The Tree of Vines

As of 2 September 2021, volume 1 of the first handwritten draft of The Tree of Vines book 1 is done at 189 pages and 17 full chapters. It's taken just under three years to get here, and even though it does feel like an achievement, it feels small, if not necessarily unimportant. I originally posted something along the lines of this that I actually finished writing the first volume, but by the time I remembered that I promised to expand and rewrite it, it had already been eighteen days.I've maybe waited a tad too long (if accidentally so), because the excitement has worn off, and I'm just at a different state altogether than I was at the time.   I wrote the first 189 pages in quite the high quality notebook that at the time, I honestly thought could easily be replaced and added to, but after a bit of research, it turns out to be quite unlikely. The notebook in question was gifted to me right after my family went on vacation to Chicago, a whole state or two away (assuming you...

I was looking through my desktop (which is very messy), and I found some old notes I took for Tree of Vines / Breaker (it's original name), and it's kind of surreal because there's so much information I either forgot or changed - especially names. Apparently Saroii was at one time called Acknasa, and the ruling family "Paroii". At some point I decided Paroii didn't sound good, and as far as I can remember, I kinda forgot the Acknasa name, which became Saroii as well.    I completely forgot the names of the other Hero Nations. I think only one will stay, but on top of Acknasa there was also Lannek, Hikrenla and Meknava. All but Lannek do not sound like names to me, so maybe that's why I dropped it. Earlier on, I was pretty self critical on names I gave things, and this was certainly during the point of time I sort of randomized the names. There's still a lot of logic that went into the names, but I've since changed the language it was based off of, ...

And wrote page 162! It looks like Chapter 16 is the only chapter I've been working on this year so far. It's mean to be a long story, but there were a lot of long breaks that I took this year from writing anything, but that did give mea lot of time to think about other things. I feel like, despite having (so far) only written a few pages under 20 this year, they are still going to end up being really good pages. Turning things out quickly is an ideal way to do things, at least on the surface level, but I believe it's just as important to wait for good ideas, so you can really spill out your heart and ideas in the most clear and concise way possible. Of course, there's still a good amount of time for me to write a lot more this year, but in 2019 and 2020 I wrote around 70 pages each, and for 2021, it's looking like it'll be closer to 40 or even 30. I'm not particularly ashamed of that idea, because, again, I think it'll end up being worth it in the long r...

I'm sure it's not uncommon, but I wonder how many writers look at their in-progress first draft and imagine / envision loosely how it will change and evolve? Being in the process of writing a so called lite second draft, I am actively (or semi-actively) doing this, even when I write brand new content. Perhaps there's will be so much more character and internal consistency that's missing from these drafts? Well, there has to be, but I wonder how that'll change it. The mentality of an author is so obviously fascinating to me that I'd love to hear someone else's side to it one day. I'm sure I will eventually, but still. On a similar note, I've started to read the companion novels to Lord of the Rings, the vast majority of which start with a Christoper Tolkien "rambling" (and I mean that in a kind and respectful way) on about his father's process in creating Middle-Earth. Truth be told, it reminds me very much of myself - his monologues abo...

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Perhaps I put down my project of typing up what I already have for Tree of Vines a little too far down on my list of things to do. Mind you, the first draft is and will be completely handwritten. To be honest, when I write book 2 or any sequels or spinoffs, I'm not sure if that'll ever change for me. It's technically slower than typing it, but I feel like it puts so much into it - soul, or thought otherwise. I really like doing handwriting, but I'm not somehow immune to it being far more annoying to write later. Though, on the other hand, that does mean the first draft will be far cleaner than it'd otherwise be. I can't imagine letting go of the originals as I live, but maybe one day someone can hold the handwritten first drafts and still be able to read it in as raw form as it could possibly be. Anyway, after that small tangent, I've picked up typing it up the second or '1.5/1.9' draft for a few paragraphs just now. For some reason in the first draf...