Writing | My Current Projects

Since my updates have been sparse of late (though, thankfully, are improving in terms of frequency), I thought I'd provide a bit of a catch-up post relating to my current projects. Specifically, I'll be discussing my writing projects and my progress with them. Please note, though, that currently, my main priority is my move to Australia. This move is ramping up as I prepare to sell my house. As such, updates on these works are going to be few and far between, but I do continue to work on them as time moves forward.

D&D

I have found a lot of fun in telling one story to a small group of people. Actually, let me rephrase: telling one story with a small group of people. As a Dungeon/Game Master, I get to create the playground that my players tell their story in. It can be somewhat time-consuming but is surprisingly easier than just writing a book, myself. Still, after a year of being a dungeon master, I'm ready to focus on more traditional writing, again.

That said, however, I am going to be working on a campaign setting that will be released to the public for use with D&D 5e. I have no timeline for this, but it is something that is at the forefront of my mind. Once this campaign is over, I won't be too eager to just jump right back into D&D, but writing a tabletop setting is something that I think would be a lot of fun in the future. Keep an eye out for updates on that!

Writers of the Future

The Ansleigh Arc

In 2018, I wrote The Ansleigh Arc, a short story that I entered into the Writers of the Future competition. After receiving an award for the story and attending the award ceremony in April of 2019, I went silent about it. Here's why: prepping and designing an eBook for release is a pain. However, two years later, I think it's time that the short story which won my second Honorable Mention to date should see the light of day. That's why I'm working diligently to get this book formatted and beautified for release to the public. I do not have a release date yet, but it will be a Kindle Unlimited (thus, Kindle-Only) e-Book.

2020 Entry

It's unfortunate that I missed entering at all in 2019. I don't want to give up on entering the competition just because I've gotten a couple of honorable mentions, so I'm trying to get an entry out for 2020. The deadline for entries is September 30th, though, so that means I've really got to churn this one out and submit it to an editor fast. This will be my main priority in August. I currently have an outline for the book all polished and ready but have yet to begin on the first draft.

Thankfully, I can usually churn out about 10,000-20,000 words in a day if I'm focused, so I can probably get the first draft out over a weekend, once I've got time and energy. Fingers crossed I can have a finished work ready for the competition!

Obviously, the title of this story is redacted. You cannot associate the title of your story with your name until after it has been judged for the WotF competition. All I will say about this one is that I feel very in-my-element writing it!

How I Ruined My Life Rewrite

This is still something I very much want to do. Every time someone tells me they've read this book, I cringe. I am just not a fan of the work for a number of reasons, not the least of which is terrible prose (though many have told me that they found it extremely easy to read, so maybe I'm just too hard on myself). I believe I cut corners and pulled punches with a story that deserved much better treatment.

While I have not yet started outlining the rewrite (and yes, it is a complete rewrite, not just an edit. It will be almost unrecognizable), I do have some solid ideas for what I want to do with it. This is more of a back-burner project at the moment, though. There is, however, a tentative title for the rewritten version: Keeping Secrets from Friends.

Imperfect

Imperfect is a massive undertaking. It has been through rewrite after rewrite. When you write a story that is going to span multiple books with each book having about 250-500,000 words, you really need to make sure that you've got your bases covered. Time and again, I have failed to do this, resulting in crossed wires, inconsistencies, and a lack of clarity for alpha and beta readers.

To avoid this, I'm finally taking advice from some of the greats: create an internal wiki. I have been working on my internal wiki for a couple of months now and it is greatly building my confidence. This wiki will be part of my progress tracker for the first book in the main Imperfect series, so keep an eye out for updates on my progress, there.

New Novel

I'm trying my hand at thrillers/horror! This is a novel idea I've had for a couple of years, now, as I've found I remain focused when my stories are self-contained and set in modern periods. I won't reveal much about the idea, but I am extremely excited to dive into this new genre. Horror/thrillers have never really been my favorite to consume, but I have found a deep love for creating scenes of this nature. The way that words are able to manipulate the human body into feeling chills and anxiety is fascinating. I hope I can deliver what I promise with my new project, Cult of Orleans.

This is still very much in the "idea" stage. I have lots of scattered story ideas for this that I am still pulling together into an outline. However, enough of it is set in stone that I can probably start outlining within the next few months! After I finish my move, this book will be my primary focus.

Conclusion

As you can see, I've got quite a number of projects on my plate, right now! Each of them is moving forward at a gradual pace, but the most important one right now is my entry for WotF. There are obviously other things I want to touch on, too, like Imperfect's Journal being released as an eBook instead of just being on Wattpad, but projects like that aren't really a priority for me, at the moment.

In the next few days, I hope to add a page to this website where you can view progress bars for these various works. I'm trying to do everything I can to keep myself honest as I strive to become more diligent as a self-employed writer.

Thanks for reading!