Endgames

When you're passionate about something, you want it to be all it can be. But in the endgame of life, I fundamentally believe the key to happiness is letting go of that idea of perfection.
— Debra Messing

I intend, before the endgame looms, to die sitting in a chair in my own garden with a glass of brandy in my hand and Thomas Tallis on the iPod. Oh, and since this is England, I had better add, 'If wet, in the library.' Who could say that this is bad?
— Terry Pratchett

If there's not any endgame, we're in quicksand. We take one more step, and we're still there, and there's no way out.
— Richard Shelby

I published An Elemental Wind, the first volume in the Ardraci Elementals series, twelve years ago. The book I’m editing right now, An Elemental Spirit, is the end game, the final book in the series. And it’s both a happy thing, and a sad thing.

It’s happy because I’ve finally finished this five book series, and the story of the Ardraci Elementals is done. But it’s sad too, because An Elemental Wind was the first book I ever published, and now the story I started in that book is over.

I still remember being challenged to write a serial on my blog. And how I looked through my idea file for the idea I felt had the least potential to sell commercially. And how some weeks I’d struggle to get my serial installment done, and some weeks it would come easy. And when I got to the end, how surprised I was to have written a whole novel.

And then I realized it didn’t have to end there, there were three other elements I could write about. And so I started the next one, without having any clue as to what the endgame would be. I do NOT recommend this as the best way to start a series.

I think I was on the third book before I had the slightest notion of what was going on. I mean, I knew there was a reason the Illezie were looking for “the one,” and I knew they had created the elementals for a reason, but I was kind of vague on the why.

By the fourth book I had a better grasp of what was going on, but I was still unclear on how it was all going to come together. Then I started vacillating because there were two possible outcomes. Then it was taking too long to get started on the fifth book, so I finally took the plunge and used it for one of my NaNoWriMo runs. Which is how I ended up with three beginnings and a lot of garbage I’ll have to deal with.

But it’s a start. And now that I’ve started the first round of edits, I’m finding it’s not as bad as I thought it was. However, it really makes me want to re-write the first one so it fits a little more cohesively into the series. It’s not that it’s a bad book, it’s just that I wrote it without knowing what the endgame was.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. The original idea for the first book had nothing to do with elementals. It was about a woman from earth who, through a series of misadventures, ended up on a space ship. I do not remember how that morphed into the story it became, but when I started I had no clue that I would be creating a whole series about it. Hence, no endgame.

Will I be writing another series? Well, I already have. I wrote the Moonstone Chronicles at the same time I was doing the Ardraci Elementals, but in this case I knew from the beginning how it was going to end.

Going forward, I have several other book series planned. Do I know the endgame to them all? Um, no. But you know what? Not every book series needs one. If there’s an overall story arc that’s connecting the books, then yes, it’s helpful to keep the endgame in mind as you write. But if it’s an ongoing series of standalone books that share setting or character but can be read independently of each other, then there really isn’t an endgame, is there?

The series I would like to work on next involves shapeshifters. But here’s the tricky party. I have plans for four books (so far) in the series. Two of the books are more or less stand alone, but the other two are connected by story – there’s a shadow organization after them, and I only have a vague notion of their motivation.

But lesson learned. I won’t start until I know their endgame.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
The word for last week . . . frustration.

Remember how at the end of my last wordage report I had all these expectations for the week ahead, and I ended by taking bets on how long it would take to fall back into my old habits? One day. It took exactly one day before I started to backslide. *sigh*

In all fairness to myself though, it was a really craptacular week weather-wise. I didn’t mind the wind or the rain so much, but the days that were just dark and dreary and pregnant with expectations of bad weather (that never materialized) were the worst.

I did manage to work in my office a bit, and I always seem to get more work done in there. Go figure, eh?

NEW WORDS:
2,365+734+381+904=4,384
UP: 302 – words

Hmm. Every blog post except Friday’s serial installment was up a few words. The serial installment was exactly the same number of words as the week before. I couldn’t have been more dead on if I’d been trying to do that.

And despite the fact that I didn’t manage to take better advantage of the extra time I had because I wasn’t babysitting, I still think I deserve a pat on the back for what I did get done, given the weather was mostly grey and miserable. And can you say, HUMID? Oh, man. There were a couple of days when it was so humid you could practically swim just by walking outside.

I didn’t get my blog posts finished particularly early, but I did get them all up on time, and I didn’t have to stay up late to do it. So I think I deserve credit for that too. :-D

Goals For Next Week:
Try to get the blog posts done a little earlier; find some other writing to work on.

EDITING:
Last week – 15 pages
Total pages - 17

Finally! I’m making progress.

The beginning is a mess. Or should I say, the three beginnings. There are parts of the first two beginnings that have to do with a secret meeting that really serves no purpose other than to relay some information that I think can be worked into the story later on.

And the second half of the second beginning should be lifted out and reworked as a prologue. I remember doing a lot of research on gas giants for this particular section. It’s not just that I don’t want all that research to go to waste, it’s a good bit of foreshadowing for events that take place later. So it stays, just not quite in the same way as it is now.

