Sadly realizing that most of my favorite fantasy creatures could not physically exist in reality.

Reaching The End

I finally rewrote the end of the novel for the second draft. In the end, it’s far closer to what I wanted than what I had originally. It actually feels like the end of a book this time. Is it emotional? Oh yes. Does it leave room for a second book? Definitely. Am I asking too many questions? Most certainly. Should I stop asking them? Ok, ok, fine. Anyway, I’m much happier with the end product…

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Reaching The End

I finally rewrote the end of the novel for the second draft. In the end, it’s far closer to what I wanted than what I had originally. It actually feels like the end of a book this time. Is it emotional? Oh yes. Does it leave room for a second book? Definitely. Am I asking too many questions? Most certainly. Should I stop asking them? Ok, ok, fine.

Anyway, I’m much happier with the end product than I was before. I still have tons of stuff to edit. About 50-100 pages, to be precise. It’s actually far less than I’m making it out to be, but it’s a decent sum. 

In case y’all want a real emotional trip, here’s link to the song I listened to while writing the end. 

It’s a trip to Sad-Mart, where your greeters are Melancholy and Dismay.

It’s pretty sad.

In good news, I have recently arrived at school for my senior year at good old Liberty University! I have an excellent year in front of me, mainly because I never have to wake up before 9:30 for any reason whatsoever. I mean, I still do because they give me bacon if I come to breakfast, but I don’t have to. Technically.

This is the life of a Fine Arts student. 

In the meantime, I plan to raise awareness of the awesome Dark Veil Saga by creating the life size version of “Leviathan Killer” in some media besides metal. I don’t want to kill anyone by fake-stabbing them, which is the ultimate purpose of this endeavor.

I also now have an Instagram (sirgabrielpenn) so you should all follow me for cool book/writing/reading stuff! I’m super sorry about those awards and challenges I’ve missed recently, so now that I have so much time I’m going to try to get to some of them. “Try” is the key word. There’s a lot of them.

Expect a revamping of short stories and Faith Friday soon!!

That awkward moment when you’re reading about query letters and they say it’s nice to have credentials – and you realize… you have no credentials. You have literally no credentials to write this novel thing at all. You don’t even have an English degree.

That’s probably the most distressing thing ever.

Writing Deaths

What do writers go through when writing deaths? Well, let me tell you…

As many people are not writers, I feel like explaining the thought process of a writer after writing a death of a character. Contrary to popular belief, we do not thrive on the thought of ourselves as an evil God of destruction while doing it. Ok, maybe a little, but there’s way more to it. So here it is, the written description, at least what happens to me:

Stage 1: The Grim Reaper. The writer…

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Writing Deaths

As many people are not writers, I feel like explaining the thought process of a writer after writing a death of a character. Contrary to popular belief, we do not thrive on the thought of ourselves as an evil god of destruction while doing it. Ok, maybe a little, but there’s way more to it. So here it is, the written description, at least what happens to me:

Stage 1: The Grim Reaper. The writer has not yet actually written this scene, but is plotting this character’s demise. The writer does this not for shock sake, but mostly because they need to die. That’s one of the cores to a fantasy book, I think… someone has to die.

Stage 2: The Procrastinator. So now the writer actually has to write this death down. But, depending on whether they’ve written a death before or not, they avoid it. We remember what happened to us the last time we wrote someone’s death.

Stage 3: The Death Note. Now they must do the deed – someone must die. And now it is their time to write that death in all its emotional, traumatic detail. Every word feels like blood pouring from your pen, but it must be done.

Stage 4: The God Complex. You’ve done it. You’ve killed your own creation.

Stage 4: The Banshee. Then comes the stage that almost no one knows about, the mourning stage. We mourn for our characters. We typically feel like we just killed our own child. We sort of did. And that’s what makes us feel like a disgusting monster.

Stage 5: The Guardian Angel. We desperately attempt to find a way to keep this person alive. There must be a way! We must be able to save them! There must be some way to bring back the dead!

Stage 6: The Accepter. You realize that there’s really no way to keep them alive. When you said there was no other way originally, you meant it. And now you know that your readers will think you’re an awful person for all this. But no, you’re not a monster. You’re just a writer.

So, for those who have written books before, what happens to YOU with writing deaths?