The recent Labor Day weekend was very productive for me--perhaps the most productive two days I've had in my writing career. You see, I finished the first draft of my novella, Fire & Ice. What is noteworthy is not so much that I finished the draft, but that I wrote almost 8,000 words in two days to do it.
In the past, when I set a writing goal, it's been for 2,000 words in a week. I think the reason for this sudden flood of output has been that all the remaining plot snags figured themselves out all at once and I had some time free of interruptions. Really a perfect storm.
So what does this mean? It means that I've completed a novella of about 19,500 words and that I will soon look to get final edits and rewrites completed as well as commission cover and chapter art as well as a couple of maps. I still really love Daniel Vogel's map of the Dragon Islands, but I think this novella (hopefully series of novellas) needs a new version. I am also planning to have a map of Dragon Home done so we can finally see the layout of Ang's capital city.
The Dragon Islands have so much history. It's a place with so much storytelling potential, that I could easily lose myself in its history. I think young readers will feel the same. I stumbled upon the idea of writing a series of novellas when I read fellow author Kelly Jarvis' wonderful novella,
Selkie Moon. It awakened me to a new method of storytelling--more than a short story and shorter than a novel. It got me thinking that perhaps this might be a good way to entice preteens to read more. The attention span of all Americans is decreasing rapidly. A novella might just be interesting enough to get them to start reading without the time commitment necessary for a Harry Potter-length book. Who knows, once they get into it, they might just move on to longer books and more involved adventures. Hey, it's worth a shot.
As always, I will keep you updated on the publishing process of my latest work. I will also fill you in on my plotting for the second novella in the series, which I'm thinking will involve smuggling in the Dragon's Neck. Stay tuned.
Peace.
