Thursday, July 12, 2018
Back in the Shadows
Nearly two months ahead of schedule, I finished editing Shadows of the Knight! After my long hiatus, it did not take long for me to become fully immersed in my first novel and the Vampire Chess universe once again. Now that I have completed the long overdue editing pass, I will be focusing on reformatting my 283k word manuscript to prepare it for the next steps in the journey to become a published novel.
Thursday, May 17, 2018
Summer Awakening
As Daffy Duck oft declared, "Rabbit Season!" More specifically, it is "Dust Bunny Season" in the Vampire Chess world! I have finally chased off the large herd of dust bunnies that spawned prolifically over the past few years to bury my drafts here in my Frisco, Texas hideaway. I have set an official goal for myself to complete the editing of Shadows of the Knight by Labor Day (2018), lest I become just another George R.R. Martin. Of course, with his bank account at my disposal, I wouldn't have had a silly little day job to timeshare with all this time. Wouldn't it be great if I could publish (self- or otherwise) before The Winds of Winter ever hits the bookshelves? Okay, so I might be heavily outnumbered on that ambition but if Vegas posted odds, I'm not so sure my odds would be longer than his.
Life has certainly been a whirlwind outside of the VC world during my long writing and editing hiatus, though the universe always lives on in my mind. Just don't throw any pop quizzes at me until I'm fully re-immersed. It's whimsical which fine details I recall vividly and which ones escape my recollection. Today is a quick warm up for my official Memorial Day to Labor Day timeline. The original saga is alive and well with only one significant change coming out of the long hiatus. After deliberating for years, I decided it was too tacky to have a key vampire named Repput in my saga, so I've officially renamed him in the SOTK draft.
The unrelenting calendar will certainly force me to readjust my plans for post-VC story lines. It's almost eerie how many subplots the Trump Presidency has stolen from my fictional President in those plans. While that whole timeline will need to be revisited and reworked, fortunately, the 5 Vampire Chess novels are set from 2003 through 2008 and have always existed in the past. But let's focus on one novel at a time for the immediate future so Shadows of the Knight can finally become a novel before its 10th birthday next year!
Life has certainly been a whirlwind outside of the VC world during my long writing and editing hiatus, though the universe always lives on in my mind. Just don't throw any pop quizzes at me until I'm fully re-immersed. It's whimsical which fine details I recall vividly and which ones escape my recollection. Today is a quick warm up for my official Memorial Day to Labor Day timeline. The original saga is alive and well with only one significant change coming out of the long hiatus. After deliberating for years, I decided it was too tacky to have a key vampire named Repput in my saga, so I've officially renamed him in the SOTK draft.
The unrelenting calendar will certainly force me to readjust my plans for post-VC story lines. It's almost eerie how many subplots the Trump Presidency has stolen from my fictional President in those plans. While that whole timeline will need to be revisited and reworked, fortunately, the 5 Vampire Chess novels are set from 2003 through 2008 and have always existed in the past. But let's focus on one novel at a time for the immediate future so Shadows of the Knight can finally become a novel before its 10th birthday next year!
Monday, March 10, 2014
Okay, I'll Edit Now
As many of you know, the past year has been quite a rough journey for the Tupper Family. Editing took a backseat for quite awhile as my family and I dealt with life's major curve balls. I won't get into all of that here in this blog since "Finding Jim Tupper" is all about my novel writing journey not real life. ;-) When I finally got back to my Vampire Chess saga, I fell back into a very familiar trap. Rather than work on editing the first book (Shadows of the Knight) or the second book (Order & Chaos) of the saga, I gave in to the overwhelming urge to write the third book: Endgame. 300 thousand words later, I have a trilogy of rough drafts to edit! As with its predecessors, I am very happy with the way everything came together for the third book.
My great hope is that this will prove to be a fine stopping point to finishing editing Shadows of the Knight in order to get the manuscript ready for external consumption in 2014. The first three books work fairly well as a standalone trilogy even though a total of five books are planned for my Vampire Chess saga. Book four will be a bit of a departure for the saga while book five will wrap everything up (both outlines will fill in rapidly as I edit and my brain works overtime). I did manage to edit some portions of the first two books while writing the third. As Endgame pulled together plots and subplots into a tighter story, I also came up with two more scenes to add to Shadows of the Knight and one more for Order & Chaos (they will be written when I reach their respective spots during my next editing pass) thanks to a new character joining the saga.
