The Hope of Memory [Update 22] The Real Editing Begins

Quick update on my The Hope of Memory trilogy.  I've finally finished typing up the whole of the handwritten Rom Tar manuscript.  Took a bit longer than I expected.  I've had a week or so off from doing anything with the text of either book (Wilders and Rom Tar), because I need breaks from it on occasion, so now the real fun of editing will begin.

I know I mentioned in the past that I liked writing these books out shorthand first, then typing them up etc etc... well, I might not do that for my next work.  Just because at this point I wanted to get straight into editing but felt it would be better to have all of Rom Tar typed out first so it's easier to reference and search.

Editing Both at Once?

I've been toying around with the idea of editing both books at once, then releasing them roughly at the same time.  I'll probably edit both to a certain extent, but for sure I want to get Wilders done as soon as I can.  Definitely tired of sitting on it, because we really begin to get to the meat of the story in the second book.  There's a lot of set up in The Distant, which is completely necessary to the full arc of the series.

So I'm working on it.  I'll be glad to get it released... it's the first multi-volume thing I've done and it sure was tough.

The Hope of Memory [Update 21] Rom Tar Complete

It took a lot longer than I expected (14 months), but the first draft of the third book in my The Hope of Memory trilogy, Rom Tar, is finally complete!  

This was a tough book for me to write, tougher than anything I had written before.  It involved a lot of additional backstory and world building, and working out the details for multiple storylines definitely was a challenge.  I've blogged about that previously, so I won't go into it again here.  Suffice to say, I'm glad to finally get the first draft done and move onto revising and finalizing Book 2, Wilders, for release.

The estimated word count for the Rom Tar first draft is 174K words, which makes it longer than the final draft of The Distant (168K words), but that will certainly change as I go through revisions.

Yes, that is the symbol that will be on the cover for Rom Tar.
If you've read The Distant, you should know what it stands for.

Book 2 Release

This means that Wilders will not release in 2014 as I had hoped.  I'm reading through the second draft of that book now, and there is considerable work to be done cleaning up some of the text and plotlines.  Now that I know exactly where everything goes in Rom Tar, I can adjust accordingly and get the right details in there.

So I won't provide a date, but I anticipate it being another 2-3 months at least before Wilders is available.  After that, all that remains is revision of Rom Tar, so that will quickly follow.  Huzzah!

Now I have to type it all up...

The Hope of Memory [Update 20] Writer's Block

So it had to happen eventually... writer's block.  Though maybe not a true instance, where I'm stymied from writing anything at all for a long period of time, it's close enough.

Rom Tar, the 3rd book in my The Hope of Memory trilogy, is proving to be a challenge on many levels.  I started it in late September 2013, but I'm only now approaching the halfway point.  I've been toiling on the same 3 chapters for the last two months.  

Part of the slowdown has been due to buying a house, moving in and remodeling the kitchen (maybe I'll post photos at some point).  Along with being very busy at work, this has taken up a lot of my time.  Many days when I finally finish for the day and have some free time, the last thing I want to do is work more.  On those days I might eek out a page or so... but usually I'm just not inspired enough to get much done.  This is why there have been very few blog posts lately.  Busy bee!

The other part has been simple writer's block.  This book is much more complex than the previous two, and as I neared the end of the first Part of the book, I couldn't figure out exactly how I was going to get to the next major plot point in a believable fashion.  I didn't know what to write and most of it I had to force out.

Broad Strokes vs Detailed Outlines

I'm the kind of writer that outlines the story in broad strokes.  I know how everything ends and the major plot points along the way.  Once I know that I start writing.  I can't bring myself to plot out a story in minute detail, because that isn't fun for me and it's not how I create.  I discover better ideas as I write, so I always leave the details vague and usually everything works out.  If I get stuck on something, I go take a walk and think about it a while, and usually a solution comes to me.

Well... not this time.  This is the downside of "broad strokes."  You may eventually encounter a problem that requires rewriting, or produces a long delay.  And in the case of a series like this, if something is already published (The Distant), you can't go back and change it (for the most part).

But just the other day I figured it out.  Eureka!  A way to bridge the gap in the story.  Unraveling the Meereenese Knot, so to speak, though hardly on the scale that George R.R. Martin had to deal with.  Not that I'm anywhere near the same level as Martin, but when you go through something like this, you gain much more respect for authors who create vast, multi-volume epics like The Wheel of Time or A Song of Ice and Fire.  It's really hard.

Anyway, I'm at around 80K words now.  Close to halfway.  Need to get it done this summer so I can revise Wilders for release.