Current Projects Part 3

Welcome back!

         I’ve decided to make my “Current Projects” posts a standard monthly update on my blog. I’m hoping this will not only interest my readers in seeing my progress, but will encourage me to keep a steady pace as well.

So what have I been up to lately?

         Currently, I am still taking the online “How to Write a Great Novel” course from screenplayscripts.com. I am about halfway through the lessons and exams, enjoying each one of them. They have proven to contain invaluable information, teaching me a lot on various points of storytelling that I had honestly not even considered before. The course is still available to me for about another month, so I will be concentrating on finishing it before my access to it expires.

In the past few weeks, I started work on my own novel by filling out my checklist. It has proven to be a slow process, but this is mostly because I am still learning and researching some aspects of storytelling. More details seem to be adding themselves to the list as I go, which is good, because the more content I add, the more ideas I get. The concept in my head is progressing slowly, but the story is becoming clearer as I fill out more items on my list.

As for progress on the actual story, I managed to nail down the names of three of the main characters in the last few days. Originally, I used various online name generators to come up with identities for my characters. This is fine for some occasions, however in this case I wanted special, meaningful names, that would help reflect my stories theme. Another problem I encountered was coming up with names that would not clash with each other. For example, at one point I realized there was several characters with similar names (Carl, Carter, Caroline), so some of them needed to be changed. It proved to be a challenge, but with some research (and helpful feedback from my wife), I managed to find monikers that fit my purposes nicely.

A few weeks ago, after reading a writing exercise online, I began experimenting with “hook” phrases. They say the first line of your story needs to be good enough to draw in the reader, making them want to read on. While experimenting with this concept, I succeeded in creating the first paragraph for my story (Yay!). I know, it’s a small step, but it is still a step, and one I find myself strangely proud of.

         As for my work with Missing Worlds Media, I have been working on the same project for over a month now. It has hit a snag during the approval process, having certain issues regarding content. I basically had to scrap it and start over from scratch. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, as I am sure it will be better the second time around.

         That is all I have to report for now. Feel free to ask questions, and I will answer what I can (avoiding obvious spoilers of course).

Until next time.

Cheers,

Patrick Osborne


(edited on 2016-01-07)