| 234567 | > |
After a year or so of mulling over what to do with the Greyshough following last January's (unpublished) rewrite where I wrote out Leri, I had an idea of how to do it. Sacrifice all earlier plans for Book 3, cut most of Book 2, and it just might work. And I get to reinstate Leri who I felt guilty about cutting in the first place.
Slight problem.
I have so many different versions of this story, from the original drafts through the various (attempted) rewrites, that I was not able to easily find the version as published here. Meaning I had to download my own story and copy it back into my word processor before I could begin reading through, taking notes, and planning for the continuation to conclusion.
Ho hum.
TLDR; I know how to do it, but like I did with Laika/Arlaud's story, I want to let it breathe, so it won't be any time soon, but it is on the cards. As is a full and proper backup.
CH
It was quite the thing, coming back here to post new work after such a long time, and returning with something rather different to my earlier stories. I had no idea how this new story would be received.
Instead, to my humble delight, everyone who has messaged me here has been so kind, enjoying the story, enjoying how I've written it, and in a couple of cases, get a bad dose of it for Arlaud, too. Same.
To pull back the curtain a little, the fact is that Arlaud was almost an afterthought in terms of this story. Initially it was begun with only Laika and an intention to see if the Sith could be more reasonable than the Jedi caricature. I needed something for Laika to do, hence the stowaway who can 'hide' from her. Why would someone risk stowing away? For that I needed a character, and the character of 'Arlaud' is one I have been trying in a few different settings under her 'real' name rather than 'Arlaud' over the past year or so. Indeed, there is a completed draft of an 85K story of her going on a camping holiday with his single dad, the whole of which was the setup for something more than probably won't be written as intended, but which gave me a lot of insights into who 'Arlaud' is. As for her background in slavery, this is mostly drawn from when I was studying Roman law at university and we learned how, in the late empire, the rights of slaves and their owners became a lot more complicated than the snapshot of history we usually get, with obligations on the owner for a slave's wellbeing and very confused thinking over how you could 'own' a sentient being. All this, and more, was poured into my noodling around over the idea of a 'nice' Sith without the clutter of canon. Even better, I have no idea when in the timeline of Star Wars this is set, LOL.
Finally, for those who have asked or might be wondering, yes, there will be a sequel, set on Laika's home world, and with a ton of world-building for me as I build out her history, culture, and families. It's basically plotted and sketched that out now, and now I'm leaving it to bubble away in my subconscious for a week or so, to see what I come up with or have forgotten. After that I'll be into the writing, so, and making no promises, maybe three months from now. We'll see.
So, again, thank you everyone who has read it, enjoyed it, and messaged me about it. It does warm the cockles...
CH
Miracle of miracle, there's a new story in the queue for posting.
It's a lot different to the stuff I used to post, but I had such a fun time writing it, and the next story is already being planned out.
There have been a couple of big changes from how I used to work.
Firstly, the story is already complete and I will be uploading over the next few days once I re-learn how to do that, LOL.
Secondly, it's a lot less wordy and descriptive than a lot of what I've done in the past and what I've written but not published in the interim. Much as I love longer forms with more elaboration, the re-reading and editing of those long chapters just kills me and kills my desire to slog them through to completion. This story was only begun in late November, I took a fortnight off over December to let the first draft 'sit' in my head, and I was able to edit the whole thing in two day. Unheard of.
So, if you like Star Wars but not the Jedi, have I got a story for you...
Yes, he's still alive, LOL.
As ever, I've been busy writing, rewriting, shaking my fist at the screen, and abandoning all kinds of things over the year, so here is a brief summary of the main active projects:
1) a story set in the Star Wars universe, original characters only, of what happens when a Force sensitive slave dancer hides on the ship of someone who might be a little bit Sith in order to escape what was about to happen to her next. First draft is pretty much done, then I take a break for a little while to let it settle, and then back in. Not too long, either, so I don't get the paralysis of editing something the length of War and peace.
2) a story set in the Star Trek universe, original characters again, of a woman with a seemingly unique ability which Star Fleet keep using her for. She wants out. StarFleet are not the good guys in this.
3) a story about a father and daughter taking a themed summer holiday together in a camper van. This was originally meant to be part one of something larger, but it needs a little more time to 'cook' in order to make it a standalone, as 85k words for an introduction to two characters is excessive.
4) Greyshough. Yeah, that one. Book One has been rewritten, removing Leri, and zipping along with a little more focus, even though I miss her presence. Book Two is complete but for a couple of chapters, but that's where I hit a roadblock in that, once again, it was sprawling out of control. A newly introduced character really needs excising, and Book Three's plot points need folding into Book Two to make it have a better and swifter ending. My first 'big' project for 2026 once (1) and (2) get polished and published.
5) Summer 76, the story of a brother and sister, left alone in their holiday caravan over the summer, and their adventures. Although I know what happens to them by the end of that summer, and a lot of things they get up to, it feels a little unfocused in that each chapter is just another 'what tomfoolery can we get up to today' kind of deal. Fun to write, but needs more focused plotlines for the main characters. It also might benefit from some kind of antagonist, but I've no idea who or how that could happen. It might also help to break it into definitive beginning-middle-end 'books', each one covering an in-story week of shenanigans.
6) The Herefordshire Cottage. The story of an autistic young man, moving with his father to a cottage on the outskirts of a village, and encountering a singular young woman. This is still being plotted out as the premise is good and the first couple of chapters are zipping along, but it lacks for something to add dramatic tension.
And that's it other than a few sketches to test characters, work on my music, and taking my dog for three walks a day; he insists.
Happy Holidays, folks.
CH
Well now, seems like I might have done a little more damage to myself when I fell than I realised. Took about 5 weeks for most of it to resolve itself, but I still have some occasional pain, my wrist is in no way capable of bearing any weight, and I can only just about turn a door handle without it making me wince. Tendon damage.
This means I'm still on 'light duties' at the moment, noodling around other things, just a few paragraphs a day if that as I wait for things to improve.
So for now I'm enjoying the new 1.20 of Vintage Story and writing a couple of shorter things in the Star Trek universe of the original series. At least the conclusion to Greyshough is pretty solid now, I just need to edit/rewrite book 2 and write the majority of book 3 which, hopefully, will go easily since I know where it's all headed - for a genuine The End.
Cheers,
Clee
| 234567 | > |