I Have Finally Decided To Have A Fixed Theme For My Blog. For The Foreseeable Future, And Whenever I

I have finally decided to have a fixed theme for my blog. For the foreseeable future, and whenever I feel like it, I shall post updates and quotes from the books I am writing. Currently there is only one book being made, but if people like it, two sequels are already planned out. The book I’m working on is a fantasy novel called Alterra: The Fall of Lord Valthoraxe.

The entire reason I named my account Valthoraxe was to discuss, and improve on my book, but I got distracted very quickly by a combination of adhd, school, and memes. I’m about halfway done with my book, sitting at nearly 45 thousand words currently. I haven’t found much time to work on it recently, but I’m getting back into it. Preemptive warning, this book is not meant for kids. There is absolutely no actual sexually explicit content in the book, but there are moments of extreme violent brutality, as well as occasional depictions of abuse, cross-species racism, swearing, and child death. If you are uncomfortable with any of the above, this book is not for you.

I shall keep the particularly violent and spoiler heavy parts out of this blog until the book it fully complete. Criticism and suggestions are always appreciated. I will attempt to post an update at least once a week, if I ever forget, just scream at me, I keep notifications on. I shall leave you with the first quote of this blog, the very first scene past the starting prologue.

“Our story begins with two young heroes named Max and Lilly, twins that shall venture out on a quest to right as many wrongs as possible, starting with the biggest of all…”

Okay, I know I say this a lot, but just hear me out.

Bad guy as main character.

Make it happen.

This is true to an extent, this will not work for every writer. Depending on the complexity or length of the first draft, it might be easier or faster to rewrite only certain parts. When you make it to the end of that draft with changes, wait a few days and read through it again. Each time you revise your story, it will get closer and closer to a finished story and greatly decreases the chances of inconsistencies. The more time you spend revising the same draft, the more you will understand the characters you created. Note that this is in no way the best to write, everyone has their own methods, I’m just saying that there are other options out there, and you should spend the time finding out which one works with you the best. :)

The Truth About First Drafts

First drafts are not great quality. Some lines might be fantastic, but overall, it probably won’t be amazing. And that’s totally fine, it’s normal, it’s exactly what you want.

Our silly writer brains expect perfection on the first go for some reason?? Which makes no sense. 

They’re meant to be terrible, just thoughts spewing onto paper, really. Just get the dialogue out, get the story into a tangible, clear sequence of events that’s actually a readable story, not just an outline. You can fix it later <3

Think of it as the “zero draft” instead of the first draft. “Garbage draft” works too.

Write it out on paper with pen, or add messy notes to your documents everywhere to really reinforce the idea that there’s no pressure or expectation for perfection.

Don’t look at any of the draft as you write it until you’re done the draft. Looking back at bad writing while working on the same project can be really discouraging, so just don’t look. 

Once you finish the draft, wait a couple weeks. Long enough to distance yourself from it, so you can come back to fix it with a clear head. 

Don’t compare your first draft to published books. Ever. Those books might be on their tenth, twentieth, thirtieth draft. It’s unfair. Don’t bully yourself or your project.

Set yourself a goal, x words per day, x minutes spent writing, whatever you want. Just make sure it’s achievable. Don’t set yourself up for failure unless you’re asking for discouragement.

You got this <33 Just get that draft down. 

When you finish the draft, rewrite the whole thing, using the original draft as a reference if you like. There will almost certainly be countless details you want to change, so rewriting the story will be easier than fixing the original. 

Personally, I tend imagine a story in my head for three+ years, have a bunch of random nonsensical information lists about it, and then write the entire thing at a terrifying efficiency all at once. I then go back and fix all the inconsistencies, then I research good examples of the things I did, then I fix everything again.

Not a plotter

Not a pantser

Not plotser or planster

But a secret fourth thing (solves my stories like a sudoku)

I dox her address, drive her home, break into her house, place her on the couch, leave, and pretend it never happened. It would be highly dishonorable to attempt to kill her while she’s defenseless, you think I get paid to kill heroes? Being a villain is a hobby, and it’s no fun if it’s easy.

As a Villain, one night, someone knocks on your door, you open it and there she is, the most famous invulnerable heroine of the city, completely drunk and with many bruises, as soon as you realize who she is, she passes out into you arms.

ATTENTION WRITERS OF TUMBLR

It is not wrong to love your own characters, or to have your favorite fictional character to be one of your own. They are your creations, and are influenced by traits you life the most. You are always writing a character that is written by you, so you are the person who is going to relate to them the most. It is ok to make characters based on aspects of yourself, because you yourself are a unique person. It is always better to love your own characters than it is to see them as nothing but a bunch of words.

If you don’t care about your characters, how can you ever expect your readers to care about them. When people say “Write what you know.” Don’t take that literally. The best way to think is what about what you enjoy, that joy will always be clearly visible to anyone reading it. Passion is what makes a good book, and there will always be a group of people that will like what you are passionate about. Even if you only write as a hobby, hobbies are meant to be fun! Of course it’s good to listen to feedback, but remember that it’s your story, not theirs.

(Spoilers for my book, skip to last paragraph if you plan on reading it when it’s finished)

Even my favorite fictional character is one of my own. In the Fantasy novel I am currently writing, there is a character named James W. H. Honorborn. He is a ‘Hee-Hoo’ kind of wizard with a long white head of hair and beard, wears black robes with gold detailing, and has a voice similar to J.K. Simmons. On the surface he seems mostly harmless, barely casting any magic and loving to just exposit random information with his many stories, but in reality he is of a race created by gods. (In my world each galaxy has it’s own set of gods, most life is from evolution, but sometimes the gods create their own species to protect their favorite lifeforms) James looks mostly human, but is actually an Eldritch mage, immortal people who are highly proficient is magic and memorizing stuff. Their purpose is to involve themselves in cultures and learn everything about them. For most of the book, James is practically harmless, being a pacifist and very caring friend, but in the final battle, when the antagonists barely noticed his existence, but then he proceeds to cast a spell so badass, it can be seen from anywhere on the planet.This is not even the main character of my book, even though he’s my favorite. He is a perfect foil to my protagonist and his goofy nature and humor makes him one of the most human characters I’ve seen in a book.

Remember that every character you write, every passerby and every big bad is one of your OC’s, so treat them like one. Try to make every single person in your story enjoyable to write! I’ve met many people who tried to get into writing, but are stuck on a bunch of unfinished wip’s. When I read them, 6 times out of 10, it stops at a scene where there is at least 1 characters your not ever supposed to care about. Care about your characters, and people will care about them. To the average person, reading is not a job, a good book should be fun, and a great place to start is to have fun writing it.