Works-In-Progress Wednesday: Updates! Updates!

I know it's been a while since I've had anything to post on my blog on Wednesdays, so here's a bit of a "where I'm at" with practically everything I'm looking at currently!

Novels/Novellas (Plus a screenplay!)

 

Princess of Undersea

First things first, most of you have read about me being all excited to write a novella that would be incorporated into an anthology of "fairy tales with a new twist", that novella being my take on the story of The Little Mermaid, titled "Princess of Undersea." 

Well, officially, the anthology is now off the table, due to missed deadlines and other extenuating circumstances. BUT, exciting news... The publisher is willing to go ahead and still publish my novella as a standalone! It's pretty much the only thing I have right now that I feel like, "Oh yeah, this is publish-ready!" So this is very exciting for me! I will be confirming by the end of this week.

Commander's Courage (A Writer's Tale, Book 2)

The second novella I'm working on should, of course, be easy. I mean, I've written it once before, and I am not making it shorter, but longer! Yet I am still stymied on it—for some reason every time I sit down to write it, my brain can't stop thinking about all the other things I should be writing instead. Even though the point I am at right now is basically the last move before the climax, and then it's all "downhill" from there and I can move on to the next one! Laura has made the acquaintance of Marx, and they are going to have a discussion about things that unwittingly help Laura with thinking about world-building. 

"Volatility"

Next up in the list of "pertinent projects", is something that I have referenced a few times, never really directly (because I am not sure about the legality of spreading the details...) But at least I can say this:

 

A friend of mine who is big into the business of indie filmmaking wants to produce a sci-fi web series, and I am the story writer for the series! We (or he... Because I couldn't make it that time) held the first table-read (which had me SCREAMING LIKE A SCHOOLGIRL BECAUSE OMG REAL ACTORS SAYING MY WORDS!!!) after which my friend and I got together with the screenwriter and hacked apart what we had and I have officially begun the process of putting it back together in a more orderly fashion! "Volatility" is the name of the fanfiction I wrote, which we are using as the basis for the pilot episode. Stay tuned! You won't want to miss this! (Note: No, that's not actually the promo image we're using... it's just one of those cheap-o things I threw together in like twenty seconds... much like all the covers on here; that's why I used my Fanfiction username, not my actual name)

Inkweaver

Rewriting Volatility has taught me a lot about 3-Act Story Mapping (which I am working into a new "How To" post!) and seeing it work so well in that area has inspired me to give the same treatment to a couple stories that have languished on the "Middle Shelf" for too long! For instance, "The Last Inkweaver." I got so excited when I finished it and called it good and sent it off to beta readers... And then the responses came back, and I didn't know what to do with them. I had nowhere to start. BUT with what I have learned of 3-Act Planning, I feel more confident about going back and cutting things down and sorting things out to better and more clearly communicate the story! So that is a thing that will happen.

Which brings me to the second story due for a rewrite...

Laurel of Andar

Yep, I am finally doing it... Again... For the fifth time. This story keeps stumping me every time I go through it, so it is time for it to get the 3-Act Treatment as well—which I think will help a lot.

My main issue with a lot of these is that I did (maybe still do) have a tendency to wander, for the sake of fun, playful little interactions that contribute very little to the story... So it's time to buck up, kill those darlings, and move on!

From Novels, we move to

Wattpad

 

Oh man, this site is giving me flashbacks to the early days of this blog... I have some new followers, but not a lot of feedback.

The Water-Man is progressing slowly. People seem to be confused about the murder-mystery side of it... You'll understand, I promise! Just need to find time and head-space to write it! Sometimes a part of me wonders if it was a little too ambitious of me to try and write a dual plot... but then again, I am pretty sure it's all going to work out. As with "Commander's Courage," I am almost to the climax of the story, and then it will be easy writing after that... But the struggle to get there is a particularly nasty one. Seriously, I think I am facing the same problem as my readers: it's just more fun to write about Celian than it is to write about the robbery and try to develop the Dalton family into living, breathing people, as opposed to characters on a page.

The Suggestion Box, Vol. 1 is nearly finished... Not so much through the voting efforts as the views have done... and even then, I am just updating every week instead of waiting for votes like I had planned on doing. I think that as soon as it is complete, I am going to start Volume 2, and I will be formatting it a little differently, which I think people will like better. Maybe the confusing part is that people are forgetting that the whole story is basically starting from just the items listed at the top of each installment--the rest of it, I came up with on my own. Maybe, also, something I didn't make clear was the actual continuous part of the story, where I tried to include references in each part to some important device in another part of the story... So I'm still learning how to do it! (P.S., as far as Volume 3 goes, here on the blog, I am only about six posts from the end of the series, so if you've ever wanted to participate, go >HERE< and search for the hashtag #SuggestionBox!) 

As for Protective Custody, I'm getting even less feedback, but oh well, because that wasn't really as exclusive as the others... After all, I am literally copy/pasting it from right here on my blog, so if you really want to find out what comes next and I am not updating fast enough for you... Why don't you vote, then? Or you can read it >HERE< After all the excitement it elicited when I was first posting it way back when, quite frankly I'm surprised at the apparent lack of interest. Maybe it wasn't quite as entertaining as I convinced myself it was... But oh well!

Which brings me to an exciting announcement for a new story that I have decided to start posting on Wattpad: after seeing so many fanfictions, I am going to start posting some of my own, beginning with "PotterLock Down" the Sherlock/Harry Potter crossover I wrote last year that quickly became far-and-away my most popular fanfic. Hope you like it!