Day 2 of the Novel

Today I wrote 15, 154 words.  I'm almost done with this introductory portion with the Princess.  So far, there's a total of 30,310 words, or 65 pages.

Here is the outline for the next chapter.

Day 1 of the Novel

The First Day of Writing:

          So, the novel begins today.  I don’t start with the first chapter, but what may end up being the third (or fourth).  I certainly have ideas for the first chapter or two, but I’d like to feel my way into the novel a little so that the first couple of chapters thematically link to the story that will be told.

          I mostly followed the outline.  The first written chapter mostly just sets the stage with Princess Éfhelìnye in the Forbidden Gardens and her relationship with Puîyus and Princess Ixhúja.  A few pages of the outline really expanded.  Also, Éfhelìnye ends up reminding the reader of what happened in the first two books.

          My intention is for each book in the series to stand on its own, so that a reader can read them in any order.  However, it’s nice when the main character does remind us of things that have already happened.

          One day that I create ideas is by fiddling with the language.  For instance, in working on the second draft of the second novel, Puey and the Princess and the Mirror within the Mirror, I discovered several lexical gaps in the language.  In the narration, the characters were clearly referring to things that must be single words or phrases in their language, since they mentioned them a few times.  So, here are a few compounds that I discovered.

Apenkhamfhàqefhoa             (< àpen + khàmfha + qèfhoa) hope chests, dowry chests, glory boxes for virgins

Xhmisatrienoîpa, xhmisatrienoîpu (< xhmìsa + trienoîpa) podships of the Aûm

Tsijhufhìnejhi                         (< tsìjhu + fhìnejhi) seedships of the Qhíng

Tnúkhekhòlpufhang             (< tnúkhe + khòlpufhang) clockwork ships, especially of Khnìntha

          Plus there were a lot of words for toys.  Toys are important to the plot and theme.

Qhimlàqraqa, qhimàqraqai  (< qhìmla + qràqa) ballerina dolls crafted by the Emperor

Jhotrajhàsqe, jhotrajhàsqin  (< jhòtra + jhàsqin) toy soldiren, toy officren, toy pedati, toy maquahuiltmen crated by the Emperor

Kulyòqthoa                            (< kùlyo + qthoâ) toy trains, toy train sets crafted by the Emperor

Qyoxhakhwátel, qyoxhokhwátilu  (< qyòxho + khwátel) toy blocks crafted by the Emperor

          Finally, there must be a lot of words for plush dolls in Babel.  But which ones would the Emperor have made?  Going through the lexicon, I figured out how the Emperor would have lumped them together.  Here are a few fun examples.

Xexaumàkhleqoi          (< Xèxaum + khlèqoi) plush toy insects, plush toy Aûm folk, crafted by the Emperor

Qoqeqóqòkhleqoi                   (< qoqeqóqo + khlèqoi) plush toy atsáya rooster raptors, crafted by the Emperor

Qweqwekàkhleqoi                  (< qwèqweka + khlèqoi) plush toy tlhiîla or kawóni ducks, crafted by the Emperor

Khyairfhàkhleqoi                  (< khyaîrfha + khlèqoi) plush toy fhaîfha or kàmemi or qemámi butterflies, plush toy fhwúqha fire moths, plush toy Kajúju folk, crafted by the Emperor

Fhwinìkhleqoi                        (< fhwìni + khlèqoi) plush toy dinosaurs, crafted by the Emperor

Khmárnwùkhleqoi                 (< khmárnwu + khlèqoi) plush toy Traîkhiim, crafted by the Emperor

Xhwáwàkhleqoi                     (< xhwáwa + khlèqoi) plush toy jòtso or khwàxhya or khwùlefha or xhwàya coyomeh, plush toy tsùkhrer and wtsùkhli and qhìtlhatlhi and fhesìmpa and jhyámun platypodes, crafted by the Emperor

