Chasing New Dawn writing update - on to the editing
On the last day of February 2018, I finally finished something I started all the way back in October 2015.
Chasing New Dawn was originally meant to be a 20-30 page short story - though, looking back, I have no idea how I imagined I could possibly fit as much plot as I planned in that amount of space. I'm kind of surprised that the current draft clocks at only 58 pages.
I haven't really written much about Chasing New Dawn here, or anywhere on the Internet, really. I did post the first few pages of it on this LJ back in April 2016 (I've since rewritten a decent chunk of it not once but twice, but so long as it's already up on this here blog...). Exactly how I came up with the idea for the story is a topic for another post entirely, but, for now, let's just say that I decided to take cues from Japanese anime and life-action Tokusatsu shows (and the Western media that was inspired by it), the kind of stuff I grew up watching and reading in Russia and these United States. I wouldn't be the first prose writer to do it, but I feel like it's a fresher ground to mine then Western-style superheroes. It was about one woman who was forced to leave the world of monsters and magical girls behind - only to be unexpectedly thrust right back in almost 10 years later. And while I wasn't quite sure where I was going with it, by the time I was done... if the story has any theme, it's about forging one's own path before anyone else can forget it for you.
Now that the first draft is done, I still have a lot of work to do. I've written it in fits and spurts, so I want to fix all the mistakes and continuity issues. And now that I had a chance to flesh out the universe and actually get a better idea of where it's all going, I want to go back and explain the part that need to be explained, and foreshadow things that need to be foreshadowed. After that, I hope to send it to a couple of betas and then re-edit it again. Then... The plan is to post it on Livejournal and see whether someone might be willing to publish it. And if someone is willing to publish it and doesn't take kindly to having it posted online on my personal blog... Well, that's why Livejournal has friends lock.
Back in 2016, I created a Tumblr for Chasing New Dawn. I've mostly been using it to post some stuff related to the TV shows, movies, anime and manga that inspired it. As I edit the story, I plan to use it to post character concept sketches, some backstory material that I can't possibly fit into the story itself, excerpts, etc. So if you are on Tumblr, please feel free to follow me there.
At this point, I'm just glad that the bloody thing is finally done. I've dropped so many of my longer pieces, and I was determined to finish this one, no matter how long it took. Now I can work on some Urbis Arcana shorts and some other stuff, because, while I still have a lot of editing to do, it is FINISHED. And I can start something new (or, in case of Urbis Arcana, a new piece of an old thing) without feeling guilty about not finishing Chasing New Dawn
And it only took me 29 months. 29 freaking months!
Chasing New Dawn was originally meant to be a 20-30 page short story - though, looking back, I have no idea how I imagined I could possibly fit as much plot as I planned in that amount of space. I'm kind of surprised that the current draft clocks at only 58 pages.
I haven't really written much about Chasing New Dawn here, or anywhere on the Internet, really. I did post the first few pages of it on this LJ back in April 2016 (I've since rewritten a decent chunk of it not once but twice, but so long as it's already up on this here blog...). Exactly how I came up with the idea for the story is a topic for another post entirely, but, for now, let's just say that I decided to take cues from Japanese anime and life-action Tokusatsu shows (and the Western media that was inspired by it), the kind of stuff I grew up watching and reading in Russia and these United States. I wouldn't be the first prose writer to do it, but I feel like it's a fresher ground to mine then Western-style superheroes. It was about one woman who was forced to leave the world of monsters and magical girls behind - only to be unexpectedly thrust right back in almost 10 years later. And while I wasn't quite sure where I was going with it, by the time I was done... if the story has any theme, it's about forging one's own path before anyone else can forget it for you.
Now that the first draft is done, I still have a lot of work to do. I've written it in fits and spurts, so I want to fix all the mistakes and continuity issues. And now that I had a chance to flesh out the universe and actually get a better idea of where it's all going, I want to go back and explain the part that need to be explained, and foreshadow things that need to be foreshadowed. After that, I hope to send it to a couple of betas and then re-edit it again. Then... The plan is to post it on Livejournal and see whether someone might be willing to publish it. And if someone is willing to publish it and doesn't take kindly to having it posted online on my personal blog... Well, that's why Livejournal has friends lock.
Back in 2016, I created a Tumblr for Chasing New Dawn. I've mostly been using it to post some stuff related to the TV shows, movies, anime and manga that inspired it. As I edit the story, I plan to use it to post character concept sketches, some backstory material that I can't possibly fit into the story itself, excerpts, etc. So if you are on Tumblr, please feel free to follow me there.
At this point, I'm just glad that the bloody thing is finally done. I've dropped so many of my longer pieces, and I was determined to finish this one, no matter how long it took. Now I can work on some Urbis Arcana shorts and some other stuff, because, while I still have a lot of editing to do, it is FINISHED. And I can start something new (or, in case of Urbis Arcana, a new piece of an old thing) without feeling guilty about not finishing Chasing New Dawn
And it only took me 29 months. 29 freaking months!