Wish me luck with the editing so these books will someday see the light of day:
The Vampire Chess saga:
Shadows of the Knight - 258k words
Order & Chaos - 229k words
Endgame - 300k words
My great hope is that this will prove to be a fine stopping point to finishing editing Shadows of the Knight in order to get the manuscript ready for external consumption in 2014. The first three books work fairly well as a standalone trilogy even though a total of five books are planned for my Vampire Chess saga. Book four will be a bit of a departure for the saga while book five will wrap everything up (both outlines will fill in rapidly as I edit and my brain works overtime). I did manage to edit some portions of the first two books while writing the third. As Endgame pulled together plots and subplots into a tighter story, I also came up with two more scenes to add to Shadows of the Knight and one more for Order & Chaos (they will be written when I reach their respective spots during my next editing pass) thanks to a new character joining the saga.
Wish me luck with the editing so these books will someday see the light of day:
The Vampire Chess saga:
Shadows of the Knight - 258k words
Order & Chaos - 229k words
Endgame - 300k words
Friday, March 1, 2013
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Editing Forum
After a year that included long hours and yet another job switch (back to the previous company in May), I finally got busy again editing Shadows of the Knight. Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the editing forum! As I ran through my list of checks and edits for book #1 of the Vampire Chess saga, the story for book #2 was running wildly through my head. As foreshadowed in my last blog post, the temptation proved to be too powerful to resist. I just finished writing the first draft of Order & Chaos!
Once I started writing, I just couldn't stop. The first draft of book #2 weighs in about five thousand words heavier than the previous book was at first draft. While Shadows of the Knight is currently sitting at over 254k words and Order & Chaos is over 227k words, I expect the second book to surpass its predecessor by the time I finish the first full edit. They will combine to tally over a half million words when my editing is finally done!
I am extremely happy with the way the plots and subplots came alive in Order & Chaos! To use a volleyball analogy, Shadows of the Knight is the set while Order & Chaos is the spike. I look forward to the challenge of maintaining the same fast pace through the remaining three books of the saga. For now though, my focus needs to return to finishing my edits on the first book (although the way the plot lines flow through the two books, I'll probably be editing both simultaneously). If nothing else, at least there won't be a long wait for a sequel when readers get their hands on my first book!
Once I started writing, I just couldn't stop. The first draft of book #2 weighs in about five thousand words heavier than the previous book was at first draft. While Shadows of the Knight is currently sitting at over 254k words and Order & Chaos is over 227k words, I expect the second book to surpass its predecessor by the time I finish the first full edit. They will combine to tally over a half million words when my editing is finally done!
I am extremely happy with the way the plots and subplots came alive in Order & Chaos! To use a volleyball analogy, Shadows of the Knight is the set while Order & Chaos is the spike. I look forward to the challenge of maintaining the same fast pace through the remaining three books of the saga. For now though, my focus needs to return to finishing my edits on the first book (although the way the plot lines flow through the two books, I'll probably be editing both simultaneously). If nothing else, at least there won't be a long wait for a sequel when readers get their hands on my first book!
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Milestone
Nearly 15 months after I finished writing the first draft of Shadows of the Knight, I have finally completed my first full edit of the novel! My editing was slowed considerably after I changed jobs back in February and found my available time evaporate but I managed to gain momentum in recent weeks to complete the first round. The novel currently weighs in at 252,180 words and printed out at 409 pages in its current format (it would kill considerably more trees to print once I switch it over to manuscript format). It is a major thrill to know that if someone picked up the draft right now, it would be fairly coherent and hopefully somewhat entertaining.
My next phase should be much shorter in duration. I plan on visiting a hundred or so notes that I've jotted down over the last 15 months. Some of the notes are fledgling ideas of additional plot elements to tighten the fabric of the novel. Some are just notes to check to see if a previous idea made it into text or never left the gray matter. Some will be resolved in minutes with little impact to the draft while a few might add a handful of new paragraphs to the novel. I won't kid myself and set a specific date to complete this phase but it should certainly be refreshingly quicker than the first tedious edit.
I am hoping after the second phase is finished, I can lock myself away to do a quick read for editing and then finally release Shadows of the Knight for its first test run with a select few personal critics. As always, I will be fighting the urge to pen the remaining four books of the Vampire Chess saga before completing the work necessary to get the first one published.
