Milestones,

Milestones in writing vary depending upon how far out you set them.  Set them too close and they become irrelevant.  Set them too far apart and you never see them. When doing the actual writing you can set a word count and the major milestones like 25K, 50K, 75K and such are easy to see and hit with them and effort.  When editing or revising the book it becomes much more difficult.  You could set one for revising 2 chapters a day or more and it helps but still lacks the triumphant feeling.  At least for me, so I set my milestone to be completing the first revision and edit of the book.

Today I finished that and have a book with hopefully much better spelling, grammer, and structure.  While reviewing the suggested edits and making a few of my own I got to reintroduce myself to the story.  The next step is to get some people to read it and see what feedback they can give upon it.  While I await volunteers and their feedback I will start working on book 2 which the working title is "Cannot Stop the Rain."  If you want a copy to peruse let me know and I can send out a copy.

Until then, keep flying.

Subtle differences add up.

Working my way through the first book doing some edits and trying to revise some things.  I also needed to add some things that I want to make clear in the first book.  It doesn't change the story but I want a clear image of my characters.  Some of you will notice the changes and others may not, but here is the revised chapter 1 part 1.

Eletheria flew through the great blue sea of the sky, only a few tiny white fluffy islands sharing the sky with her. At least, that is the image she was trying to convince herself while she stood at the controls of the airship looking out the floor-to-ceiling window in front of her. After years of training and preparation, she was actually flying. A shiver of joy coursed through her as she held onto a copper-plated yoke in each hand. The front of the ship was designed to provide a large viewing area to the pilot and the various command staff stationed within the forecastle room. For a moment, she tried to ignore the people standing behind her talking, the wooden support between the panes of glass in front of her, the creaking of the airship as it pulsed with power. 

It was still beautiful up here as she could see the coastline of somewhere down below, the open sky above, and the lack of clouds. While she knew the lack of clouds was good, her imagination about flying always involved speeding through clouds and seeing them whisk by. The wind pushing the sails while Ele helped maintain their elevation over the downslope. The feeling of freedom, flying through the air, zipping through the clouds, all of these took a hold of her heart and she knew this was not something she would ever give up. If she tried really hard, she could almost believe she was flying through the sky without the ship. If there were more clouds, at least the illusion would be a little easier. The lack of nearby clouds to provide perspective as they flew by made the self-delusion difficult to maintain.

“Sir, there is a balloon on the horizon,” a voice behind Ele said from across the room. The voice wasn’t talking to her but it had already started a little worm of disappointment that was digging into her heart. “I hope it isn’t the pirate Bonnie.” The voice whispered just loud enough that everyone at the navigation table could hear it, and Ele. She turned her head to look around for the Windmaster Erus. She knew Erus would be wanting to take control of the airship back.

“Eyes forward, Ele.” The deep calm voice of Windmaster Sal Erus came from behind her. Ele immediately looked forward to watch the horizon hoping to see the other airship someone else had spotted. Seeing nothing except clouds and blue sky, she focused on the feeling of someone standing behind her. There was a sound of a clip securing to a harness and then she felt large hands covering hers. 

“Ele, I need you to let go of the power first with your right hand when I say 3. Nod if you understand,” Sal’s voice said. Ele nodded her head and then heard, “1, 2, 3.” When she heard three she dropped the power in her right hand. There was a shift in the ship’s movement but it was slight. Perhaps now I need to drop the other hand so I can move out of his way was Ele’s thought as she couldn’t remember proper trade-off procedure. She dropped her power in the left hand and the ship lurched much more this time. For a brief moment, Ele and everyone else on the ship felt it start to descend. After a second it regained stability when Sal took over power and control. 

“You released too soon, next time wait for the second count of three.” Sal told her in that ever-encouraging tone that he had. 

“Sorry, I thought I needed to…” Ele started to explain as she turned to look at Sal. His soft brown eyes that matched the color of his skin looked back at her. Ele’s face came up to the top of his chest. He was wearing the harness most pilots wear when they are expecting turbulence. The harness looked like a leather jacket that was tightly strapped to the pilot and had two ropes attached to the back. One going to the ceiling and the other to the floor. “Would we have crashed?” Ele quickly followed up, worried that she had almost destroyed the first ship she was allowed to fly.

“No, it takes more than your ability to keep the ship in the air. There is a backup but they aren’t as powerful as you or I,” Sal replied and motioned with his head for her to move out of his way. Ele took a small step to the left but stayed looking out the window. “Now I need you to go to your cabin and stay there. This may get bumpy and your parents would kill me if I allowed you to get hurt.” 

