My life, in case you weren’t aware, has been a whirlwind of late. I’ve been struggling to write insane amounts of papers, having every spare moment of my time filled with homework and other kinds of work. I’ve had scarcely any time to myself, and the stress really shows on me. I can’t write when I’m stressed, unless I am extremely excited about what I’m writing.
That, I think, is the reason I’ve been struggling with #writemotivation. I’ve been (trying) to work on my novel Tal’kan, the concept of which I love – who doesn’t love techno-druids? – but I still have been unable to motivate myself to use my spare time to write much in it. I’ve spent so much time away from it that I need to reacquaint myself with the characters, the plot, and the world. That will take some time. After finishing up Matai’s latest chapter, I decided that I needed to give the novel some more breathing space.
So, I have decided, for now, to put Tal’kan on the backburner. I will by now means be abandoning the project – I’ve but 34,000 words into it, and I refuse to throw that away. For the moment, however, my heart as moved on, and so for now I will be focusing on writing something else. I need to start a new novel, more in the science fiction vein.
And so, dear readers, I ask you a simple question: which of the following three novels (already outlined by yours truly) would you be interested in seeing next? All of the options are set in my scifi/fantasy Juxian Mythos universe, and so the following descriptions might seem a little bit odd taken out of context.
-Beneath: Russell Hicks is an ex-private investigator, who, in the course of the events of the novel The Divine Madness of Kings (another project of mine on the backburner), becomes a top advisor to the King of Man, Darien Servidos. He is sent to the capital of the Elfviyat Empire, the planet of Evoriim, to represent humanity as they are inducted into a select group of intersteller empires. Upon his arrival, though, he finds that the utopian planet hides many secrets, and that things are not quite as they seem. He uncovers horrifying secret after horrifying secret, and struggles to juggle his newfound knowledge, his diplomatic duties, and his natural curiosity as to what lies beneath the planet’s surface. This novel will be a political Lovecraftian science fiction piece, focusing on the horrors of society and how one copes with possessing terrible, forbidden knowledge.
–Heart of the Supernova: It is the dateyn 422 AFA (After the Fall of K’Shatryan). The Shortel Empire, a new re-inductee into Juxtani Civilization (a UN-style organization of intersteller empires), has sent a mining and scientific expedition to a distant star system in the hopes of increasing its wealth. Unbeknownst to them, a “lost” civilization – one of the millions of empires that were destroyed or separated from Juxtani Civilization in the distant past by the Elder K’Shatryan – known as the Dassens are also headed for this star system. A grave misunderstanding causes the two fleets to clash almost immediately upon their mutual arrival, while all the while a renegade scientist on board the Shortel fleet has his own agenda, and his own destiny awaiting him. The novel will chart the course of the Dassens Empire’s reintegration into Juxtani Civilization, their troubled relations with the Shortel, and the nature of the mysterious Light of Ayudarin.
–A Deadly Dance: The Aleuvite and S’Kari Empires have never gotten along. They have both realized that their constant feuding harms them both, and so sit down to negotiate a truce, using a third party to smooth out the deal: a young being from the famously open-minded Nevwai Republic. A tragic accident causes the third party representative to become slightly unhinged, eventually culminating in the monster known as Roland van der Tyke: the antagonist of The Libel of Blood (soon to be released!). Roland proceeds to use his power and political sway to tear the S’Kari and Aleuvite empires apart in revenge, starting what could be the war to end all wars, the war that drags all civilization in the universe down with it. This novel will focus on the development of character Roland van der Tyke, Third Thiefking of Banditry, before he ever becomes a Thiefking, as well as the S’Kari and Aleuvite ambassadors betrayed by Roland, who seek to end the deadly war at all costs in a deadly, deadly dance. It will be very character-driven.
I will probably start working on the new project tomorrow, so if you have an opinion as to which sounds most interesting, pipe in now and tell me so in the Comments section! Hopefully a new project will kick my motivation back into gear!
On that note, this sudden switch of projects is forcing me to change my #writemotivation goal – which I wasn’t doing so well at completing, anyway. My new goal for what little remains of the month is simple: [b]write three chapters in the new project.[/b] By the end of the month. Should be simple, but we’ll see how it turns out.
On a final note, The Libel of Blood is still finished, and still waiting on coverart! Thank you everybody for your patience! Also, my apologies for the disjointed post; I’m exhausted, and off to sleep. Ta-ta for now!
Z. M. Wilmot 