And no, I’m not going to make sweeping changes for this first round of edits. Mostly I’m doing little changes that mark up easily, and making notes of what the big changes should be. I still need to work out exactly what the prophecy that has driven this whole series is, and what changes were made to it along the way.

But the good news is, I’ve made a good start on my edits.

Goal For Next Week:
Keep marking up Elemental Spirit.

POETRY:
This week’s form was also an easier one, and I had no idea I did it before. But I went with it anyway because that was ten years ago, and not only was the post itself completely different, so were the examples I wrote.

The examples were a little darker than I’ve been doing lately, but you can blame the weather on that. That’s just where my head space was last week.

I was not up to going to the poetry gathering last week, but I didn’t have my poemwork done anyway. I’ll go ahead and do it anyway, and I’ll include it with the poemwork for the next gathering.

Goal For Next Week:
Get a new form ready to share, update my big book ‘o poems.

CRAFTING:
Well, without the granddaughter here to spur me on, I got no crafting done last week. The closest I came was printing out a bunch of stitches from the Royal School of Needlework stitch bank to create my own reference book of stitches to refer to when working on my zentangle sampler.

It was going well until my printer decided it no longer cared to print double sided, so it slowed right down to a crawl and then just stopped. It printed single pages (eventually) and test pages, it just didn’t want to do double-sided. I did, eventually, finish printing them out, but then I had to go through them to make sure they all printed correctly. There were a couple of extra pages, and three missing stitches.

THEN it was suggested to me that instead of printing them I should PDF them and upload them to my reMarkable (which I still haven’t used). It would be so much handier, and take up a lot less space. And because you can make notes on it, I can add notes or tips for when I try these stitches. So thank you for that, Jamie , it gives me incentive to finally learn how to use my reMarkable.

I did not organize my jewelry supplies, nor have I figured out what’s next on my zentangle sampler.

Today I am at Lang Pioneer Village for another stitch-in with my stitchery guild. We don’t even warrant a porch with tables this time, they’re sticking us out on the village green. Thank heavens it’s supposed to be cooler, because I’m not sure how shaded it is.

And Tuesday the guild is celebrating World Embroidery Day (which I think is actually the 30th) by having a stitch-in at the park. But thankfully, it’s only for the morning.

Goal For Next Week:
Tie dye with the granddaughter!

WHAT I’M READING:
I finally finished Stories With Bite, the collection of vampire stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I gave it one big push, just to get it over with. The stories were more gothic horror than anything else, and vampires were only mentioned in a couple of them. And two of them featured Sherlock Holmes. I have not yet picked out a new tree book to read.

On the Kindle, I finished Rope Burn and Cowboy Not Included, by Em Petrova, and I’m ready to start Prowling Their Mate, by Tamsin Baker.

Goal For Next Week:
Find a new tree book to start reading – it’s not like I don’t have any to choose from! :-)

THE WEEK AHEAD:

The son-in-law’s schedule changed again, and we weren’t going to see much of the granddaughter at all. So I requested the pleasure of her company for Monday so we could do our tie dye. I haven’t seen the white cotton items I ordered from Aunt Martha yet, but I still have the aprons we can do. And it gives us a good excuse for a play date another time.

I’d still like to go through and prioritize my crafting, keeping in mind that Christmas is coming. I’m so scattered when it comes to crafts! There are a couple of things I have in mind for Christmas presents, and I really should be making them a priority instead of farting around with these stitchery projects (ie, the embroidery kits) that are just going to sit around collecting dust when I’m done. And I really need to get my jewelry making supplies organized because I want to get back into doing that as well.

I’m pleased with the progression of Winter’s Child. I’m getting closer to introducing the creatures, but I think there’s still more to be learned from the family journals James is going through. As Joey pointed out though, it’s not cold enough for them yet.

Well, I wanted to get a minimum of 10 pages marked up on An Elemental Spirit, and I managed 15. Just think what I can accomplish when I put my mind to it? While I am marking it up and making notes, this round is only going to be a quick edit to see where I’m at with it. After I got past the three different beginnings, I’m liking what I’m seeing. The human/elemental parts are going to be easy. The Illezie . . . not so much. But I want to keep up my momentum and try for 20 pages this week

Despite how much I was enjoying the Boot Knocker Ranch series on the Kindle, I managed to make the final two books last the entire week. Now I’m starting the first of a two book new series, and I’m hoping I can keep them to just two a week. And since I’m getting my romance fix on the Kindle, I’m thinking maybe I should look for something a little . . . less romantic for my next tree book. ;-)

I’m still a little disappointed that I didn’t make better use of my free time last week – an hour spent picking up the granddaughter isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things. As I said above, I did request the pleasure of her company for Monday, but then I don’t think I see her again until Thursday. And Friday is kind of up in the air at this point.

In other words, though Tuesday morning is spoken for, I still have Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday, and part of Thursday to work in my office and make some progress.

Mind over matter, folks. Mind over matter.