Jan 15, 2018
I owe you guys an update. You won’t like it. Bear with me - there’s some good news in here, too.
You’ll notice the excerpts have been removed from this page. They’re scrapped.
The beauty of a first draft is that nobody ever has to see it. The nature of Inkshares, and the time-crunch presented by the Geek and Sundry Contest, forced me to show parts of the first draft, anyway, before I really knew my characters or world. I knew the philosophy I wanted to explore and a bit of the narrative framework, but I didn’t know enough about myself as a writer to make A Light in the Void (ALITV) work.
So it didn’t work. I hated writing it. I took a year off to figure out why, using that time to write and submit a few short stories and flash fiction, and analyze where exactly I went wrong. Here’s what I discovered:
The excerpts and outline were framed around the writing model I knew best at the time, namely the Hero’s Journey. If you’re unfamiliar with the topic, it’s enough to say that most Western stories can be boiled down to the chronological growth of a reader-proxy main character. There’s more to it, of course, with ideas like "The Refusal of the Call," or "The Ultimate Boon," all of which I tried desperately to shoehorn into ALITV. The draft outline became something that wasn’t all that unique, watered down, convoluted, and ultimately boring. It would have been awful to read, more awful to write.
There are other models which I’ve played with a bit last year in some of my other writing. I think I’ve found one that fits. You’ll see what I mean once you read ALITV. I hope you do, anyway.
The main elements I wanted in ALITV are still there. Bryce is still the lead, if a bit older than I initially planned. A cat, not-cat, still plays a large role. Elements of both L’Engle and Lovecraft are deeply embedded in the story if you look for them, though perhaps not in ways that you think. Quantum physics and astro physics are still present throughout, though I’m more interested in the magic of them than the hard science.
I want you to be surprised, I want you to be disturbed, I want you to be touched, and I want this book to stay with you long after you’ve read it. I really think the new outline can achieve that.
I’m sorry the book isn’t farther along, guys. If it helps, know that I haven’t and won’t see a penny of the money raised by the book so far - all of it will go into production and promotion costs, once it’s finished.
The new production timeline:
The timeline can, of course, change, but I think this time I’ll be able to more or less follow it. Once ALITV has gone through a few rounds of edits, I hope to post an excerpt or two.
One thing I try to remember is that this is my first novel. It won’t be my best, and it may not even be all that good. But it won’t be anything until it’s done.
Thanks for sticking with me this far. More soon.
Indebted and grateful,
Jarrod