Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Short Story: Kalila's Veil & General Writing Update

Kalila's Veil is more of an urban fantasy whereas most of my fantasy is epic, along the lines of Mercedes Lackey or Raymon Feist. This one wanted to be different. Partially because of the prompt I worked from, partially because this prompt was from my 2005 Story-A-Day challenge. I wasn't able to write the story I wanted then, and even now I haven't been able to write the story I had originally envisioned. It changed. And why shouldn't it -- I've changed quite a bit since 2005.

I've changed so much I can't even look at the novel I stopped midway through because of my pregnancy. It was too dark, I couldn't have my child feel the things I needed to feel in order to write Shadow of Blood. I hope to get back to it one day, but I need to remove some of the graphic scenes, they just aren't in me anymore.

My writing has defintely stepped up these past few weeks. I've joined a critique group on www.fmwriters.com and managed my first critique tonight. I started with Chapters 25 and 26 of a novel. What a strange place to start. I read chapters summaries of the previous chapters, so I was prepared storywise. I'm starting slow with the group right now. I tend to overcommit, a repeated problem in my life (just ask me about senior year in high school). Pacing is key. I don't want to ruin it, as this group seems to be going at a decently reasonable pace, and their writing/critiquing level is above mine enough that I can learn from them but not so far ahead that I can't help them in return. We'll see how that goes, but I feel fairly positive about working with them. :-)

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