Some reading and writing

Now that my second-to-last class is out of the way, I have a week with no school worries. I start my final full class next Monday. In the meantime, I would like to read a book, and finish writing a story.

I’m reading another Forgotten Realms novel by RA Salvatore. It’s a direct sequel to the last one I read. It’s pretty good so far. And now that I have some time, I’m hoping to be able to really dig into it over the next few days.

Yesterday, on a whim, I opened up one of my WIP stories. This one is the next in line of my Orc stories, and it deals with Pekra (introduced in her own story) and Bofdak the dwarf (introduced in The Orc Way). It’s a bit more light-hearted in some ways, but with plenty of action and some good characterization, if I do say so myself.

It was interesting because, as always, I didn’t plan the story out. I had a basic premise, and I knew some things that I wanted to happen. But some (major) details were still cloudy to me. And that’s why the thing has sat for months only partially finished. I just didn’t know how to proceed with the middle.

Then, when I opened it up yesterday, it hit me. I grabbed a scene from an old and long-dead story, and plopped it in from memory. And the whole thing just fell into place. I suspect that I could have it done in a day or two, if I manage to find the free time. All told it will probably land somewhere between 5-6k in length.

This morning I was ruminating about the story in my head, and I suddenly had the flash of inspiration for the next story in the cycle, with an inkling about the one after that. I think when I am all done with these characters, I will have about six or seven stories. And that just might make a decent book. With some minor edits and maybe some extra cut scenes and details, I could put it all together nicely.

So, that’s what I am going to work on.