Book in Progress – Part One: A new-ish start.

Hello, readers and writers, and welcome to the new and improved ‘Book in Progress’! Last year I had started this series but it was really unstructured and random, but that was at a time where I was struggling to get back into writing after a short break (btw, never do that. It is almost impossible to jump hack into the writing game after taking a long break. Trust me). I ended up deciding to update the series, and with that being said, welcome to the new book in progress series. I was going to change the title but in typical writer fashion I didn’t write the new title down and so I forgot what is was, but why fix what isn’t broken?

This new update will look a lot like the last one however I want to give you more insight into what I am actually working on.

For the past three or four years now I have been messing around with a science fiction idea, and last year I decided I wanted to take it more seriously. The difficult part is, I am dealing with a massive cast of characters and haven’t written much sci-fi before, but I’m sure it can’t be much different than writing high-fantasy, right?

The project takes place in a “Star Trek” type world but with the wonder and setting you would expect from Star Wars. Basically, think Netflix’s “Lost in Space”. Now, I thought world building a fantasy project was hard. I’m just glad I only have one planet to worry about. I’m taking advice not only from other writers but also from my own apprehension that I don’t need to world build past the extent of what the reader needs to know/what they need to see. In the future I’ll talk about my world building strategy.

Currently I am finishing up the outline stages. I’m having a hard time with the characters, as their personalities are sculpted from their surroundings which doesn’t leave many options. I don’t want to explain their situation right now but eventually I will. I’m having a really hard time with my protagonist’s (Joshua❤) best friend, Eddie. After weeks of brain storming I finally have given him a motivation. However later in the book there is an argument that breaks out between the two but I can’t come up with an ‘over what’. What reasons do two teenage boys have for fighting? Given everything that is going on, you would think that I would be able to come up with something. I have already eliminated the option of a girl because that’s not like them. I wish there was a master list of motivations for arguments. Joshua also gets into a fight earlier in the story, however this is a physical fight and I’m finding I’m having the same problem with that one as well. Lol, I have a lot of fight scenes…

As I am working on my characters, I am also finishing up the outline of the first part (aka book 1). Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that this little project has possible spiraled into a trilogy? I’m still considering it since I made the decision really quick, but I feel like writing this project in three parts where I would be able to dig really deep into the characters and the world would really add some ‘umph’ to the story.

I am almost done with the outline for the first part all I need to do now the the ending (which is the midpoint of the entire plotline). I feel like I’m giving too much away, lol.

I already have about four or five chapters written from nanowrimo but most if not all of these need to be rewritten because I changed a major plot point in the first chapter and chapters two and three are just plain boring.

My goal is to get’s this finished and ready for publication by the end of the year because I can really see this being my debut novel.

Well that’s all I have to share for now, but In the next edition of ‘Book in Progress’ I hope to have big news to share with you as well as another writing experiment.

Thanks a bunch!

— Nerd

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