Forums » Art & Creativity » Help me finish my novel

I'm pushing to finish my first novel, Swordsworn, by the end of the month. Or at least, have enough done to bring to potential publishers at my home con, Balticon, which is memorial day weekend. The book is totally written and currently 15 out of 38ish chapters are edited and for the most part done, barring a final readthrough. My last wonderful critic gave me some stuff I needed to do major surgery on, so I was stumped for a while, unsure of how to tackle something so large. But I'm through that now!

What do I need to do?
- solidify my pitch
- actually finish the edits
- do a final skim of names and make sure they're all cohesive and up to snuff
- final readthrough, printed (to better spot errors)
- figure out a pen name, which is actually very serious and important for me
- finish the cover (not required but it'd be nice)


That's where you come in.

Yell at me to finish it. Go ahead, you have free reign to flood my inbox (within reason) with messages like "hey Heimdall WHAT HAVE YOU DONE ON SWORDSWORN TODAY?" Ask me about any and all of the above topics. If you care, ask my about my characters or setting or themes. Ask me if there are any pirates in it. (Well ok there aren't, but just wait until book 3, Starcrossed.) Or just yell at me. Ask me for specifics. (You don't even need to care about them!) Tell me to STOP WRITING THIS POST AND GET BACK TO WORK.

To gauge interest, Swordsworn is the first book in the Heartseeker trilogy, and is a medieval fantasy novel centering on themes of realistic magic and grey morality--how "bad" the antagonist is comes down to how you feel about drastic measures taken in times of war, and in the end, the protagonist (Ivian (some spoilers)) must decide between what's best for his country and what's best for himself and his lord. In the second two books, Oathbreaker and Starcrossed, matters become even more complicated as love is pitted against justice and we explore what it means to be a traitor.

I'm putting a reminder in my calendar to bother you about this.

I WILL WRITE TO YOU EVERY DAY!!!!!!

I was privileged to get to learn story pitching from an actual comic book and TV commercial writer, say the word and I'll funnel the wisdom along. (Seems a bit much to just push on you unsolicited.)

Thanks guys 8D

And yes Sland, please do share!!

The new chapter is almost done, and it's a goodun! Sland is helping me with the pitch which is awesome, and I actually have chapter 1 for anyone who wants to read! Click here to check it out.

Woohoo!!!

The new chapter is done, and it's actually really good... which is surprising, because the only reason I wrote it is because I needed a masquerade to set something up in the third book! But it's full of really juicy character interactions, and ended up better establishing something that happens a few chapters later... it's awesome! And I want all their costumes!

At this point things should move faster! I edited two chapters yesterday and hopefully another two will get done today, but these need a wee bit more polish.

I also started tinkering with the architecture in the cover!



Thanks for the support everyone, it means a lot to me

Super super glad to hear it! Keep going!

Awesome! Everything is looking great, keep going! You can do it!

I lied I did a chapter, but now I realize I'm gonna have to do some major surgery on this next one. but I have to! In the quest for the Best Story!

I have faith in you! You can do it!