Work in Progress: 4/28

~ Author Kevin J Fellows

I did change Melina Unbound to present tense and that has improved the energy of the story. It still needs better words and deeper images.

Struck by a new idea for a short story. It’s just an idea, but it could develop quickly. I sketched a brief overview and some worldbuilding elements.

I did a chunk of worldbuilding for both novellas. I don’t normally work on two similar projects at once but the ideas came and needed to be written down before anything was lost.

I should mention that I don’t record in this series the craft work that is ongoing. Reading about craft, doing exercises, and receiving feedback is all part of the work. Hopefully, the results are revealed by the works in progress.

Work in Progress 4/25/19

~ Author Kevin J Fellows

I returned to an unnamed short story and was pleased. The ending needs a little work but it could be ready for a beta read soon.

The story Melina Unbound has everything I want for it except the main character’s voice feels incomplete. She needs innocent anger with fear, wonder, and joy as related by one who has suffered innocent anger. I’m also going to try a version of it in present tense. That might reveal the voice I’m looking for and give the story the right tone.

Both stories are close but need refining; it’s always finding the last best words that takes me the longest.

Work in Progress 4/15/19

~ Author Kevin J Fellows

Jotted down a couple of rough poem ideas, and updated the Paltry Sums story⎼again⎼to read over⎼again⎼before sending it out.

Then spent a little time reworking a different novella, the one I workshopped last year. I don’t normally jump between two larger projects but I had an idea about how to fix one of the issues that came up in the workshop so I did that. I’ll read the novella over quickly this week to see if the changes flow. The fix was to rip out three scenes and a whole thread, plus a few characters. What was removed might make for a separate story set in the same world, but I don’t think it belongs in this story.

Somehow, I switched gears and returned to the current novella. I plotted the major scenes I know so far and then completed a full MACE exercise on all the arcs for book one. The exercise is really helpful. The main character arcs and two of the world plot arcs are spread across the three books. But book one has two plot arcs and two plot threads that end in book one. Getting those arcs resolved satisfactorily in the right order is critical for a satisfying ending of book one and not leaving any significant cliff-hangers. There’s a lot of character death at the end of book one, but it’s nothing like what GRMM does.

Work in Progress 4/13/19

~ Author Kevin J Fellows

This was a rough week, physically. Spent most of it in constant pain, something I’m learning to get used to as I age. Unfortunately that meant I could not stand or sit (or even lie down) most of the week, which meant no writing and little sleep.

Until today. I scribbled a couple of rough poems and organized the character and plot arcs for my novella series’ first book, then started on the second. Actual scene plotting of book one will be next. I really can’t go much farther with the major arcs until I know more about the story and characters.

I also revised a short story to read tomorrow, and hopefully submit. I submitted two rejected stories to new markets, so despite the difficult week, I feel productive.