Black Earth

Well, I haven't blogged in a little while and thought it was high time to get back into it. Work, personal matters, and every other excuse I can think of has prevented me from writing at all, but now I am back in the saddle to do some damage and get caught up on my current projects. With that little blurb out of the way, I wanted to give everyone an update on Black Earth:

I just recently finished reading the manuscript in its entirety to my wife. I did this for a couple of different reasons, one for the simple fact that a lot of mistakes are caught when reading one's own work out loud. Another reason, is to get someone else's point of view on the flow of the story. When piecing together a novel, it's hard to take the flow of the novel in perspective when you are editing and composing in chunks, as opposed to taking it in as a whole.

Doing this has helped me tremendously. I have found that some of my character's dialogue is beyond extra dry and boring, so it'll be a nice project to spruce it up a bit. Reading aloud has also helped me to gain more confidence in my writing. Looking at the words on the page over and over again is much different than reading those words out loud and giving your story actual life. It amazed me at how well my characters have come into existence and have interacted with each other, how well the story fits their gifts and vices, and how awesome the climaxes have come to fruition. This isn't to really brag about myself as a writer. I think, and I'm sure many other writer's out there will agree, being a writer isn't exactly about having an ego trip. If anything, I am the hardest critic of my own writing and tend to dismiss some of my work as mediocre or poor, while others would consider it near masterpiece.

My next step with the novel is to let it sit for a couple weeks...let it stew in its own essence so I can ponder on the book as a whole and come back to it with a refreshed outlook and edit the heck out of it. This novel has definitely pushed my own limits as a writer. This isn't a PG rated story, like the Expired Reality ones have been so far. This is more R rated and definitely intended for more mature readers. Some of the subject matter has stretched my own skills and beliefs as a writer and have definitely caused me to grow, and my storytelling to grow to a level that can benefit anyone reading my stories.

In the next two weeks that I have the novel sitting to the side, I am going to be working on the short stories that will be coming out prior to the novel itself. There are 3 of them I will be working on and all of them will be available for free once they are released. They act as mini prequels to the novel itself and will give some insight to a few of the main characters. I was hoping to have these short stories done by the end of June, but that isn't going to happen. They will be available sometime before the end of July though.

I hope everyone is looking forward to Black Earth: End of the Innocence! I have truly had an experience writing it and hope that it shows how I have grown not just as a person, but as a writer.