I’ve spent the last 6 months or so over on Substack, keeping a log of my Writing Accountability Project for my current work in progress (WIP), the murder mystery/thriller/adventure novel that I’ve been banging around since last year.
When I started writing the draft in earnest in June of this past year, I had a goal of finishing the story by December 31. As it is now December 31, and I have not finished the story draft, I obviously have not completed that goal. But I am close! I started out with 0 words, and I put together nearly 75,000 in these past 6 months. In reality, I wrote about twice that, but I’ve struck roughly 67,000 words as being not good enough for the first draft. Those deleted phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and scenes go into my “Scrap” file, which I sometimes return to over the course of revision, or when I move on to a new story but like a previously-used turn of phrase, description, or dialogue.
Substack doesn’t get me much, so I’ve considered exporting those posts and just putting everything here on my own website. Of course, this place doesn’t get much traffic, either, but it is the repository I want for all of my stuff eventually, and it is a site I can control, unlike anywhere else on the World Wide Web. So, I’ll be putting some effort into some sort of organization for this place and the up-and-coming stories I’ve got in mind.
2024 was a solid step toward me reaching the writing goal of finishing this original story. I hope that 2025 will see it move closer to publication.
I made some other strides in 2024, too! I finally finished “Without Wings” and got it to paperback status, including a gorgeous commissioned cover. There was also the set of character illustrations I had done, from another artist, for my mystery story. In all, a good year for creativity and sharing the joy of storytelling.
My goal for 2025? Write well, write often, write fearlessly. Because every story matters.
I recently pushed to paperback printing my third novel-length DC fan fiction project, Without Wings. This particular story went through three separate revisions over the course of three years. If you’re curious about the plot, visit the page linked to above.
One thing I did differently for Without Wings was to commission an artist for the paperback’s cover:
I was introduced to the unique style of Ness, Bats in the Belfry Art, through a poster she did for the Cybertronic Spree’s “Ravage” album. From that, I gushed over the other work on her website, and picked up a few of her zines and smaller prints. But there was something special about her line art and color work that stayed with me.
I did the covers for all my other printed works, either by hand or from using stock images. They’re okay – serviceable – though I dare say that the cover for Baby, You’re Making Me Crazy is the most fun, as it gets the closest to a comic drawing. For months, I tried to come up with a similar idea for my Golden Eagle story. I knew it had to feature Eagle in some fashion, but I also wanted it to showcase the two main supporting characters, Veranyi and M’Rayeh. When I remembered Ness’s art, I decided to reach out to see if she was interested.
To my utter delight, Ness accepted the job! She sent me three thumbnail ideas: one of Eagle in his armor, one with his wings and axe, and one with his helmet, with Veranyi and M’Rayeh in reflection. I liked all of the thumbnails, but the helmet one really grabbed me. I told Ness to pursue the helmet one, and in less than two weeks, it was real. And beautiful, I should add, far beyond what I could have hoped for! It’s such a gorgeous painting, I decided not to put any title text on it, just left it be in all its colorful glory.
Ness created something wonderful, a collaboration between my words and her artistic skill. That’s a synchronicity that you can only achieve with a real artist. I knew that any generative AI image wouldn’t be able to capture the feeling I wanted this cover image to convey, let alone give it any personality. If you’re considering creating a cover or any supplemental art for your next story or writing project, I urge you to go to a real artist. Find one who can bring your vision to life with their unique style. They are out there.
I couldn’t be happier with this cover to Without Wings. And I’ve got a real, human artist to thank for that.
The “Writing Accountability Project” is a catalog of my process and progress for my supernatural murder mystery/thriller novel I’m currently working on (2024).
I’m still working on my occult detective story. A problem I ran into is that the original draft started with the protagonist (Isa) and did not present to the reader a body, as the genre is meant to do. I’m not averse to playing against genre rules in my fanfiction, but for a story I am interested in publishing someday soon, I figure I need to adhere more closely to what’s expected of me. My writer/editor friend Kate Johnston suggested a prologue.
I hashed this out in an afternoon. My hope is that it provides the reader with the body necessary to get this occult murder mystery adventure started. If you’re interested, take a look and let me know what you think?
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