Inspiration Shows

 

So I took a 2 week break from writing... which isn't a good thing. I had to reread what I had already written to make sure I was being consistent once I started back up again. That being said, I was able to read a couple of books that have been on my to-read shelf for awhile now. It got me thinking how cool it is to glean inspiration from other authors. Last night, I wrote quite a bit, and part of my writing I tried to do something JRR Tolkien loved to do in his writing: creating songs. Brian Jacques, author of the Redwall series, also had a passion for this kind of addition to his novel writing. I got to a point in my story that begged me to follow suit.

I'm 36,000 words in to The Shadow Wielder, and a few of my characters have found themselves upon a ship on the water called "Ol' Slugger." This, of course, called for a sailors song. So here it is, in all of it's glory (the accent has been included in memory of Jacques brilliance):

I ‘ear yer ‘ave a bonnie lass
An’ tha’ yer like ter hug ‘er.
Bu’ I ‘ave one o’ higher class
I love me dear Ol’ Slugger!

Yer lass’ll ‘ave yer watch yer tongue
Bad language’ll nought bu’ bug ‘er.
Bu’ upon this ship yer mouth ‘as no bung
Speak freely while on Ol’ Slugger!

The longer yer spend with yer bonnie lass
The more yer’ll wan’ ter slug ‘er.
Instead o’ fightin’, unfurl the mast
Relaxin’ with good Ol’ Slugger!

An’ when yer lass forever sleeps
Inside the grave yer dug ‘er,
Follow the trail o' tears tha’ yer weeps
Back to me true-blue Ol’ Slugger.

Finding the balance between reading and writing is still an ongoing battle for me. I really try to read in the mornings, and write in the evenings, but sometimes I get too invested in one of those tasks. This is likely something every author deals with, and I'm sure each one has their own way of dealing with it. With Brandon Sanderson's 5th Mistborn book coming out in a few months, I was wanting to go back and reread the series. Hopefully I'll be able to get to it!

Lastly, I wanted to mention a few things about musical inspiration. Movie soundtracks are what do it for me. They help me stay in the zone and help with the overall moods involved in my writing. This past week or so, my son has gotten obsessed with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Can I just say, the song Pure Imagination is simply awesome! One of my favorite things about writing fiction,  particularly Fantasy, is that it literally is a world my creation. Endless possibilities! As much as I have structured The Shadow Wielder, there are scenes that end up surprising me. Characters appear that were not originally planned for. I can't describe how fun such experiences are! So, in conclusion, here are the lyrics to Pure Imagination. Maybe they'll inspire you, too!

Come with me
And you'll be
In a world of
Pure imagination
Take a look
And you'll see
Into your imagination

We'll begin
With a spin
Traveling in
The world of my creation
What we'll see
Will defy
Explanation

If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Wanna change the world?
There's nothing
To it

There is no
Life I know
To compare with
Pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly wish to be

If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Wanna change the world?
There's nothing
To it

There is no
Life I know
To compare with
Pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly
Wish to be

The Writing Continues

Six months since my last blog post... wow, that went by fast. A lot has happened to me in that time. I graduated from college, got a sweet promotion at work, and have been writing like crazy. Yesterday, I reached the 25,000 word mark (half of a NaNoWriMo. It's funny to think that the initial draft of my first novel, Core of the Nations, ended around this word count).

I've been a fan of the Fantasy genre for most of my life. It started when I was 7 years old, when my brother introduced me to Brian Jacques Redwall series. Funny, at almost age 30, I'm on book 18 (High Rhulain) of the same series right now. When I was about 10 years old, the same brother introduced me to The Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander. I've revisited those 5 books multiple times over the years, and they still have a profound effect over me. When I was 15, my brother finally convinced me to read The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, and my life was changed forever by its depth and brilliance. These days, Brandon Sanderson's novels are the fine dining I attend to as much as possible. The Mistborn series and Stormlight Archive are by far some of the best fantasy collections currently being worked on.

Now, since graduating, I really wanted to dive into writing a Fantasy novel that I've been playing around with in my head for a little while. For some strange reason, I've been terrified of writing in this genre, probably because I have read from so many good authors in the genre I don't feel like I can really contribute much. However, I just decided to go with it, to try it out, and I'm so glad I have done so. But, prior to beginning, I went through some writing training, which was so beneficial.

