Something New

I'm a writer. Not just this blog, or articles or papers or essays or short stories or long stories or poetry or scripts. I do all of that, but for nearly the last year, my focus has been these novels I've written. I started the first book in July 2007. It wasn't the first time I've written a story of that length, but it is the first one I did properly. It was the first one of that length that I finished and actually enjoyed. It took me three months to write the first draft, which was over 72,000 words. I haven't gotten to the self-edit/second draft yet because, well, I've been working on sequels. It took me little less than three months to write the first draft of book two, which was close to 83,000 words.

Now here I am, about ten and a half months since I started the first one. And I'm getting close to finishing the third book of the series. All three are in continuity, following the same world, revolving around the same characters. In short, they're about super heroes. You can expect more details pertaining to plot and characters later, but in the meantime, I just want to share my excitement with you.

I'll certainly be finished the third book before I hit the first year anniversary of when I started book one. That all in it's own is both exciting, and impressive. A lot of people that know I'm writing books tell me about how it takes people years before they finish their first book, and here I am nearly done the first trilogy of the series. Each book is individually titled, and I don't yet have a title for the series itself. But I'm sure I'll come up with something fitting at some point.

When it comes to super heroes, or super powers, it's difficult to do something new. Practically everything's been done. After all the comic books, novels, television shows, cartoons, and blockbuster films, practically nothing is new or unseen. So when I started, I knew right away that there were going to be some similarities to existing super hero work. But at the same time, that knowledge helped keep me on track. Because this way it wasn't always about trying to think of something that hadn't been done before, but trying some things in a way that hadn't be done before. I like to think that to some extent, I have.

An example of something new for me, and something I've never seen done before:
I'm nearing the end of the third book, and it's at a point where the last HUGE battle is taking place. We're talking a small handful of heroes versus several hundred bad guys. Close to two thousand even. Instead of writing the whole battle out in a chapter or two, I'm trying something different. Something I've never done before. I'm about five chapters into this battle so far. Each of these chapters are from the perspective of a different character, so you can see each personal battle and try to put the pieces together for the overall thing. The exciting bit? I still have another eleven or twelve chapters to write before I've written from every hero's point of view, and THEN I can start to wrap up the fight. So instead of an epic sounding battle that lasts two or three chapters, you get ten to fifteen chapters or so of the battle, each from a different point of view.

I don't know what you think, but it's exciting to me. And fun as heck to write.