“Wait, are we going to be attacked?” Ele asked suddenly, worried there was going to be a fight. She looked towards Sal and then back out the window. She couldn’t see anything on the horizon, though she did not have a spyglass or anything to help her vision.

“Probably just a merchant, nothing to worry about,” Sal replied, watching out the front window, looking incredibly focused.

“If there is no danger then why do I…?” Ele started to ask looking back at Sal.

“One of the things you must learn is that you obey your superiors,” Sal interrupted. His tone much more serious and one of the few times Ele had every heard it lose its softness. Ele shrank back a little from a glare she knew was there but luckily she was behind him so didn’t suffer the full effect. She backed away towards the door towards the deck.

“Yes, Windmaster Erus, thank you for allowing me to see a Windmaster in action. Your will be done.” Ele said as sarcastically as she could and even threw a swift salute with her right fist with the knuckles outward to her chest. The thump was both loud and hard enough she almost gasped but kept silent. While Sal wasn’t facing her she was certain he had at least heard the salute. Turning around she saw there were several people in the room and her childish act was witnessed probably by half the command staff. She quickly left the room through the double doors that lead to the deck before Sal could reply or apologize for his harsh tone. 

Beginnings and a sneak peak.

While I am editing the other book and waiting for initial edits onYou Cannot Tame the Wind, I have not been doing much but brainstorming of things to have happen in the second book.  I want to condense the 2nd and third book plots to one book and just leave the series with 2 books and maybe a third at some future time.  I have an overall plot for three books but the third isn't that fleshed out and I wonder if it would just fit within the 2nd book just fine. Ultimately most of you wont ever really know as you will not be able to read the skeleton that I have now.  Perhaps I'll write the second book as the second and third together and if it runs long I can find a nice place to split it.  

For anyone who comes across this little page and wonders what it is about, let me introduce you to Eletheria with the first part of Chapter 1.  Do not this is from my first rough draft of the novel and will go through some revisions.

Waiting on editing for the first draft, then I will write the 2nd book.  I wanted to make some changes in the first one to help the 2nd book a little.  Also I am considering condensing the story from a trilogy to just 2 books.  Depends on how book 2 goes and if the story I have prepared for it is the right fit for one book.  I realized I forgot to do a wrapup regarding writing the book.

1. It weighs in at 81K words. I would post a project screenshot but I do not have one from when I finished writing it.
2. Aprox 33 chapters
3. Working title as you probably guessed from the blog is "You cannot tame the wind" the second book's working title is "You cannot stop the rain".  These may change.
4. I am actually revising my first book project and hopefully will have it for download somewhere, its not steampunk, just a cheesy portal genre story I wrote for fun.

Waiting on editing for the first draft, then I will write the 2nd book.  I wanted to make some changes in the first one to help the 2nd book a little.  Also I am considering condensing the story from a trilogy to just 2 books.  Depends on how book 2 goes and if the story I have prepared for it is the right fit for one book.

So close I can taste it...

Am almost finished with the first book.  Have about 2 chapters to go and then the first draft will be done. It will weigh in at ~80K words.  Then I will start to work on Book 2 while book 1 is getting initial edits. At some point I'll revise book 1 and fix consitency errors, plot holes, and probably trim it down some. Once I get the 2nd draft done... well who knows I may have to find some beta readers. Until then remember; You Cannot Tame the Wind, You Cannot Stop the Rain, and You Cannot Let Evil Run Wild.

It has been a while.  The book so far is going well.  I am right about at the halfway point for the first book. There has been delays not so much due to the book but more due to life getting in the way. Since I had chosen a semi aggressive writing schedule it still means I am writing a fair amount. It also means that the days where I do not hit my 1150 word target it is obvious that I am falling behind.

I recognize the deadline is an artificial limit I made on myself, however I want to try and keep to that deadline. Many have said that it takes 10 books before you write something good and I am trying to get better as quickly as possible. In the end I am confident I will have the first book of Cannot Tame the Wind done by Aug 15th. Then the next step is have someone edit it. After that I review the draft and work on tightening the story and making a decent 2nd draft version. Then I will have to look for beta readers and see about feedback upon it.  In the end writing the first draft is probably more like 30% of the work.

So I am at 50% or so done with the writing, which means I am only 15% completed for the whole thing.  While I cannot tame the wind I wish I could at least write like it.

Introduction

Everyone knows they cannot tame the wind. Many people try, but for Eletheria Zephyr her life has turned into a storm. Try as she might to tame it her failures have consequences. While anyone would fight for their freedom or others freedom, would you fight knowing that even if you win everyone you know will lose?

Steampunk'ish fantasy adventure that will hopefully be coming soon.