VassternichDrauka

So, I'm sure you've all noticed by now that the majority of what I post here is works of literature. However, once in a very smurf-y blue moon, I upload a drawing or painting or what-have-you. Interestingly enough, I actually enjoy visual art. A lot. When I head to college, I'm planning in minoring in it. That's how much I enjoy it.

Unfortunately, most of you watch me for my literature, and it feels... out of character, shall we say? for me to upload my paintings here. Also, as a way to earn money for said college, I'm looking into starting up commissions, and this does not seem like an account where I could get a lot of traffic for that. So, I decided that I would create a secondary account, VassternichDraukaART, where I would upload all of my artwork.

What this means for this account: All visual art in my gallery, if I deem it to be of high enough quality, will be taken down and reuploaded on that account. If it doesn't pass the test, it gets taken down and stays down. There are certain things that shouldn't see the light of day. >.<

Anyway, I thought I would let you all know, because I know that some of you have expressed some interest in what I draw. So if you desire, you can watch that account. And tell all of your friends. </shameless self-advertisement>

~VassD

Alright, so my last journal entry was about a year ago. Almost exactly. For those of you who were lost in the ether at the time, I was asking for help on my novel, Black Horizons. For those who have been paying attention recently, I started posting the second draft. I think I'm up to Chapter 10 posted here, and I've got a total of 18 or 19 written. I just thought I would let you lovelies know how things are going.

In case I didn't mention this earlier, I was rewriting things for two reasons:

My senior project. Booyah.
To get a jump on the industry.

As for my senior project, I presented that last week. I think I did alright. Scores are given out tomorrow. Mm. Anyway, ever since my last journal entry, I have spent 136 hours and 20 minutes (at least that I remembered to write down) on this project. Ack. That's a lot of time.

As for the other reason, I don't know how many of you know this, but I fully intend to be a full time novelist as a career. I decided to overhaul Black Horizons in order to have it ready to submit for publishing before I go on a big trip next year. I'm dead serious about that.

Anyway, back to the point of this entry: I thought I would inform you as to what the status is. In case you were wondering.

If my estimation is correct, this second draft is going to clock in at about 175,000 words. That's a bit of a punch in the face, given that it's most likely a YA novel. >_< But that's just a second draft. I'm planning on finishing that draft by August 30th. I'm about 25% done right now. About 1,000-1,250 words a day if my estimate's right.

After that, I'm going to go over the draft and tighten it up. That's when all of your comments will come into play. I can't make any changes now, otherwise I'll never get the dang thing finished. But in the space of time between September 1st and November 30th, I'm going to go over that draft with a fine-toothed comb and do content and copy-edits. Translation: make the prose tight, get the word count down. At that point, if I can't get the word count down below 120,000 (that is my absolute highest that I'm going to let it go), I'm going to split it at the midpoint, do some restructuring, and turn it into two books instead of one. Which is a concept that saddens me... Anyway. After that's all done, I'm going to start querying agents. Yes, I'm going the old fashioned way, through New York publishing. If anyone drops the words "self-publishing," I will glare at them through the computer screen, and then explain how I want this to be a career, not a one-off. I want the contract, and I want the marketing team. I want to see my book in bookstores, not just on Amazon. I repeat: I am dead serious about that.

Anyway, that was just a little update on what I'm planning. If anybody wanted to know.

Any questions?

Okay, so raise your hand if you remember the "Black Horizons" story that has been stuck on hiatus since August of 2010.

Well, the hiatus is about to end.

Before you get too worked up, I do NOT mean that I'm about to start work on the second installment. I mean that my baby is going to be stuck in the meat grinder, reconstructed, and polished until you could use it as a weapon against Medusa. For my senior project, I am completely rewriting Black Horizons and submitting it for publishing. But to do that, I need some hard-core third-party editing to take place.

That's where you people come in.

If any of you lovely watchers read it the first time, I need you to go back and reread it, but with a different perspective. If any of you HAVEN'T, I need you to now. Instead of "Hey! Cool story" I need you to look at it as you would a critical reading assignment for College English. I need to know what parts are weak, where there should be more explanation... Heck, if there's some random scene you want thrown in there, LET ME KNOW. This is specifically what I am looking for, but don't limit yourself.

