Ending and Beginning

(Reposted from 07/31/08)

We've timed our posts on the SFA website so that the ending to the first book will be posted on 8/6/08. And, as you might have heard from JLY's post, we're planning on starting the second book and posting the first scene by 8/8/08. Hopefully this isn't too ambitious, considering JLY and I have spent the last few weeks editing and polishing Book 1, instead of starting Book 2...

At any rate, the beginning of Book 2 also coincides with the end of copious amounts of free time-- JLY is off to get some more book-learnin', I'm headed back into the working world, and even KM Ricker is returning to the trenches of art school.) So, we'll be returning to once-a-week updates that will most likely take place on Fridays.

Even though starting the second book is a little daunting from this side of it, there's something exhilaratingly about standing at the edge of this new book. Writing the end of the first book was a lot of tying up loose ends and pulling the plot together. There wasn't too much room for random scenes or whimsical asides, and for that matter, the story was mostly in place so we didn't even need to do that much creating. It was mostly just finishing out the road map that we had put in place.

But! Now that we're starting the second book, it feels like there's nothing but time and freedom. There are a lot of fun questions to be asked and answered. How has summer changed each of the adventurers? Will people relate the same way as they did before? Yes, we've got an outline for where the plot is going, but there's much more freedom than we've been used to operating under.

The feeling of starting over with a new book, is, I suppose, one of possibilities. And what I love about SFA is that these possibilities are everywhere. It's fun to try to figure out which possibilities to run with, and where to take them. Well, hopefully by 8/8/08, we'll all know where these possibilities lead.

<3

KL

As Though We Planned It

(Reposted from 07/11/08)

If you're following along on the School For Adventurers website, you'll be reading Chapter 11: Final Examinations over the next couple of weeks. This chapter was fun to write, so hopefully it'll be at least equally fun to read. ^_^

By the way, if anyone is wondering if we planned the last names to work out so that there would be certain groups for the Final Examinations, I can honestly admit that it was one of many fun coincidences that JLY and I luck into every so often. We have a saying whenever we stumble across something that we didn't plan, but that works out perfectly and just makes too much sense. We say: As though we planned it.

Because, in all honesty, we both know that the kinds of things we're pulling together for the end of SFA should have been planned and set up months in advance, and somehow, some of these things are just falling together. And even though there are things we have been setting up for months and months now, it's sometimes more exciting to realize there's something hiding in our text that we ourselves didn't even plant there. It makes the writing feel true-- like we're just transcribing something that's not arbitrary or made up, but something that had to be called into existence in just this way, to work out and tie together in all these places.

By the way, maybe this is only funny to me, but you'd be surprised how long it took us to come up with the line:

“Not bad, Wisteria.” Lyre said. “But, this isn’t sparring class. [...] You forgot about Sariil.”

For about twenty minutes, we were stuck on:

“Not bad, Wisteria,” Lyre said, “But you forgot one thing. Sariil’s-behind-you-with-a-rock!”

<3

KL

Finished.

(Reposted from 07/08/08)

Around 1AM, I wrote this entry in my journal:

"Today marks the 1-year point of SFA. Exactly 1 year ago today, we started posting the prologues and chapters, and we've held to posting at least one scene per week for the entire year...

That's something that I'm proud of, to make it a year.

And now we're finishing the book. Aside from the daunting task of delivering a good ending that doesn't disappoint, there's also a certain sense of... not loss, not closure-- something in between. A good bye, of sorts.

Well, at least, luckily, I'm not particularly employed at the moment, and JLY has more free time than usual, so we'll be able to devote 7/7/08 to the writing marathon that it deserves.

And, if nothing else, I have absolute faith in our ability to sit down and churn out work for as many hours as it takes.

JLY and I spent all of high school learning exactly how much we can accomplish in any given day-- and the answer is staggering. You never know your limits until you're pushed, and high school definitely pushed us to our breaking points. I've never worked harder than in high school, not even in college, although perhaps at that point, I had learned my limits.

At any rate, I have faith that we can finish this thing, and finish it out right. Working hard and fast and with a good work product? Why, that's exactly what we've been trained to do..."

And, as it turns out, after that journal entry, JLY and I proceeded to meet up today and write, write, write until, at last, we finished. Finished! Maybe I'm still a little giddy with disbelief. It was only about twenty minutes ago that we typed in the last sentence, looked it all over, and realized we were done.

So, I guess that's how this story ends. ^_^

<3

KL

Countdown to Disaster, Part Deux

(Reposted from 07/07/08)

I named our timeline to finish the end of the book "Countdown to Disaster" as something part poke, part joke. A motivational poke because KL and I still need inspiration to get through the final preparations for tomorrow; a joke because I know, of course, hands-down, without a doubt that we're going to finish everything on time. Ne, KL? =)

Anyway, as KL and I are write our free time away trying to get SFA into shape for our 7/7 deadline, I'm getting the opportunity to reflect on everything we've done. Watching everything come together is both stunningly startling and sumptuously satisfying.

The end of a book has always been my inner-writer's weakness. It's *hard* to finish a book, and quite difficult to tie all your characters and plots together and make meaning out of all the writing that has come before. It's something that I've never really been able to do, so as the first time actually writing and finishing an entire book, the end comes as a rewarding and pleasing surprise.

As KL has pointed out, all our scenes are falling together quite easily because of the pieces and clues we've laid throughout the rest of the book. Our hardest task is, well, firstly, remembering all those pieces, and secondly, weaving together something that comes out quickly but still retains the high quality of writing we've managed to maintain throughout the book. I think we're doing a good job. An old proponent of waiting for inspiration to strike, I used to be skeptical when I read in writing books that you should set aside time for writing every day and practice it. Now that KL and I have been writing pretty much every day, I have to say that coming up with and phrasing our ideas is becoming much easier because of the time we spend on it. Not that we don't have our blocks every now and then, but we still manage to work through them.