My next phase should be much shorter in duration. I plan on visiting a hundred or so notes that I've jotted down over the last 15 months. Some of the notes are fledgling ideas of additional plot elements to tighten the fabric of the novel. Some are just notes to check to see if a previous idea made it into text or never left the gray matter. Some will be resolved in minutes with little impact to the draft while a few might add a handful of new paragraphs to the novel. I won't kid myself and set a specific date to complete this phase but it should certainly be refreshingly quicker than the first tedious edit.
I am hoping after the second phase is finished, I can lock myself away to do a quick read for editing and then finally release Shadows of the Knight for its first test run with a select few personal critics. As always, I will be fighting the urge to pen the remaining four books of the Vampire Chess saga before completing the work necessary to get the first one published.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Vanishing Time
Well, so much for finishing the first full edit by the end of the summer! A pleasant diversion earlier in the summer renewed my interest in my old hockey fan web site (The Unofficial Web Site of the Trenton Titans). After a rough four years as the Trenton Devils, the ECHL affiliate owned by the NHL's New Jersey Devils, the parent company pulled the plug on the franchise. However, the ECHL and a hardcore band of fans (not to mention two wonderful investors and a supportive local government) wasted no time in resurrecting the Trenton Titans for the upcoming 2011/2012 ECHL season! Naming longtime Titan defenseman Vince Williams as their head coach and securing former Titans general manager Rich Lisk and Titan icon Scott Bertoli to help return the franchise to former greatness instilled instant enthusiasm in a fan base that was just itching for a revival. Thrilled by the dramatic return of Titans, I immediately got to work updating years worth of neglected files for the web site that went dark in the fall of 2008 after a couple of years of dormancy. That hobby instantly swiped editing time but was soon trumped by the call of the corporate world. A few curve balls at the day job quickly put my plans to revive the site on ice (hopefully only temporarily).
While increased hours at work set back the web site plans, I resumed my dedication to squeezing in a little bit of time to edit Shadows of the Knight. I've crept past the 70% mark reviewing the novel that has grown to nearly 247k words. I'll save my predictions for when the first edit will be finished but rest assured that the editing continues and the plot lines and character development keep tightening. It will be a real challenge for me to move forward with the first novel when this edit is finished as I'm itching to start writing Order & Chaos, though I've heard from enough amateur authors who let the manuscripts pile up to be careful of that trap. Wish me luck as the grand juggling act continues!
While increased hours at work set back the web site plans, I resumed my dedication to squeezing in a little bit of time to edit Shadows of the Knight. I've crept past the 70% mark reviewing the novel that has grown to nearly 247k words. I'll save my predictions for when the first edit will be finished but rest assured that the editing continues and the plot lines and character development keep tightening. It will be a real challenge for me to move forward with the first novel when this edit is finished as I'm itching to start writing Order & Chaos, though I've heard from enough amateur authors who let the manuscripts pile up to be careful of that trap. Wish me luck as the grand juggling act continues!
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Knight Writer
So, after a virtual hiatus that lasted a few months, I am finally back editing Shadows of the Knight on a regular basis. Despite late hours at work, I've been able to squeeze in time many nights lately to edit a few chapters before surrendering to sleep. If I can keep up the current pace, I should be able to finish the first full round of editing during the summer. Then perhaps I'll allow the first rough draft to escape the dungeon for a few daring critics.
In the meantime, the outlines for the future volumes of my saga continue to evolve as the characters and plots churn away in my head. I find it ironic how listening to audiobooks during my commute to and from work elicits sudden ideas for my own novels even though the ones I'm listening to are from completely different genres. It would probably take a highly skilled psychoanalyst to figure out the slightest connection between the point in the audiobook and the ideas that emerge. On the topic of authors, I must give thanks to my friend Pam for recommending Orson Scott Card and Harlan Coben. I find both authors very entertaining and expect to exhaust my library's audiobook offerings for them in short order.
Good night for now... I'm off to finish editing another chapter!
In the meantime, the outlines for the future volumes of my saga continue to evolve as the characters and plots churn away in my head. I find it ironic how listening to audiobooks during my commute to and from work elicits sudden ideas for my own novels even though the ones I'm listening to are from completely different genres. It would probably take a highly skilled psychoanalyst to figure out the slightest connection between the point in the audiobook and the ideas that emerge. On the topic of authors, I must give thanks to my friend Pam for recommending Orson Scott Card and Harlan Coben. I find both authors very entertaining and expect to exhaust my library's audiobook offerings for them in short order.
Good night for now... I'm off to finish editing another chapter!
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