I’ve made progress with the Ashfall rewrite, though that progress isn’t as fast as I initially expected. I thought I’d be blasting through, making the edits where my markups on the manuscript dictated, but I’ve found myself rewriting entire sections.

I don’t mind that, though, as I like the new direction, and I think it’s more closely reflecting my current voice.

As for hard numbers, I’ve finished rewriting Chapter One, and it has a new length of around 3,800 words.

Here’s an example of the change in style:

Earlier Version Opening Paragraph

Ash fell like tainted snow, choking Eli. Flames burned all around him, heat stinging his face as he ran through the crowd, searching. “Ajax!” he cried.

New Opening

Ash fell like tainted snow, choking Eli as the fires blazed around him. The burning air seared his cheeks as he raced through the crowd, screaming for his friend. He tried to stay on his feet as he tunneled through the milling bodies, but he was small, and they were mindless with panic. A foot crushed his toes, a hand slapped the back of his head, a body slammed him to the ground.

I do need to pick up the pace, as I want to hit around 25k–30k words by the end of June.

Essays

I haven’t worked on any of my forthcoming essays, which means I need to try and find some time to carve out for them during my days, especially since I want to finish two more by the end of the month.

Substack and Short Fiction

As for Substack, even though I said I’m putting my energy toward my longform stuff and the essays, which will go toward my YouTube channel, and that is still true, I must say that my lack of activity on that front and the subsequent stagnation is a bit upsetting to me.

In all honesty, I have been experiencing a bit of writer’s block on that end.

In an attempt to overcome that, I’ve decided to get jiggy with it and just spitball a bunch of fantasy ideas, maybe in the vein of Sword and Sorcery, Heroic Fantasy, or Dark Fantasy, and cut loose.

Toward that end, I spent an hour or so this week just rattling off a bunch of story seeds. Here they are:

• The Obsidian Tower

• The Field of Silver Grass

• The Black Desert of Crystal Rain

• The Great Tree

• Dragon’s Roost

• The Well of Eternity

• Boiling Sea

• Ocean’s Jaw

• The Jungle City

• The City of the Damned

• The Valley of Cutting Winds

• God Flower

• The Wicker-Man’s Clock

I see a bit of potential with each of those, but there is a major decision I have to make.

Am I going to write these as entirely standalone titles?

Or am I going to go ten toes in on the Sword and Sorcery tradition and write an episodic series following one character in the vein of Howard’s Conan the Barbarian or Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné?

There are pros and cons for either choice.

If there’s a path that any of you readers would like me to go, feel free to reach out via the contact page and let me know.

→ Contact Page

That’s about all there is for today.

Thanks for reading.