The Writing Front

[kriadydragon]

The new original story is coming along, slow but steady, and I'm happy. Or I should say relieved, because I'm about four chapters in (five if you count the prologue) and still like what I have so far. I don't feel overwhelmed by it or uncertain of it, which had plagued me all throughout the writing process of my last story (the one I finished but am utterly unhappy with.) The way I figure it, I kind of jumped the gun with the last story, in that I had a great plot but hadn't completely thought the setting and "feel" of the story through. What I'd wanted was something surreal, something skirting traditional but in a non-traditional setting. What I got was Law and Order: Special Wizards Unit - police procedurals with a little magic tossed in, and completely not what I'd wanted. I've since been rethinking the entire story and think I know where I went wrong and what to do about it. But it's still a work it progress I don't plan on rewriting for some time.

This new story is just plain fun, the characters especially. But I'm wary, because the idea for this story ended up turning it into a trilogy and I've yet to actually finish a trilogy. Times, however, have changed for me. I actually finish what I start, even if I don't like it, and it's high time I actually finish a trilogy seeing as how I have a ton of them in mind. Phillip Pullman, the author of His Dark Materials, also gave some excellent advice on dealing with epics: take a break between each one by writing something else, and I intend to try that.

Comments

[a-pilgrim-soul.livejournal.com]

You may not have like it but I'm intrigued by the "Law & Order: Special Wizards Unit" I do love a good bit of contemporary/urban fantasy. I like stories where the universe is close to our own but has elements of the magical and fantastic - where the extraordinary walks hand in hand with the ordinary. That appeals to me a great deal. The trouble is most urban fantasy tends to be dreadful vampire romances and that really doesn't appeal to me in the slightest.

I have been toying with writing something original, I have a sci-fi idea that I think has a lot of potential but I don't have an ending.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

The problem with my story was that the police part took over, making the magic part feel a tad out of place. Then there was the world itself, which was where the bigger problem lay. I wanted the setting to be it's own world, having developed in its own way. Parallel to ours with many similarities, yes, but when I finished writing I realized it felt too much like our world, so I might as well have made it our world, and I don't want to do that.

But overall, it's still going to be urban fantasy and a world where technology and magic coexist. I just need to balance it all better.

And I totally agree, it's so difficult to find good urban fantasy that isn't vampires and were worlves, or wizards in a sci-fi setting. There are only two urban fantasies I've enjoyed - The Dresden Files and Mercedes Lackey's Chrome Circle (which I highly recommend.) Other than that, I've yet to find anything that really engages me like those books did.

...I have a sci-fi idea that I think has a lot of potential but I don't have an ending.

Gotta have an ending. I learned that the hard way myself. I've started stories where I left the ending open, hoping the story itself would produce the ending. But the stories always ended up stalling half-way through. My sci-fi story Black Dragon I can't finish because I don't know how it's going to end, and it's driving me nuts because I really like what I have so far.