At any rate, I look forward to being able to share the rest of the book with all its readers as we start updating more frantically.

I hope everyone comes back to read the second book, coming out 08/08/2008!

<3,

JLY

Countdown to Disaster

(Reposted from 07/02/08)

JLY and I have been writing at a break-neck speed to meet our 7/7/08 deadline for finishing SFA. We've finished writing Chapter 10 and Chapter 11, which is currently titled Final Examinations. We've started on Chapter 12, and we're making good progress on it. I think we've actually got good odds of finishing by the deadline. I'm pretty optimistic, even though I recently discovered that the document we use to keep track of our time line for what we need to write is titled "Countdown to Disaster.doc"-- clearly JLY has tons of faith in our ability to write quickly =P (Alternate nicknames for it include "The Time Line of Doom"...)

Yet, somehow, we're writing and writing and almost done. And, it's actually been a lot of fun. One of the many great things about writing the final chapters is that the story is falling into place much more easily than I would have expected. Even JLY and I had forgotten some of the elements that we'd purposely set in place earlier in the story, and when we rediscover them, we're usually delighted. Now it's just a matter of tying it all together and not being lazy-- and by that, I mean pushing ourselves to make every scene interesting, fun, and exciting. Which I think we've managed to do lately, hopefully, even though we're writing at such a frantic pace. Well, not too much time left, and we've still got the biggest scenes to tackle, so wish us luck!

<3

KL

Working Backwards and Thoughts on Creating

(Reposted from 06/24/08)

JLY and I had some time over the weekend-- about 7 hours in a car, to be exact-- so we ended up discussing the last few chapters of SFA. Oddly enough, we mostly ended up working backwards. We know right now how the last two chapters go. We've known that for some time, so mapping out the ending was easy. Turns out that it's getting to those last two chapters that will be a bit tricky, but I'm optimistic that we can get there soon.

We've got this arbitrary goal-- like all of our goals, it's a combination of silliness and mild compulsion. We'd like to be done with SFA by 7/7/08. Which will be the 1-year mark for when we first began posting SFA. Aww. ^_^

On the other hand, that's a pretty aggressive deadline for us to meet. I can only imagine that the next two weeks will be busy. In thinking about all of this, I ended up reading an old entry in my diary about the scary side of writing. Because as fun as it is to write, when you're working towards something, and trying to be clever, you can't help feeling a little scared.

Anyway, here's an excerpt of the entry. It's over-dramatic, silly, completely rambling, and, since it's my journal, there's not much sense of grammar. Also, I've probably tipped my hand about how much I enjoy using an ellipses every other sentence... JLY would never let me get away with this in our professional writing. =)

"Writing is such a... strange thing. It can't be formulaic, so there's no real formula. It can't be repetitive or cliche, or draw too much on anything else, so while skill and craft help, they can only get you so far.

That's why, I imagine, we have the mythology of muses and inspiration, why there are books on how to write and writer's block... because writing is half magic and half miracle, and completely out of our control.

Maybe that's why many writers are insecure. Because as many times as we reach into the ether and pull back a story, we're worried that the next time we reach, there'll be nothing there... and that this part of us, this fundamental part, this power that we've somehow been handed, will be gone.

Because there's nothing so terrifying as that moment before creation-- that moment when there's Nothing, and you want there to be Something, and you stand at the edge of the abyss, reaching and reaching, and hoping, desperately, that this won't be the time when you come away empty handed.

I can say I've written a couple of good things in the past. I can say that I've been writing almost my whole life. But there's still that other half-- the half that has nothing to do with craft and experience, the half that's so elusive... the half that makes it fun and unexpected. It's that part that surprises and pleases you. The terrible moment of creating, where it starts to feel real. The part where it's magic."

<3

KL

The End Game

(Reposted from 06/12/08)

So, JLY and I have reached that tricky part of writing where not only are we more done than not-done, but done is actually in sight. I don't know about JLY, but it's always this point in writing where it gets tempting for me to look back at the beginning, and start questioning whether or not I should be re-writing some of the earlier parts instead of finishing up.

For me, my writing style is always changing-- mostly in small stylistic ways, but over the course of a year, those little changes add up. And, looking back, JLY and I have been writing SFA for just about a year now.

Every now and then, when JLY and I can't remember things about our own characters, we somewhat sheepishly go to the website to check the facts. It was while checking some facts about Rai Ravin that I ended up re-reading some of the early chapters of SFA. It was a strange experience. I don't remember writing most of it, and I'll admit that I'm actually looking forward to tightening up the plot when we make it to the rewrites.

But! I'm holding myself and JLY to the policy of finishing this story all the way through before we look back at anything. One of the benefits of posting the story online is that it forces us to forge ahead, whether or not we're feeling reluctant. And, since I can't count the number of stories that I've never finished because I got stuck fixing the beginning or the middle, I think it's a good idea to get it all finished before we start second-guessing ourselves.

If I had to estimate, I'd say that we're about 80% through SFA. That other 20% is starting to feel pretty far away right now, particularly since we're beginning to tie up all of the different subplots... and we're at the point where it either comes together in a way that makes sense, or tangles up into an impossible knot that takes weeks of rewriting to sort out.

Well, in high school, JLY was fond of saying with hope and much luck, and I think that sentiment applies well right now: with hope and much luck, we'll be able to pull together the right kind of ending for SFA.

<3

KL