I just went past 34k words today on Happy Farm Adventures (working title) and am expecting to hit the halfway point next week. Given that the plot is well underway, I’m hoping the writing gods continue to bless me with their favours (please, I can’t sacrifice any more livers for you, I’m kind of struggling with what I’ve got left already…) and that this means this story will actually get finished.
Writing novels always make me nervous because I have no issues with abandoning a project if it’s just not working out. I’ve scrapped entire novels before, and even more at around the 10-50k mark.
But because I’m really nervous with this one, I won’t give out the title until I’m finished with the 2nd draft and am pretty happy with it.
That said, it’s kind of fun writing out a story and not having to worry too much about worldbuilding and plot details because they’re all already done in the background. It’s a great exercise in story structure and characterizations (this novel only has two POVs). It’s a neat little drama set firmly with tropey elements (farmboy, noble lady, that kind of thing) against a familiar fantasy backdrop, and I’m not trying to create anything overly groundbreaking with it. I guess if you make it into a chef/food analogy, I’m taking a break from all the artistic fusion experimenting and just doing a plain old cheeseburger…except I want to make sure the cheeseburger is done just right. Fresh steaks ground right in the kitchen for the patty, home baked bread for the rolls, good melty cheese, caramelized onions…
Shit, now I’m hungry.
My point is, I’ve always been a firm believer in that the strength of writing lies in how well a writer does what they set out to do, rather than fancy concepts or flighty ideas. That’s partly why I’m an objective reader…I don’t judge a fairy tale romance as an epic fantasy or action-packed adventure. Similarly, I give a bit more leeway for epic fantasies, knowing how difficult it is to juggle all the different elements the genre demands of its writers. So sometimes it’s worth going back to the basics to make sure that I can write a story even if it’s stripped out of all the exciting elements. I’m not even sure this story has magic, at least not within its cast of characters.
It’ll be interesting to see how this all works out in the end.