We all know that *supposedly* the Knights are hated above all else. I look back, and except for Anmita's weak-sauce soapbox moment at the beginning, I NEVER ONCE bring that into play except for in hindsight exposition. It doesn't make any sense, and frankly, it's kind of lame. If you can think of ways for me to include this more, I would be greatly appreciative.

Another thing that is "implied" is the fact that females are superior to males. Again, nothing except Ania's midget spiel to Randen at the beginning of Chapter 7. This needs to be brought in more.

Remember the Mark of the Betrayer? The thing to do with Aimon's backstory? Yeah, that's vital to the whole story line. I need to find a way to bring that in more.

Also, the history of the Knights. With Nephin and Aima and all that. I need to bring that in more.

I want there to be more involvement with the Outer Compound. I mention (BRIEFLY!) that everyone now knows Ania. But I never show her interaction with them. Big no-no.

Her family needs to come in more. I need to fix Anmita's speech at the beginning, because it doesn't work with what we learn later on about Anmita's real relationship with Alliania. I want it to be more obvious that something funky is going on.

I want to have the Ania and the gang have to attend other classes than just Let's Attack Each Other Again! These are supposed to be the realm's greatest warriors in body and mind, not just brainless killing machines.

I'd like to experiment a little more with different points of view. And not just where they are alone and I'm showcasing them. I want to see Aimon's view of Ania, Randen's opinion of Echo, blahblahblah. Currently, I'm stuck primarily in Ania's head, and it's a tad monotonous.

Finally, I need help with Skaught. Currently, we don't like him because Randen doesn't like him and I had a bunch of nasty comments in the Author's Comments section. He IS the bad-guy, but not because he's the third party in a love triangle. He has a very dark story and a very nasty role to play. You know, "Something was coming. The horizons were black with it, and Skaught would be right in the middle of it." This needs to come in more. This is another reason I need multiple points of view, so we can get (perhaps anonymously?) into Skaught's head.

If there is anything else you can think of to improve the story, let me know. Also, send me your reviews through notes, because those are easier to locate than individual comments on  chapters. Thanks in advance!

I JUST WON A BID ON EBAY FOR A 6x8 INTUOS3 WACOM TABLET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT'S COMING ON SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!

IN CASE YOU CAN'T TELL I'M SUPER DUPER HAPPY!!!!!!!!!

So, the project term I told you about ends this week. Yes, I know what you're thinking: Hey! I thought you said you were going to finish the story! What is this?

Well, turns out I only had to work on it or something related to it for sixty hours solid. Which is, as it turns out, a very, VERY good thing.

I went through my outline and plugged some numbers in based on average chapter word counts so far, as well as figured out (approximately) how many chapters there are. Here are the numbers:

Estimated Final Word Count: 242,572
Estimated Number of Chapters: 61, including an Epilogue to lead into the next installment.

Yeah.

Holy friggin' crap.

The number of chapters (and thus, the massive word count) comes from two different novel planning strategies that I have found and seem to be working for me: "Story in Three Acts" and "Three Disasters and a Resolution." The SiTA one kind of follows the regular story arc: introduction, exposition and rising action in Act 1; conflict, crisis, disaster, and intro to climax in Act 2; and climax and story resolution in Act 3. The TDaR one goes like this: One disaster (caused by a third party) at the end of Act 1, two disasters (caused by attempts to put right first problem), one in the middle and one at the end of Act 2, and then the resolution in Act 3. Using this, I figured out just how long my "Act 1" is going to be, briefly outlining each chapter. Turns out, it takes 20 chapters to get through Act 1. If we use that as an example, we have 60 chapters in 3 acts.

Wowza.

The good news is, I've *kind of* gotten back into the chapter-in-less-than-six-months mode. I wrote Chapter 5 in about 3 days, two of which I was flat on my back, sick to my stomach. So there is hope yet.

If any of you want to jump ship with this story, I suggest you do it now, before the plot gets too thick.