L.J. Writes

I have just finished the first draft of Shadow of the Dragon King, almost a year and a half after posting the first chapter. There are six chapters (some 40,000 words) to go from the current update so it'll be a while before the readers see everything. It won't even be the same text because whoa, hella editing to do, but still I have the base of the thing. Dragon King could end up a lot of bad things, but at the very least it will never be an incomplete story, not according to the current outline anyway.

Since the project will change and grow from this point (hopefully smaller, not bigger), and because I am stupidly excited about the whole thing, here is the current snapshot of Scrivener's Project Statistics. Disregard the top part, I have no idea what that 3,619-word section is and I'm going crazy trying to figure it out. The Selection below it, current selection being the top-level Project folder, is closer to the actual word count. Pages (paperback) is at 350 words a page, which is the default option.



Still left: One or two possible interludes and two or three side stories to write, beta-reading to be gotten, editorial decisions to make like what scenes to add or delete or how to arrange them (in one chapter the scenes are more or less in random order right now), lower-level editing and, when all is done, chapters to print out and check one last time before posting.

Since there's still so much work left on the story I'm happy I got the first draft out of the way before the end of summer, since the upcoming semester is going to be hectic. I've met my writing goals for the summer, and can move onto... uh... the giant tottering pile that is everything else in my life. *panics and runs away*

My badass beta-reader Amy Raine (though, internet nomenclature aside, she's my editor) amyraine and I have been hashing out the same three chapters of Shadow of the Dragon King for months now. She identified huge pacing and focus issues with the chapters, and thanks to her criticism and suggestions I've come up with a solution that is light-years better than my original. It did mean throwing away some 21,000 words, but it is so worth it. The trashed chapters were fun to write, and I've learned to get my outline critiqued ahead of writing it all out.

( The whole process got me thinking about the reasons I write. )

This is the link and text I've used in my update Shadow of the Dragon King, Interlude 3: Dreams of Fire. Rather than try to disguise a long link on fanfiction.net, I'm simply posting it here.

The passage I've used is Sign Fifty-One: Shock, excerpted from the Hexagram part of the reading. In full it reads:

The hexagram Chên represents the eldest son, who seizes rule with energy and power. A yang line develops below two yin lines and presses upward forcibly. This movement is so violent that it arouses terror. It is symbolized by thunder, which bursts forth from the earth and by its shock causes fear and trembling.

I don't know much about the I Ching (or Yi Jing), just that it's a means of divination with a number of different combinations and meanings. It's supposed to be all philosophical and so on. I thought the omen sounded appropriate for the tone and content of the chapter.

In a long-ago fanfiction.net forum post about why people write fanfic, I remember my answer being "because I can't not." For as long as I can remember I have been trying not to be a writer and my family has been trying to keep me from that path. Fanfiction was a compromise where I could keep fiction writing as a strictly non-monetized hobby. Besides, when I really like a particular story I get obsessively into it. I watched Crimson Tide 17 times, for instance, and when I like a game a lot I tend to clear it twice or more, usually four times or more. Fandom participation was a good way to work out that kind of obsession.

( Shadow of the Dragon King was also born of such obsession. )