State of the Verses
I used to do these all the time, back when I actually gave a shit I liked to keep a writing journal of sorts, but I've been about as piss poor at journaling as I have been at writing. Which is pretty piss poor.
I mean, okay, I'll give myself some credit. It's June 2 and thanks to my handy-dandy Get Your Words Out tracking sheet I know I've churned out about 103,000 words so far this year. I successfully completed a 50,000 Camp Nano, which is something I've never done before. All things considered, for quantity I'm doing alright.
Quality, however, is a much more fickle beast and I am so unimpressed with what I've written in the past five months. There have been some gems, sure - I actually started a rewrite of Treason (the first novel in the Meteora saga) that made me feel like I was a semi decent writer again, and plugged away at a few sections in the Us vs. the Apocalypse someteenth draft - but all in all, I've written about, oh, 44,110 words of shit.
If that seems awfully specific, that's probably because it's the word count for Lords of Kensington.
On Shame and Rewrites
I'm probably being too hard on it. I mean, sure, it was supposed to be this little short story that revamped my 2013 holiday fic (it pretty much starts the same way, with Ryder and Katrina stranded at an airport). Oh yeah, and it was supposed to be AU. But somewhere along the lines it just kept growing and growing and growing until it mutated into some horrific little beast of a novel and I can't. bring myself. to finish it.
This probably sounds like the same trend I have with all of my novels but I assure you, rather than laziness or boredom this is honestly because I can't stomach the idea of finishing this novel.
See, funny story. Ryder and Kat were never supposed to end up together. Like, ever. Half because I didn't want a fucking Twilight ripoff, and half because I have so much more fun writing sexual tension and them being assholes to each other. I didn't mind the moments of kindness and shit but let's be honest. Ryder's a dick. And he and Eli are a much better power couple anyway. In Rise (the first book of the verse), Katrina's world ends up ten kinds of fucked up, people are dying everywhere, things are seriously creepy, and the only person she can rely on for half the book is some shapeshifting psychotic.
But you know, cue Lords of Kensington and holy God she's his girlfriend.
So for all of May I wrote just barely over 10,000 words. That's shit, even for me. And it's because I kept staring at this little novel that is so damn close to being done and I couldn't. I didn't want to. I'm so damn irritated by the change in my characters and the way it has dragged and twisted canon that I refuse to write the ending unless I rewrite the whole beginning first.
Now, sometimes that works to my advantage. Us vs. the Apocalypse went from a cheesy and stereotypical zombie rag in the first few drafts to an actual apocalypse novel with a plot. (I'm still not sure how that happened, to be honest.) And though I sort of gave up on it because of crossover issues with other verses, The Brambles ended up being a hell of a lot better in the rewrite as well. So, I'm actually pretty certain that if I sat down and took the time to kick Lords of Kensington in the balls, it could shape up, too.
I mean, honestly, that verse is supposed to be horror. Lords and Ladies, how I've failed.
On Silver Linings
Some good came out of it, I guess. I fleshed out the entire All Hail the Shifter King sideverse in Kensington and even started A Ticket to Ancol Harbour, one of what will probably be several short backstories for the various people of Atticus' Clan family. I wrote some scenes that were actually decently good, and some dialogue I'm proud of. I have ideas of where I want this to go. And that makes me feel somewhat better about my complete inability to force myself to finish this book.
I also burned myself out so fucking hard on this verse that now I have to write something else.
On (Camp) Nanowrimo and Scheduling
The July edition of Camp Nanowrimo is just around the corner and I'm eager to tackle something new. Well, not new. I'm eager to tackle a rewrite. (If I make up one more new verse I swear I'm just going to shoot myself and be done with it.)
My original plan was to piss away June (okay technically I wanted to write) and then tackle the rewrite of I Only Dream of Thunder for Camp Nanowrimo. Then, well, I'd probably spend two or three months recovering / tinkering with Us vs. the Apocalypse before nailing Treason for Nanowrimo in November and carrying that project over into December.
