So It Begins
This writing will serve as a milepost since I have now resettled and assessed my creative endeavors thus far in 2024. It may not be the most riveting of literary pieces, but it has always been both my desire and intention to keep those who do read my content appraised of how things are going. It also serves as a source of accountability to ensure my intent in staying focused on what truly matters remains sincere.
Admittedly, my progress on writing additional content for the Sy’Arrian Legacy Series has been abysmally slow. I am not choosing these words to purposefully belittle myself, rather I am pointing to a simple fact. I have highlighted a number of causes for this fact numerous times throughout the course of this blog, which I will not rehash; you already know them. I will reiterate those causes are meant to provide context only, not to be excuses. Self-awareness is key in acknowledging our challenges and missteps as we navigate life’s path.
From a developmental perspective, fine-tuning and creating additional background related content, designed to make the series more polished, has gone very well. I am more confident than ever to ship off, The Cradle of Destiny to a mainstream publisher and say, this is the best version. Naturally, I am not so arrogant or naïve to assume a publisher will toss up their hands to say, Great! We will not need to do anything to it, so let’s sign you up! The intent is to make it hard for them to say, No!
As it relates to production, well, the answer is fairly obvious; hence, the main point of this month’s post. If you have gleaned anything from this year’s content, 2024 has been, so far, not only life changing but mind boggling fast. Knowing I am typing these words for an April post still elicits a shaking of the head and silent admission of how quickly time flies in the blink of an eye. It is why being present is vital to see the beauty in each moment.
This year begin with acceptance of diverging paths and realizing, delaying the inevitable only serves to undermine personal growth. Since January 2024 began it has been one whirlwind after another, one more issue to address after another and one emotional roller coaster after another. Untangling 24-years of life spent with one person appears, at first, insurmountable. Fortunately for me, untangling life’s messes and developing new processes is something I do for living, so it comes naturally. Besides, I am a fan of Mr. Clean and Bissell products, so when life gets messy, I just clean it up. Oh, and by the way, moving sucks!
Instead of indicating what has not been done, let me speak to what will be my next course of action. Prior to The Upheaval, which is what I will be officially calling 2024, I was almost at a finishing point with a number of refinements for The Cradle of Destiny. There were a number of errors not caught by the first publisher, so those have been corrected. I renamed the ship associated with one of my prominent characters, Norah to make it more applicable to their background and, hopefully, stand out.
Chapter four was not only too long in my opinion but contained two fairly intricate pieces associated with the lore of the story. Pulling the book from my first publisher, provided me the opportunity to view this chapter conceptually and ask myself if it was too much, too soon. More importantly, was it necessary to cover both of these story elements at this early juncture in the story. When I viewed it from my character’s perspectives, the decision to split those two elements came very easily.
My next few steps will be to create a proper transition from chapter three to ensure it flows properly into the new version of chapter four. In tandem, I will be taking the material I split from the old version and inserting it as either a new chapter later in the story or adding it to an existing one based on feasibility.
One critical element to be aware of in these situations is to ensure the flow of content in all the existing chapters is not disrupted, resulting in confusing the reader not to mention whoever edits your submitted product. Not to overstate the obvious but if you create a jumbled mess of chapters and your editor does not catch it, readers will. This is definitely not the outcome you want, especially if the book has already been published once before.
What I have mentioned previously is strictly associated with The Sy’Arrian Legacy Series. I will be setting time aside to conduct story building for a few other concepts whose loose frameworks have already been built. A couple of them are science fiction based, while the other leans into my fantasy side. I do have some adult themed content with one story already finished, which I will be working under a pseudonym to publish. Ordinarily, I do not care about how others view adult content but, unfortunately, we live in an age where nuance and common sense are rare commodities.
There you have it. My status update for the first quarter of 2024. Considering how life has challenged not only myself, but many others as well, I felt it prudent to keep everyone informed.
So, talk less, do more and be humble. This will allow wisdom to take hold and give you the ability to help yourself, while being effective in helping guide others to take their journey towards living in the moment.
Be safe, be well and let us get back to the fine art of creative writing.
