Here's to a fresh start

Well, I've attempted to write a blog many times before. Let's hope this doesn't turn into another false start. And on that cheery note, let's begin!

During high school, I used to keep a journal for my first epic fantasy story (still in the works in a sense) and in it I would jot down all the story ideas that popped into my head, as well as background information and snippets of dialoge. Every once in a while, I would write a letter to myself, letting my future self know about the actual story-writing process. It was probably the closest I ever came to an actual diary. I haven't attempted to do that with my current novel, so I guess that is a good place to start.

As of today, I am working on what I call the fifth draft of my novel, "The Lives of the Dead". It has only recently changed to "The Lives of the Dead" because of copyright concerns. The working title used to be "Those Who Are Dead", which I loved, but I'm pretty sure Coldplay or their lawyers might have issues with my using it for a book title.

I call it the fifth draft, but the truth is that I'm not quite sure whatever became of the second and third drafts. The first draft is printed out on computer paper, bound together with black ribbon and covered in red correction marks. I suppose the second and third drafts kind of floundered through the editing process, before the fourth draft came into being. Draft four proved to be relatively successful, though I eventually abandoned it when I needed to add a background story that would be woven throughout the entire text. And thus draft five was born.

I've also recently made the decision to edit the original first book and split it into seperate parts to be released as seperate ebooks. I've always had a desire to write the story in a kind of serial format (like they did in days of old) and this whole ebook thing has really lent itself well to this kind of storytelling. Each new part of the story will have its own contianed story arc, but the overarching story line will continue through the different parts. I haven't decided if I'm going to call them 'books' or 'parts' or whatever, but that's just another decision I'll have to make come publication time.

In the meantime, I'm currently working on revising chapter six. So far I'm very much liking the additions of the fifth draft and they seem to be tying the story together in new, almost unintended ways. I had always had issues with the end being a little disjointed with the beginning and draft five seems to be helping with this.

All and all, things are looking up for me writing-wise, so hopefully I'll have some more chapters to send out to my little group of test readers.

Hmm. Well, that's all I've got for now.

I promise not to sound so stiff in the future. I don't know why I always revert back to college paper mode whenever I write things the general public will see. Oh well. At least I didn't bust out any SAT words.