Katie Runyon

Seems it’s time again for my weekly blog entry. I meant to post yesterday, but I got a little busy and well…totally forgot! The Dark Within is coming along nicely. Another week, another chapter. Even though it took me about as long to write this chapter (or even less time), it was actually quite the difficult one. As I was writing it, I realized that the events that I had planned weren’t what the character would choose. And since the whole thing came of this one choice, I had to go back to the drawing board. Characters can be a fickle lot! But in the end it worked out fine. I find it a tad funny that I wanted less people in the group, but ended up adding tons more (read it and you’ll see what I mean). But somehow I will manage. In the newest chapter, there are two scenes from Onisepla’s POV (point of view) and they really delve into his character, giving you some good back story. In the second one in particular, you begin to see how torn he is. I thought it worked out really well. I never seem to have those pieces planned out. That character always writes it for me. I know the gist, but the character is just so real to me that it flows out so easily now. I’m beginning to get little bits and pieces for further chapters. They just pop into my head, out of the blue. Sometimes I’ll be mulling something over and somehow I get on a totally different topic, which leads me to something insightful. But as long as it keeps going well, I’m all for it. While I’m not much for themes, I decided to concentrate a lot about the imperfections of people, or “the dark within”. No one is perfect and I think everyone has a little “darkness” inside them. It doesn’t mean that they are all blood hungry killers. It could be as simple as feeling hatred or envy for someone, doing something out of spite, wishing revenge. It doesn’t have to be something evil, but everyone has those feelings sometimes, it’s all a matter of how you control them. Onisepla is always fighting his demons and is torn between good and evil. Even the Heroine will make mistakes and have a darkness to contend with. On another note, I am finding the shows Battles BC and Warriors on the History channel to be very insightful. They are good/entertaining research for my novel. From the weapons and armor they use, to their techniques, and their strategies, it’s all being filed away to (hopefully) be helpful later on. I have a list of military tactics to consider during the upcoming war, but having some deeper knowledge can only help. So, I hope you check out the newest chapter of The Dark Within and check back next week for another update!

Time for my weekly blog entry. Yet again, this is just a normal entry. No special prize inside. But I still hope that it will be a bit insightful divulging some of the inner workings while I’m going through this strange process of writing/editing my novels. First, if you haven’t noticed, I added a new chapter to The Dark Within, which is chapter three. That novel is going at a nice speed; let’s just hope it stays that way. Chapter two wasn’t my favorite. It seemed a little boring for a moment I built up for. So I will have to remedy that in the editing process. Chapter three I was really excited to write. It was the big bang where it all really started. I just hope I was able to convey it well enough. My excitement might have clouded my mind a bit. Either way, I will make everything better later on.

Right now I’m working on chapter four. The story seems to be trying to take me in directions that I hadn’t planned on. I had originally planned Granger’s big reveal for chapter two, but it just didn’t seem the right time. I felt like he would be a little more hesitant. I’m not even sure if having the reveal in chapter three was the right choice. It might be better to leave it until even later. Especially since another secret is about to come out in the next chapter or two. But I think it will stay, at least for now.

I am not trying to toot my own horn or anything, but I am falling in love with my new villain. I just have so much worked out for him, that to me he is such a deep character. Sadly, he is even better created than Kari. But when I began writing Kari, I didn’t think too much on her and she’s just grown into who she wants to be. But Onispela, I have chunks of background and motivation and personality and I can’t wait to write his scenes.

As for my editing, it’s getting there. As I write the second book, there are things that I need to change about the first one to make it all work out. Some things with Medwin were some important ones that I had to change. They are just subtle things, but if I didn’t change them, then the story with him would seem inconsistent. I also just went back and changed all the dialogue from either of the two horses that spoke to Kari. I finally decided to make that a bit more realistic and have their vocabulary and speech be a bit less advanced. I kept Sylvain the same. If I had to change him, that would be a whole lot of work. But Sylvain is special. He grew up with Kari and learned from her. A normal wild creature does not have the need to speak in such a way. But Sylvain was brought up by humans and learned from them. He may still be a bird, but he is also so much more than that.

Besides those, little things are changing all the time. I don’t know what the final product will be like yet. I don’t think any of the major parts will change, but I’m sure some tweaking will be in order. I’m excited to think of it finally being finished. It has been years in the making and I’m getting closer everyday. Not only that, but part of me can’t wait to finish these three books so I can stretch my legs and my mind a bit further. I want to create a fresh set of characters and plots. I’ve been trying my best to keep it at bay, but it’s bursting to come out. I guess it’s just in a writer’s nature to want to create. While I love this series, it’s in a sense my first born, I have learned so much since then. I want to take those new and improved skills and knowledge and put them to good use by creating an even better series. But until I’m at least in the process of writing my third book, I don’t think I can even begin to think about it. I do know that it will be set in the same world. When it will be set, I’m not sure. I want to keep the option of going back to the other series open if the inspiration ever strikes. But this is all farther in the future than I need to worry about right now. I have only two concerns right now. Foreseen and The Dark Within.

