What is on my shelf? Nothing finished, that is certain! To me, The Shelf is where I go when I am stumped on other projects (or just not in "the mood"). It's where I put the half-finished projects that I started once upon a time that just ran out of their own steam, or got abandoned when they didn't work out just the way I was thinking and I couldn't salvage them... yet.
Here on the blog, it's a bit like more of an "inside look" at those things I have that need editing or need to be finished and I have just moved on to other things. Feel free to comment on anything that looks interesting, or if I pose a question or conundrum that's "jamming the works" so to speak, I heartily welcome suggestions anyone can offer! Check in regularly, as I will make further details available upon request!
Bottom Shelf: Rewrite Purgatory--Finished or unfinished, but needs amounts of editing I am rarely in the mood to commit
Fairies Under Glass & Return to Phantasm
Background: This was my first attempt at trying to collaborate. I had this scene in my mind (actually, it's the scene in the first excerpt, "Discovery") and I wanted to see if anyone could help me come up with a story around it, because I couldn't think of a context for this random (but really cool) scene.
One week later, I had not received any response, but that was all right, because I started coming up with my own stuff anyhow. This was my first attempt at "sporadic writing"; I didn't write chronologically, I wrote in "excerpts", and as a scene came to mind, I just wrote it down, no matter if it came later in the story or not.
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Excerpts: Discovery; Fairies And Their Dust; Learning; A Giant Conundrum; Tiny, Curious Troublemakers; Waking the Giant; The Flight of the Gryphon; Adolf Attacks
Issues: My biggest problem is it's just old. It was an old style I used a while ago, and I like to think I have changed since then--but every time I come back to this, it still "sounds like me" so I have no idea how to change it! That, and all the while I was writing it, the age of my main character changed by about a decade or so, making it hard to convey his reactions correctly--like maybe some of the thought processes are suitable for a fifteen-year-old, but how would an eighteen-year-old react in that situation? As for the sequel... it's just "blah." I wanted the chance to develop my own fantasy world as it's own entity and I had a lot of fun coming up with stuff--then I ended up just slapping things together in a hodge-podge sort of way that I can't seem to smooth out!
Laurel of Andar
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| Cover design credit: Ashwords Design |
Background: This is the one idea that actually started out as fanfiction. It survived through two years of writers block, and acquired a sequel... but it was another two years before I decided to take out all the copyrighted stuff and repurpose it into my own original work.
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Excerpts: The Exodus [Prologue]; The Heart of the Elvenking; Revised Excerpt #2 Bonus Material: Intro to Andarian; The Lord's Prayer In Andarian; Revised Excerpt #1; The Rewrite Process;
Issues: Can I just please NOT have to think about something fantasy right now? Please? My biggest issue, when it comes down to it, is that, yes, I have a pretty awesome fictional language to go with this project... but I can't shake the feeling that I can't get the story itself to rise to the level of this cool language... I mean, a language that awesome should have a fantastic story to go with it... I just don't quite know what that is, yet...
Middle Shelf: Passive Active--Currently trying to poke away at it, but hasn't really taken off yet....
THE WORDSPINNER CHRONICLES
Background: Yep, you guessed it. "The Last Inkweaver" is only the first in a series! Not long after finishing the first draft, I was inspired with the concepts for not just the next book... but all three sequels!
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-The Last Inkweaver [
-The Story-Healer's Song
-The Earth-Teller's Mark
-The Talesmith's Forge
Merely Meredith: A Modern Persuasion
Introductory Post
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Excerpts: Introducing The Elliots --- Dinner with the Elliots --- "A Chance To Love" by Meredith Elliot --- Presenting Mrs. Cassandra Marianne Elliot Mangrove... The Great --- Charlie's Return --- Encounter in the Library --- The Runaway Steed --- Ellie's Date --- The Incident At Port O'Connor --- Deleted Scene: "The Erstwhile Enthusiast" --- Musings In Mesa
Issues: My main problem is that every time I sit down to write my mind turns blank. I was in the middle of rewriting the first few chapters of this one and I just lost interest in it. Of course, getting more and more fantastic ideas all the time didn't help any... I need to get Phoebe and Meredith to California and be able to get the introductions rolling, but I just get brain-stuck!
A Writer's Tale, Extended Edition
Background: Some of you might recognize this title from the second Serial Saturday series to appear on this blog. I wrote it as a fool-proof idea for winning NaNoWriMo because each section was basically the same overall plot arc with the same core characters occupying similar roles in different settings, so I could essentially write multiple sections at the same time, depending on which scenario was spinning through my head at the time.
One problem.... I got so excited with the potential for success that I "accidentally" started writing it on September 29th, and finished it a week before November... so I essentially had "nothing to do" that year for NaNoWriMo.
Anyhow, it was fun... but at the same time, there were instances where ideas I originally wanted to add into the stories had to be skipped because I wanted to keep the word-count limit. After it was finished, though, I thought about how fun it would be to turn this "serial story" into a series of novellas; I would still keep the "formula" style, but I would be able to add the original ideas back in, giving each tale its own unique "twist."
Which brings me to today... Now that I think about it, I want to tweak the series even further, making these different "worlds" the author visits to actually be her own creations, invented and then abandoned because she "wasn't creative enough" or she just gave up on them. It would add motivation for actually experiencing them in person, because she would start out with a small acquaintance--but then the story takes off in a completely new direction that she doesn't expect, and she learns more about storytelling and even her own capacity for world-building that way.Book 2--The Commander's Courage: "An Aliian Encounter" ---- "Two Truths And A Lie" ---- "The Grand Tour" ---- "Technical Difficulties" ---- "At Your Service" ---- "Mystery Meat(less)" ---- "Lockdown"
Top Shelf: Future Works--Started and un-started, but not going to get around to them till the two "lower shelves" are clear
THE BRITANNICA CYCLE
Background: This idea "spawned" while I was studying Shakespeare's "Henriad" (Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V are all connected plays) at the same time I was mucking my way through postmodern American Literature. One thing led to another, and I simply had to have a novel for each British country![Want more details? Comment with the title you want to read more about!]
-The Red Dragon of Wales
Excerpts: Introduction -- Rebooting Drake Ross -- The Dragon Walks -- Outsmarting the WRAITHS -- Sideways -- Whitaker's Weapon
-The Last Snake in Ireland
-All the Swans in England
-The Great Unicorn of Scotland (*not too sold on this title... any ideas for a title with "Unicorn" and "Scotland" in it?)
Persuasion and Pixies
Background: If you've ever heard of Pride And Prejudice And Zombies... this is a little bit like that. Except instead of horror, I'm doing a more "dark fantasy" version.
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His Eyes Were Blue
Background: It started as a random suggestion that two blue-eyed actors should star in a movie together... and in my mind it warped into an ingenious mystery-thriller in no time flat:
Three men have one feature in common: blue eyes.
One is a driven detective completely devoted to his job.
One is a perverted psychopath who delights in abducting random people and tormenting them to the point where they cannot describe him, but they never forget him.
One is a perfectly innocent family man caught in the middle of the greatest manhunt the city has ever seen.
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