But the more I poke at all of my yWriter files of writing, the more I feel like saving I Only Dream of Thunder for later in the year, being that it's an emotional clusterfuck and I'm already messed up enough right now I need to gear myself up for it. So now I've decided on the following schedule:
June / July - Us vs. the Apocalypse
August / September / October - Treason / Us vs. the Apocalypse / other random projects that suit my mood
November - I Only Dream of Thunder
December - random cooldown stuff and my 2015 Holiday Story
I think this schedule actually gives me the best chance of making my word count for Get Your Words Out (I pledged 250k and so far I'm barely clinging to schedule), plus the best chances of actually maintaining my sanity.
Us vs. the Apocalypse is a very comfortably easy story for me to write because, unlike most of my novels, all of the characters are human (well except for the ones that are zombies) and there's no magic / surreal shit / lore and crap to deal with. It's literally writing about human interaction, some ridiculous banter (<3 Mason) and shooting shit. And zombies. It's not rocket science but it's fun, and I need some wholesome horror right now.
Treason is a project I would really, really like to finish this year. It's not an outrageous thought. Meteora is my favorite of all my verses (yes, you heard it, I do have a favorite) and it would be front and center right now if I didn't need a break from inhumans and magic for a while.
On the State of the Verses
All Hail the Shifter King is going into indefinite canon hiatus right now. I'll probably keep working on the few side projects I have going on - A Ticket to Ancol Harbour (Azrin's backstory), A Small Favor (a Ryder / Atticus piece), Leap (a teenage!AU fun piece), and Never Long Enough (Mea / Ryder growing up and Mea's death).
Alter/Native is still in indefinite hiatus.
Archangels is... okay I'm not actually sure. I've started picking at it again. I keep saying I won't and I keep poking at it because the "person wakes up in a different world" concept is just too much goddamn fun for me. I'm still debating taking the story and merging it back with The Brambles, but we'll see.
Bluebird will show up here and there. I enjoy the disjointed first person narrative but I'm not ready to commit to a full novel right now.
The Brambles - like I said above regarding Archangels, there's a possibility of a blending of these two verses, but otherwise I'm taking a break.
The Courtyard of Broken Stars - indefinite hiatus.
The Empty Halls of Olympus - indefinite hiatus.
In Arms of Mercury / These Walls Tumble Down / Captain of the Guard - permanent hiatus as I pick them apart to be rewritten into Jericho. The verse itself is solid and there's a lot of story to be written - the problem is that I started too late and didn't flesh out the back of it nearly enough.
I Only Dream of Thunder will come back for November, like I said above. I'll probably also continue working on random pre-canon scenes with Doc and Crux, like I did earlier this year.
Legion - permanent hiatus.
Metal Whispers almost made it back into the lineup this year, because I really miss writing Daxen and Keelin (they actually have a cameo appearance at the Coronation Masquerade in Lords of Kensington). But with all of the glaring plot issues, I'm not sure I can come back to this one just yet.
Meteora is definitely getting work this year, like I said above. My goal is to at least finish Treason and hopefully get some work done in Acronym.
Part-Time Martyrs - permanent hiatus.
The Scarlet Hourglass - permanent hiatus until I work out how it's going to be melded into The Book of Talius.
Systematics is another one that almost made it into the lineup this year, but I need to do a lot of work on the plot and pacing. This series was episode-based before and my attempts to convert it into a novel format just didn't work out the way I wanted (hence the reason I abandoned the first draft and never actually shared any of it). I want to tackle this for at least one of the Camp Nanos next year.
Trinity - indefinite hiatus.
Us vs. the Apocalypse is going to be a crown jewel on this year, I think / hope. I may throw some sections at the AU Us vs. the Outbreak as well, for fun and to entertain my Mason / Keenan shipping.
Wolves of the White Queen has been torn down to the bones (again) and built back up (again) and I may start writing pieces this year. Maybe.
Wonderland is Burning - permanent hiatus.