I did add more to the story before I got the four in this group to sail across the sea. I felt that diving right into their journey without detailing their interactions the night before they departed was not the right course of action. The addition of these quiet drama scenes allows me to weave crucial details into the story without taking away anything important.
Though there was no clear danger in the writing I did this week, that does not mean I disregarded raising the stakes. In fact, one of the best things I find an author can do is use characterisation to heighten the drama of a story. The more invested a reader is in your characters, the more the reader will want to know what happens to them. Without that investment, a writer has wasted a character slot.
- What I Intend To Write Next Week
Next week continues Horizon’s End as the group embarks across the sea. I still do not know how I will make it feel different to the Tyr’s Bounty scenes from Sea Spray or the Acheron scenes from earlier in Earth Splitter, but I have confidence I can come up with something unique that still fits into the world I have built.
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