Lore-weaving: A Writer’s perspective on why it stands alone from Worldbuilding

Most writers are familiar with the term “Worldbuilding”.  It’s the creation of a world, the establishment of population, history, culture, and any other rules that go along with the world/universe.  When creating a world, the writer has to know what drives the people, their beliefs and backgrounds, and the history that shaped the world as it is when the reader finally enters the world when they open that book.  Some of the worlds and universes I can think of where this all plays a part are: Shannara, Discworld, Temerant, and Star Wars.

Star Wars is an excellent example of ongoing worldbuilding.  The universe exists, but now as it grows, new cultures are developed, new planets and races. A lot of world building still takes place for each new planet and their history gets added to the database of galactic history.

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A Busy Six Months

Here it is 2016 and it’s been seven months since my last update here. I’ll be honest, I had posts I wanted to write but I have been crazy busy.

 
First, editing Demon Hunter took up a good chunk of my attention.  I finished edits in October, adding almost 14,000 words overall.  I rewrote entire chapters, including a section that I initially kind of glossed through because it was holding me up. My beta readers called me out on, which I’m glad they did, and I admitted it.  Of course, what they got in return was a section of the story that was completely rewritten and expanded making it much better than the original.  Granted, I had time to go back and figure out how to make it better, and it paid off.  Even I was happy with the end result.
Secondly, work has gotten much busier for me. I started a new position at work, so I’m now on the road five days a week, but that also means my writing time has gone down.  I still find time to write here and there when possible and also at night.  I’ve taken to writing some short stories by hand, allowing me to take them on the road with me, and then later I can type them up.  
Finally, between all that I still need to maintain some sanity and a little social life, so yeah, I do my best to get out on occasion.  The holidays were nice and relaxing, and in truth, I didn’t do much writing then either.  With the new year, and Demon Hunter out to beta readers for a second read through, I’ve turned my attention to another story.  My goals are reasonable, like typing up a working outline for the story by month end, which I actually beat my deadline by completing my outline last week.  Now to start writing, and my goals for that will be reasonable too – A chapter or two a month and most. 

For now, it’s back to working on my latest projects.

Character Creation

Character creation, two words that for any writer or anyone who has ever role-played or played a roleplaying game (table top, LARP, or video game) is familiar with.   Without a character you can’t play the game, but what about writing?  Character creation is just as important to a writer as it is with a gamer.  You don’t have a story without characters.  Sure you can have an idea, a plot, setting and all the details that go with it, but without a protagonist or antagonist you have nothing to put all of that into play. Characters are like the actors in a movie, you can’t have a movie without them.  But how does one come up with characters?  the answer may seem simple, or complex.  Truth be told, there is no right or wrong way to creating characters.  Everyone, writer and gamer alike, has a method.

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Balancing Writing and Editing

Every writer understands the importance of editing their work.  It has been edited, either by an editor, or by a group of beta readers, and now its time to sit down and wade through all the comments and markings on the page.  It’s a slow process going through it page by page making sure the story becomes more refined as you go.  Some writers are able to plow through it and get the editing done pretty quickly forgoing all other projects until their story has been edited.  Other writers aren’t able to set aside other projects and focus on editing.

The question is how do you find that balance?

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Beta Readers and Editing

This past month has been an interesting month for me from the writing standpoint.  After completing edits and revisions on my short story TEMPTING FATE with the hope of finding a place to publish it, I’ve delved into editing my first book in my Demon Hunter series.  I’m only about twenty-five percent of the way through and I found myself thinking about all the books I’ve ever read.

Editing is a vital part of making a good book stand out with the reader and make it memorable.  Sure, I’ve read books by my favorite authors and found an error or two now and again, but it seems trivial when compared to the book as a whole.  On the flip side, I also know from experience that when there are a lot of editing issues, they stand out and make it difficult to really enjoy a book.  That was what my first book was like.  Lots of inconsistencies and errors that needed fixing.  Part of that was due in part to a lack of quality feedback and my own undertaking to edit the book.

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New Year New Goals

2015 is here and with it comes a chance to make some new goals to strive towards.  The first goal I am working towards is getting my short story TEMPTING FATE published as an ebook.  I’m currently editing it before I submit it to Tor.com for them to consider publishing.  Once that has been submitted my next goal is to go through and edit my first manuscript in the series, THE DEMON HUNTER.  At the same time, I hope to begin my search for an agent for my books and start my second book THE AWAKENING.

I’ll be posting updates here regarding my writing progress on a regular basis as well as any other news that comes up.  I am currently halfway through editing TEMPTING FATE with an expected completion  date of January 30th.  By early February I hope to submit it to Tor.com.

 

Writing, writing and more writing

The last two months have been rather busy.  Between work and life in general, I’ve been able to fit writing in where ever possible.  As such I’ve managed to complete a few short stories set in my Demon Hunter series and I’m currently deep into a novella as well.  A couple of my short stories I need to edit/revise before I start submitting them to publishers for consideration.  I’ve also been preparing to start my second novel while I let a few beta readers review my first novel before I start working my edits and revisions on that.

More to come as I am able to post about it.