Incanus
Auror
Greetings Scribes!
It’s been quite a while since I participated at this site, so I thought I’d re-introduce myself here. Apologies for the length of this post, but I have a little story to tell.
It’s been a long and difficult journey, but I have finally arrived at my destination: I am tackling my major epic fantasy story that I first started working on about 12-13 years ago.
Back then, after a couple of years, I realized I didn’t have the skills to pull off this story. So, I joined this site and began work on my ‘practice novel’. It turned out to be fairly terrible, but I gave it my best shot. About 3 years ago, or so, I ended up really losing confidence that I could be a decent writer (due mainly to a short story project that should have been great, but that turned out poorly). I languished for a while, not getting anything done. I’ve lost count, but I believe I have about 8-10 abandoned novels over the years—not a great success rate.
But some opportunities came up for me to contribute to a couple of anthologies put together by a writer’s group I was sometimes involved with. So I whipped two stories into shape for that. Then a small group decided to enter the U.S.’s biggest sci-fi/fantasy short story contest, where we would workshop our stories before submitting.
While I didn’t win any of the top 3 spots, I did receive something called an ‘Honorable Mention’ – which, I later learned, means I placed somewhere in the top 2-8% or so. It means my story was rated higher than thousands of other entries, by some pros.
Well, that was a bit of a boost. It seems my skills had been improving over time, despite the setbacks. A short time later, I remembered my huge, abandoned project, and realized the time had come to get back to it. I brought out the old notes and maps and re-engaged with it all. I finally worked out a plot for it (something I didn’t have way back when) with help from my best writer-friend.
I’ve got a solid outline, a character arc to go with it, and a wealth of world-building material. So, this novel has a much better chance at becoming something than any of the previous ones. I am only about 22-23K words into it so far, but it is mostly going well.
So, since I am writing regularly again, I thought I’d hang out at Mythic Scribes too.
It’s been quite a while since I participated at this site, so I thought I’d re-introduce myself here. Apologies for the length of this post, but I have a little story to tell.
It’s been a long and difficult journey, but I have finally arrived at my destination: I am tackling my major epic fantasy story that I first started working on about 12-13 years ago.
Back then, after a couple of years, I realized I didn’t have the skills to pull off this story. So, I joined this site and began work on my ‘practice novel’. It turned out to be fairly terrible, but I gave it my best shot. About 3 years ago, or so, I ended up really losing confidence that I could be a decent writer (due mainly to a short story project that should have been great, but that turned out poorly). I languished for a while, not getting anything done. I’ve lost count, but I believe I have about 8-10 abandoned novels over the years—not a great success rate.
But some opportunities came up for me to contribute to a couple of anthologies put together by a writer’s group I was sometimes involved with. So I whipped two stories into shape for that. Then a small group decided to enter the U.S.’s biggest sci-fi/fantasy short story contest, where we would workshop our stories before submitting.
While I didn’t win any of the top 3 spots, I did receive something called an ‘Honorable Mention’ – which, I later learned, means I placed somewhere in the top 2-8% or so. It means my story was rated higher than thousands of other entries, by some pros.
Well, that was a bit of a boost. It seems my skills had been improving over time, despite the setbacks. A short time later, I remembered my huge, abandoned project, and realized the time had come to get back to it. I brought out the old notes and maps and re-engaged with it all. I finally worked out a plot for it (something I didn’t have way back when) with help from my best writer-friend.
I’ve got a solid outline, a character arc to go with it, and a wealth of world-building material. So, this novel has a much better chance at becoming something than any of the previous ones. I am only about 22-23K words into it so far, but it is mostly going well.
So, since I am writing regularly again, I thought I’d hang out at Mythic Scribes too.
Myth Weaver
Sage
Inkling