Brandon Sanderson teaches a Sci Fi/Fantasy course at Brigham Young University. He has all of his lectures from two of these semesters posted on Youtube. I went through them both and it helped me organize my ideas into well thought-out plots, settings, and characters -- all driven behind some awesome conflict. I then read a book called Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. Her perspectives really helped me, especially with the concept of first drafts, and how the expectation on quality with them should not be high.

And so, since then, I've managed to populate 25,000 words, a general 25% of my first draft. Things are going well, I'm loving my characters, the locations they go to, the stakes they are up against, and the magic system.

I'm in a writing group, and the feedback I've been receiving from them has been extremely helpful. I had to revise the first 5 chapters quite a bit initially (this is a no-no... just write and get it all out before revising, otherwise, revising is all you'll do!). It took me a while to get through that, and now I'm back to the creation of the story. It's taken me to places I hadn't initially planned for, and the story is stronger for it. The only other set back that knocked me out of writing for a week was all because of Patrick Rothfuss, author of the King Killer Chronicles. I started the first book in February and had to stop reading from its gloriousness because it gave me writers' block. I discovered that this is actually a common phenomenon. Trying to write in the same genre of a book/series you are brand new to can negatively impact your ability to write. Your mind thinks about the other world, the new magic system, everything new, and it interferes with your own world. If you are already familiar with that world, it doesn't have the same effect. So I can read a new Mistborn book without any problems because I'm already familiar with things. Sure, characters and plots are new, but I know the magic system, I know the lay of the land, etc. Interesting phenomenon. Needless to say, I had to put the book down (I will return to it once I finish The Shadow Wielder).

That's it! I'm pumping out a fair amount of words every day. I'm excited with the story. Besides my writing group, I have one person reading through the first drafts of the fist 6 chapters and awaiting feedback. If you are interested in the story, or want to know more, let me know. I'd love to fill you in. Also, just a side note, the prologue in my December blog post has changed quite a bit, but the spirit of my story still sits there, so if you want a taste of what the story is about, go ahead and read it.

Okay, that's it for now. Back to my favorite kind of writing! Cheers!

It is WRITING Time!

Ok, I made it. on Monday December 8th, I took my last Final Exam of my college career. Yesterday, I submitted my last Final Paper of my college career (it was a fun paper to write - an analysis of leadership on the TV show "Lost" from a Burkean perspective). I am done with school! It's been a long time coming. To celebrate, I wrote the prologue to my next novel project. This is going to be a fantasy trilogy, and I've been playing with this idea for over a year now! I am so glad I can focus on it now that school is over! The trilogy title is "The Shadow Wielder." I haven't come up with a title for the first book, but probably won't until I'm deeper into it.

So, here is the prologue. Hope you like it!

Viimeinen could feel the draft before the door even opened. His long grey beard rustled to the side of his face, and his dark eyes squinted - not to see who was standing at the threshold of the door of his cottage, but because of the air rushing against him. He knew who had come.
 
“Varjo, old friend, you have returned.”
 
The silhouette didn’t respond, but began to approach slowly.
 
“So the rumors are true: you are the one who has murdered the Wizards of Light?”
 
Again, no response. The cool air coming from behind the robed figure began to feel as cold as ice. The room appeared to grow darker.

Viimeinen’s eyes saddened. “I see you have dabbled in black magic, my old apprentice.”
 
The figure stopped just a foot away. Viimeinen held his ground; not an ounce of fear fell from his brow.
 
At last a deep, echoing voice came from the hooded being.
 
“You speak as if black magic is lesser than your light magic.” The voice paused, but not out of hesitation. His words were cold, his tone like icicles. “But one is not greater than the other. To believe so would contradict universal balance. Is the sun greater than the storm clouds that hide it?”
 
“What happened to you, Varjo?” Viimeinen asked. No bitterness encompassed the question. Only concern and pity.
 
“You left me to die,” Varjo spat. “During the Two-Tone War. The entire group of Light Wizards left me to die.”
 
“You went missing. I personally searched for you for days.”
 
“Among the dead.”
 
Viimeinen slowly nodded. “So many wizards died that day.”
 
“Some were taken captive by the Dark Wizards. All of them died, eventually. After terrible things had been done to them.”
 
“But you survived and escaped,” Viimeinen said.
 
