Tag: ken scholes

I know, I know – just a few posts ago I said I would try and avoid writing posts this summer, then I post nothing but book reviews, and now this – a writing post.

But really, I didn’t see it coming.

[Background] A few weeks ago, Ken Scholes posted on facebook that he needed some ideas for his next post on genreality, a great blog by writers aimed at newer writers. I left a comment, and what do you know, he wrote a post about it 🙂 That in itself was just pretty darned cool (if you haven’t read Ken’s books and you like fantasy, you should – but I’m somewhat of a fanboy. Start with Lamentation (The Psalms of Isaak) ).

Then last Saturday, I happened to be logged into facebook when Ken pops up in my chat list. What followed was (for me) a great hour of poking and learning about how to finish that first novel. I’m not going to make more of it than it was, but that act alone was both very appreciated and so completely unexpected. So I turned back to the larger of my failed projects, using some insights into using plot structures to help at least map out how to finish the novel (that phrase makes more sense in my head, I swear). But the deeper I dig, the more flaws I see. This isn’t just me being self critical – these are some serious flaws. If most story plots look like a small mountain range, what I’d written for the Dreaming Pools looked more like a plateau that ended abruptly in a crevasse. Not pretty.

I’m also a bit afraid to go back on Facebook, because if Ken pops out to ask how its going, I think he’ll be disappointed to discover all of his advice helped me go spelunking instead of mountaineering. So if you run into me in the halls, and I’m just rambling under my breath about cisterns full of swords and six headed goddesses waking up and eating the world, just keep moving, its ok. I’m medicated. And trying to save some face by writing that awesome novel that keeps slithering just beneath my skin.