Halftime is the Best(?) Time
Or not. Good news! I am sitting at exactly 40,000 words for the rough draft of Immersion. This means I will likely finish the other 40,000 between now and early May– but I really want to finish it by the end of April. Thankfully, all the planned events I had for March are complete, which means there is nothing standing in my way except, well, me.
For future readers, I am so, so sorry. No I’m not. I’ve written the second death scene that exists in the trilogy of Collision, Immersion, and Eruption. I cried a lot. A messy business, crying. Makes my nose stuffy and gives me a nice headache afterwards. But as Robert Frost said, “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.”
While I enjoy writing fun banter scenes, I am not the author for you if you expect every character to live to the end. I strive for realism in my fantasy: real consequences for failure and real deaths (none of those fake outs that a certain large company does for animated films). It’s Disney. Just say Disney. That being said, so far, I think The Lyndolyn Chronicles will be the heaviest of the series.
Not every book or series that I have planned are so heavy in this way! The series of stories called Tales of Danree is lighter, likely reminiscent of slice of life style, but fantasy driven. (Check out my “Books” tab for the potential titles, main character names, and series!) The other series will be more loosely connected. It’s hard work making sure these three books all line up and are cohesive enough to be a trilogy– they are not stand alone books, though you might get away with reading the second book before the first. But in the words of River Song from Doctor Who, “Spoilers.”
My next biggest challenge is figuring out how to sandwich the death scene properly. Will it be towards the very end of the book? Or will it be part of the climax? I lean towards the later, but it depends on how my brain connects it all together. I skipped a whole section of the story to write it while the inspiration was fresh. If you want a taste of the “vibes” of the scene, listen to “Hold On” by Chord Overstreet. The lyrics are not what actually happens.
Another bit I need to decide is who will be the point of view character for Eruption. And possibly Immersion. One or both of them may contain multiple points of view, unlike Collision. But even that book may get a second point of view. That will remain up to my editors, me, and beta readers. But mainly me.
I’m looking forward to the end of this series– not because I’m tired of it, but because I’m excited to explore the stories of the other characters I have running around in my head, especially the ones in Somniera. However, Elise, Summer, and Autumn have waited for a good 10 years for me to finally write their stories to completion. That’s right, I have had all of them since I was in high school. Their stories have changed a bit, but the beginning of Immersion? I wrote that idea down as just a scene. One scene. That’s how all of my stories start. Then I explore the results of that scene.
Last but not least, I won’t be posting on my blog on the weekends, but whenever suits me best in the last week of the month. This month you got two posts: mostly because I delayed to get 30,000 words first. Hopefully the next update on this blog will be a celebratory IT IS FINISHED POST. But as ever, “we’ll see.”
Until the Stars Fall,
Vivian Hale
Current Song: Endless War by Within Temptation