Bad Blood is still ongoing, but as I’ve been drafting up and sending query letters for my other work, to get representation and hopefully fulfill the dream I have of publishing a novel, I’ve felt my storytelling side ache for another story, to put something new on a page. But there are stories I’m not yet ready to tell, worlds of science and fiction and crime that have to stay in my Mental Attic for a little while longer. These are the stories I’m most excited about and I hope someday they’ll get their chance.
But I do want to write something new, something for The Mental Attic’s readers to enjoy, and as with Bad Blood, I want it to challenge me, to push me beyond the comfort zone and make me struggle with my prose, make me learn more about myself, my readers and become a better writer. Bad Blood is challenging my creativity by not having a plan or an outline and it’s pushing the quality of my work with the second restriction: only one editing pass. I’m putting to use everything I learnt in the past year thanks to working with one of the best writers and editors I have ever met, she who wields the Red Pen of Doom.
But now I want a new challenge, I want to push myself even further and become an even better writer. For that I need your help: Below and on the left sidebar you’ll find a poll. I’ll be writing a fantasy novel, in a new world I’ll create, but I want you to tell me which elements of fantasy, in all its forms, you don’t want to see in there. Maybe you don’t want Dragons, or Fairies, or Elves or centuries old wizards living in marble towers. Maybe you’re done with Vampires, with humans even, and medieval fantasy worlds. I have a few ideas already on what I’d like to do but the new challenge I want is ADAPTABILITY. I have an idea but I want to learn to adapt it to someone else’s. I want you to tell me what this world will NOT have, so I can focus on what will be in it.
I will plan this novel out, however. I will outline and set the goal, and I will most likely do more than one editing pass on it. Bad Blood is experimental in many ways, even if it’s a genre I’m comfortable with, but I want to use a more traditional process for this new novel, which I’ll call The Great Fantasy for now.
The polls are open and you can add whatever you want to it. When the time comes, I’ll take all options, even the ones with only one vote and build the new world according to our joint design. Every day I’ll update the poll and add your submissions to the options list! I’ve added three so far!
I hope you will join me in building The Great Fantasy’s world. If your ideas go in a similar direction to mine, it promises to be something truly special.
(Featured Image Credit: Deevad – DeviantArt)