Reading
I finished Pluto Vol 8 last Wednesday night. The conclusion was everything I hoped it would be, and more. It teased more beyond the ending, which makes sense given that this is a reimagining of a single arc from Astro Boy. I wanna read Astro Boy now, but I’m going to wait. I currently have the first deluxe edition volume of Berserk on hold at the library.
On the heels of Pluto, I finished listening to The Mercy of Gods by James SA Corey. This novel, the first in a planned trilogy, did a good job of setting up the wider conflict. I had to tell myself to be patient at times because there are things that weren’t explained in this book that will likely get resolved in the future books. It’s an alien invasion tale, where a group of scientists get taken off their home planet as invading aliens kill and subjugate the population. Those taken off-world are dumped into a giant research facility where they must compete, in a fashion, with other aliens to produce results for the ruling Carryx, the alien species that invaded their world. A lot of the action takes place in the large research facility. Though this is a space opera, don’t expect a ton of space battles. There are a few, and my guess is there will be more in later books. I’m excited for what comes next. I believe there’s a novella that takes place in this universe that’s available. I may read that soon.
I started and finished Prince Caspian by CS Lewis over the weekend. My Libby app said the hold was 3 weeks away from being mine, but with the unpredictability of other readers, I got the audiobook much sooner. I liked this installment well enough, but there was a lot of walking and talking, with the epic battle at the end being over way too quickly. I know this is a 70+ year old children’s fantasy, but I wanted more meat to the story. The audiobook is under 5 hours long, so it was quite short. I have the next book, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, in my queue, so I’ll be listening to that one soon.
I’m still reading The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan. No updates there. I’m approaching 40% completion.
I started listening to Grave Peril, the third installment of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series. This is the book where everyone seems to agree the series really takes off, so I’m looking forward to seeing if it lives up to that hype. So far it’s really good. I’m only 20% in and I’m finding his writing better than the first two books.
Writing
I’m starting to hit a wall in my novel. It’s not a structural element or a plot element that’s stopping me, but just the current scene. I know I can jump around, and I’ve contemplated writing a chapter from later on in my outline, but I haven’t been able to coherently shape what that part of the book will look like yet. I usually jump around when writing stories, but it’s harder in a novel when changes early on can alter the trajectory of the story.
There are two things I’m currently struggling with:
1) I’m not doing a good job putting my characters in situations where they react in the way I want them to. I’m the writer, so if I want to make my characters do something, I have to put them in a situation where taking those certain actions makes sense. I know the wisdom to follow in this situation: keep writing. Push forward. You’ll need to rewrite anyway. That advice is hard to follow when you’re not satisfied with your current scene.
2) The lore/backstory for this world is pretty thin. I’m constantly adding to it, since a rich other world is a huge part of this story, even though it takes place in contemporary America, but the world doesn’t feel like it has enough weight to drive the protagonists forward. I’m debating whether to pause on the main text and focus on worldbuilding for a bit, or continue with my current strategy of dipping in and out of worldbuilding.
Word count progress was slow this week, but progress is progress. As long as my counter doesn’t say “+0”, I’m happy.
MYTHOS – First Draft progress report: 22,538/120,000 – 18.8%
+1,458 up from last week
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What have you been reading and/or writing this week? Let me know in the comments below.
The Night Bulletin 