Writing in Multiple Directions

While I’m getting ducks in a row, I’m still trying to get lots of creative work done, too. There are plenty of goals to be attained, but I’m putting in work on a couple of things that aren’t part of the normal daily goals at the moment.

First, I’ve been thinking about the idea that it’s possible for a very small number of people to produce an animated movie with current technology. Realistically, you need a script writer, an animator, a sound effects person, and voice talent adequate and numerous enough for the task. Draugr Rising is a novel with, if I’ve counted correctly, nine characters. It’s an adventure fantasy story borrowing a bit from Norse mythology, and taking place in present-day Toronto. I’m not saying it’s going to become an animated movie, but it seems like an easy choice for an experiment if I wanted to go with a story I already have the novel of. First step is conversion to a screenplay format and then editing that into what would be a reasonably paced movie. Then, maybe, I can think about what it would take to get there.

Second, I’ve looped back around to the Star Trek fan fiction and started the revision notes phase of the second batch of shorter stories. Shorter than novel-length, anyway. Two of them are deep into novella territory, more often called a short novel these days, though I still often think of a short novel as under 60k when the SFWA definition that most genre folks refer back to says a novel starts at 40k. It wasn’t always that way and as we push forward into the new golden age of virtual pulp and short fiction, it probably won’t stay that way. Changes are already in the wind.

At any rate, I’ve dived back into Pride of Andor, the tentative title for a story that will wind up being in the 26-29k range once it’s fully polished. The primary protagonist is a character of my own who used to serve on the titular ship but I’ve been using as Security Chief on the Enterprise for a while.

And, of course, I’m still pushing forward hard on the regular editing. I just finished the last second draft in the Troll World Series and I’ll let those rest for a couple of weeks while I do the finals for the Warforge: Caledonia triad.

And I’m planning a significant non-fiction project, too, but the shape of that depends a lot on the new life path I keep not talking about. Soon.

In the meantime, stay safe and be well, everyone.