“I found balance and power between light and dark magic, and I grasped it.”
 
Another long, dark pause stilled the night air.
 
At last, Varjo answered. “I was ignorant of such things during my apprenticeship. Just like you are. Just like you always have been.”
 
“And so me, being a lesser being, will now die at your hands because I am ignorant to your balance and power?”
 
“You will not die at my hands, old man,” said Varjo, eyes sparkling in the moonlight. “You will die the same way every wizard has since my escape. By your own hands.”
 
Varjo’s sparkling eyes disappeared as his eyelids shut. A deep exhalation came from his mouth, and Viimeinen noticed an increase in darkness within his room, spilling from Varjo’s mouth. They were distinct shadows. Very many of them, as if dozens of people were in the room.
 
Chills crept up and down his body— not out of fear, but out of pure coldness. He could see wisps of his breath melting into the moonlight, and he continued to get colder and colder.
 
Varjo inhaled deeply, his eyes still closed. Viimeinen, shivering from the deepening chill in the room stepped back slowly. The candlelight illuminating the room shook by wind unseen, but did not fade away. He felt a tearing at his feet. Not a searing tear, but like ice cold knives were slicing the bottoms of his feet. He screamed and fell down, reaching for his right foot. There, hanging freely next to his foot was a shadow: his shadow. He reached his hand toward it, but was stopped short as his left foot underwent the same cold slicing.
 
“What is this madness?” Viimeinen sobbed loudly.
 
“There is no madness here, old man,” replied Varjo. “Just a taste of true power for you.”

Viimeinen looked from Varjo to his shadow standing freely in the air. The candlelight flickered once more and disappeared. The moonlight silhouetted his shadow still, it moved a hair’s breadth away. 

“Goodbye, old friend,” whispered Varjo.
 
Viimeinen, still sitting on the ground opened his mouth to scream, but any sound he tried to make was cut short. His own shadow jumped into his gaping mouth, ransacking his insides like a tornado. His body slumped to the floor, his eyes still wide with horror and pain.
 
Varjo again breathed deeply, and the shadows who witnessed the murder dematerialized back through his open mouth. The shadow of Viimeinen exited the lifeless body and followed the other shadows. Varjo slowly turned away, his dark cape sweeping the floor as he walked out of the room.
 
Thus ended the days of the Wizards of Light and Dark, and only the Shadow Wielder remained.

The Writing Jitters

I'm getting them again - the Writing Jitters. I'm pretty sure they're an official condition many people suffer from worldwide.

Leisure writing is something I haven't done for quite some time, and it makes me sad! I am about to enter my final semester of college, and since I've been going to school every Spring/Summer/Fall semester for the past 2 years, I haven't been able to write for fun for about the same amount of time. So it is unfair that the Writing Jitters are attacking me.

I want to continue my latest work, the first book in a fantasy trilogy. While i have chunks and pieces put together along with a solid plot (or several of them mixing together in an awesome Brandon Sanderson-y way), I just CAN'T wait to write, write, write!

So, you may be asking... "Jesse, why don't you just write already?" Trust me, I want to. Very badly. These jitters are driving me crazy! However, I've learned that when I begin writing a particularly good, engaging story, I can't put it down. It consumes my free time. It consumes my thoughts. Not a problem, right? Well, I have a week and a half before my final semester begins. And I've learned that when my focus is on a writing a story, very rarely do I want to switch gears and write an academic paper. In the past, I've tried to balance things. I have failed each time! Something always ends up lacking (like my first novel while I focused on schoolwork, or like my grades while I wrote my second book).

So I have to wait. I have to somehow subdue the Writing Jitters for 4 more months. Then, I can regain my focus and really create a magical story that gets the appropriate love and attention it deserves! That academic writing (as good at it as I am, I don't enjoy it) will have to hold me over until Christmas time. No NaNoWriMo for me this year...

That's OK. I can last 4 more months... right? Thanks for the silent shout-outs! :)


Great. I got that off of my chest. Last bit for this post - if any authors out there (not limited to friends I already know, but hopefully I'll convince some of them) are interested in joining a writing group, I am going to start one up in January. I will be calling it "The Other Inklings." I'll be creating the group on Facebook, then once we have some members, we will start meeting in person and go over each others writing and help each other improve!

Take Luck!

JBB