Axhwìkhleqoi                         (< àxhwi + khlèqoi) plush toy tlheîr and kàpa and káwi and tiêr and lwàpri deer, crafted by the Emperor

Thikhìkhleqoi                         (< thìkhi + khlèqoi) plush toy snakes, plush toy Dragons or Phœnixes, plush toy Xhnatàsti feline folk, plush toy wingèd kípil, plush toy squirrel·tailed khmesùrxhrakh and tyítlhir and xhmaê and pfhaûlefha and khwèsai cats, crafted by the Emperor; Xhuxhaxhòkhleqoi thikhìkhleqoi

          And of course the Emperor used to make puppets.

Xhàxhma, xhàxhmat             puppets, sock puppets, marionettes, püp, quocker·wodgren crafted by the Emperor

Qtainaxhàxhma, qtainaxhàxhmat           (< qtaîna + xhàxhma) sock puppets crafted by the Emperor

Toxunxhàxhma, toxunxhàxhmat   (< tòxun + xhàxhma) shadow puppets crafted by the Emperor

          Finally, here’s a version of the rest of the outline for this chapter.  You’ll notice that bits of it break out into dialogue.  Other parts are more just vague description.

          On the first day I wrote: 15, 156 words.

Let's Write a New Book!

At 8 in the morning, September the 26^th, I’ll begin drafting Puey and the Princess and the Sword of Fire.

                But I think it will be a little fun if I share a little on the process of creating this volume.  Above, one can see a couple of handwritten pages.  As each part of the story comes to me, I create many different handwritten outlines.  One outline, you can see, is just a list of stories that I have in mind.  From the arrows on it, one can guess that I’ll end up moving the stories around quite a lot.  The other handwritten page above one can see is partially an outline, but it also begins to shew a little individual scenes and hints of dialogue.

                As I start collecting ideas together, I tend to play with themes in my head.  Some of the themes will probably be very specific to this book – heart, sword, flame, ash.  Other themes will be prevalent throughout the entire series – Dragons/Phœnixes, Princess/Automata, Warrior/Pirate, flight, and the like.

                One part of the creative process that is very important to the stories that I write is the Babel Language itself.  The very names of the characters evoke certain types of stories in me.  Plus, just in thinking about the words that the language has tells me about their society.  For instance, the Babel language has a lot of different words for swords, and many of these words also are connected to words for “essense” or “crystal glass.”

                Hmmm.

Second Draft of the Mirror

23 days ago I began the process of the Second Draft of "Puey and the Princess and the Mirror within the Mirror." Since then I've had to translate a bunch of poems, reorder several chapters, shift a few names about, and try to remember whether one character were wearing a blue dress in the last chapter and what eye color another character is supposed to have. This has been, without a doubt, absolutely crazy. This book is twice as complex as "Puey and the Princess and the Broken Mirror," and none of the characters were doing what they were supposed to be doing.

The Babel language is certainly developing its own poetry and prose style though. That's fun.

Tomorrow, let's begin work on the third book, "Puey and the Princess and the Sword of Fire."

The Mirror Within the Mirror

Special Announcement!

I've just finished the first draft of my second book: Puey and the Princess and the Mirror within the Mirror.

This was a rather complicated story to tell. Puey's Sisters tend to do whatever they want to do. Puey got involved in this big blood feud against the Metamorphick Mutants. The Hungry Ghosts seem to have their own agendum going on. Princess Ixhuja managed to sneak out of the Clockwork Heresy and cause all sorts of problems. And of course Princess Efhelinye just had to gather together a bunch of aliens, build a little zeppelinling, and crash it against a Dragon infested volcano just to find the Mirror within the Mirror.

Tomorrow, I'm going to start working upon a second draft. Then I'll go back and start the third draft of the first book, Puey and the Princess and the Broken Rainbow.

By the way, the working title for the third book will be: Puey and the Princess and the Sword of Fire.

The third book will probably mostly take place in the Holy City. Things are going to get crazy there.