I’ve been trying to decide what to write about in today’s post, or even if I should bother writing a post at all, because it’s not like I’ve got a whole lot going on. So I’m going to start talking about what is going on and see where that leads. If anywhere. For all I know, I’ll just delete this attempt at a post and maybe just post something next month instead.
In my last post, I talked about how I was sticking my epic-ish fantasy series, The Coileáin Chronicles, in the dreaded drawer because I was so very large with not knowing how to fix it. (‘It’ being what is currently known as installments 3, 3.5, and 4 of the series. And ‘fix it’ being I feel like these parts are in need of…improvement. Or possibly just some gasoline and a lit match. Who knows.)
This month, I…well, I still don’t know how to fix it, but I was inspired enough (‘inspired’ feels like waaaaaaay too strong a word, but whatever) to start Frankenstein-ing some of the scenes, which led me to build a new storyboard for the third act of Full Circle (which I suspect is the crux of the issues I’m having with this series) so I could see what it would all look like. An author’s eye view, if you will.
I always enjoy building a new storyboard—even a storyboard for an already existing project that may or may not be anything but a giant black hole of awfulness. A new storyboard means potential, like there could potentially be a story forthcoming. That story could also be a giant black hole of awfulness, but for the time being, anyway, it’s potentially not a giant black hole of awfulness. It’s shiny and new and smells like Sharpie because I tend to write on the Post-Its with Sharpie, so really, the shiny, new, potential feeling could just be me high on Sharpie fumes.
But whatever it is, I’ll take it. Because, if nothing else, it’s something resembling forward progress, and I really do so much better with teeny, tiny, stumbling baby steps forward than I do with the feeling of being stuck and not going anywhere or doing anything.
So I’ll see where this Frankenstein-ing experiment takes the story and go from there. So far, it’s seen me spending a lot of time sitting in my desk chair with my co-author, Charles Edgar Cheeserton III, in my lap, while we admire the storyboard and contemplate the domino effect each change we make has on every other damn thing in the manuscript.
Slow and steady may win the race, but really, all I’d like to do is finish the damn thing.
We’ll see what happens next.
What are you working on this month?
Your storyboards are always so colorful and inspiring! Mine are kind of blah in comparison.
I love how your brain works!
I’ve got a new series–okay 2 new series–floating around in my head while I’m drafting book 3 of the first next series… My brain is a busy place and maybe this is why I don’t sleep well…
You and Charles Edgar will slowly but surely solve this mystery.
By the way, Friedrich Schiller used to keep rotten apples in his desk so that when he needed inspiration, he’d open the drawer and take a whiff. Imagine what he would’ve accomplished with Sharpie fumes.
I hope you figure out the issue and your storyboarding turns out successful. Just this past week, I discovered I had a small plot problem in one POV, and now I’m considering deleting a character and a box of weapons from my current book because I’ve convinced myself I don’t really need them. *sigh* I was hoping to finish this book this year, too.
Charles Edgar looks like a wonderful co-writer and editor. I’m sure he gives you lots of ideas. 🙂 I write like a wild woman in short increments, and then step back, and then, well, sometimes I leap too soon, but I come back to the desk and do it again – but only in short bursts, throughout the day. Our kitten, Willow (aka The Kraken) won’t allow me to sit very long.
I admire your storyboard as much as Charles Edgar Cheeserton III does. I’ll bet he was a major contributor to that story line.
Always admired the fact you storyboard it out on your walls. I’d much rather just pet your dog.
Baby steps will still get you where you’re going.
I’ve tried storyboarding a fiction book, only non-fiction. Then it’s scraps of paper all over the place!
Love the bit about sharpie fumes. LOL. Baby steps are definitely better than sitting still! @samanthabwriter from
Balancing Act
Creating a storyboard sounds fun. It’s like building rather than writing. Or arts and crafts. Perhaps that’s the issue, you’ve been in the writing cave too long and you need to find some other creative outlet. Drawing. Assembling. Or singing. Something else. Then again, maybe you just need some new swords or armory, and that might spark some new ideas… 😉
I love your colourful storyboard!
I’ve never tried one before… yours looks really cool and makes me think I should give it a go…
Your storyboards are always a thing of beauty. I’m never that organised and don’t think I ever will be. That’s just not the way my brain likes to work.
It always awes me that you can do a storyboard. My brain just doesn’t work that way.