There hasn’t been another Behind The Book in the last few weeks since I’ve sorta almost had something worth blogging about. This week I will be continuing that trend. If it’s a good thing or a bad thing, that’s for you to decide. Anyway, I have finished the first round of editing for Foreseen (Yay!). Then I even took it a step further and began the second round. So far, I have only worked on chapter one. This second round will consists more of story/event changes. Some of the stuff in chapter one were moved around and the ending, where Kari and Ryker meet, changed to be slightly more realistic (at least I hope). With the changes in the chase scene, some little parts were dropped, but no biggie. So now most of the story is in the official “Garbage” stage and chapter one is in the “Crappy” stage. I think I’m working my way up to the “Done(ish)” stage quite well. As long as more stages aren’t added, I think I’ll be fine. If some stages are able to be skipped, all the better.

I also JUST completed chapter two for The Dark Within. It’s a little bland, but I’m thinking of waiting until later on (say, the editing stage) to fix that. It might be a fine draft as it is for the time being. I just want to get the book finished, since I have so much more to do. I’m just too excited for it to take as long as it did for me to finish a full draft of Foreseen. Anyway, that should be added a little later if anyone wants to take a look. I might start on chapter three tomorrow, I guess we’ll see. I never seem to get much of anything done over the weekend, especially Saturday.

I did come up with something else I need to fix while going through Foreseen. Today, as I was writing chapter two of TDW, I decided that I need to tone down the animals’ vocabulary. Sylvain is special though. People who have read it will know and others who haven’t will have to read the secret revealed in chapter 19 to find out. (Even though Kari’s influence on him over the years would have probably been enough to make him as advanced and unbirdlike as he is.) Talking of that scene, I need to also make it clear that Cael had no idea about Sylvain. And maybe add a few more questions from Kari.

Lots to do and the impatient part (the overly large part!) wants it all done now. But of course that is not how things work. I set goals for myself, but I just about always break them. I had wanted chapter two done yesterday, but it turned out I wasn’t as fast as I had hoped. If I have TDW done in 6 months I will be a very happy girl. And it will definitely beat my three year (?) record.

My first round of editing is almost complete. The warmer weather has caused some delays, but by the middle of the week I should be done. Then I might start round two, since I have some good feedback for the first chapter and am excited to put some of those changes in. But after the first two chapters, I might switch over to The Dark Within. I’m still unsure how I want to start the next chapter, but I’ll figure it out. Even though it can be distracting, I am so glad I am working on ideas/plotting before I even started writing them. With the first book, I didn’t have all that much thought out before I began writing, which has caused a bit of trouble. Especially since books two and three are so connected, I really have to make sure that I don’t trap myself in book two and make more work for myself. (Which I found I was close to doing.) In the first chapter, I introduce the Antagonist, Onisepla, and the reader finds out how old he is. So, what was the problem with that? Well, without giving too much away, his age is very important to the third book. Quite frankly, he wasn’t old enough to make the background story I had planned work. So, I had to go back and rethink his age and abilities. Now, Onisepla is a few hundred years older and a bit stronger than I had originally planned. This will require a bit of a reworking for the chapter, but I’ll get to that soon enough. While planning the next installments of the series is a good thing, it also has a down side. The biggest one? It can be a bit distracting when you are trying to edit a previous story and all you can think about is the new one floating around in your head. I’m not the kind of person who can easily go back and forth between them. The last thing I would want to do is get things mixed up. Plus, while I’m going through the first book again, it is refreshing my memory a bit, since it’s been a while since I even looked at most of it. Not only do I have three stories that are dying to be finished (or written), but I have a whole new series wanting to break through. I’ve been trying my hardest to keep it at bay. I have enough on my plate right now and a whole new series could really put a cramp on things. Of course, this is making me wish I had these three books completed so I can work on the new series, which might give me some motivation. But at the same time, I don’t want to move on to another series. I don’t want The Elementi series to be over with. Of course I could always go back, but I don’t know if flip-flopping from series to series is a great idea. Going from book to book is difficult enough. But somehow I will get through it. (Even if it’s not as soon as I’d like.) But here’s hoping that it gives me the kick in the butt I need.