What It's Like to Write An Epic Fantasy

  Anyone who follows me on social media may have noticed my burst of excitement in the last week due to finishing the first half of The Wandering (which is the sequel to the first book in my fantasy series)*. I was super excited because I'd been working on/off with it for SO LONG. I believe I finished the first book (The Awakening) in June 2015, so pretty much ever since that following fall I've been working on this one. Granted, I wrote/edited/published 2 other books in that timeframe (The Sorceress and the Squid and Faithless) but still. It's been a long journey, and I'm ready to set it aside for a bit and focus on some new things this spring.

  Buuuuuuuuuttttttttttttt....I thought that wrapping up that project for now offered the perfect opportunity for me to talk about What It's Like to Write An Epic Fantasy (with GIFS)! So let's get into it, shall we?

  *Did I mention that it's over 87,000 words long???



WHEN YOU REALIZE YOU'VE BEEN WORKING ON ONE SINGLE STORY FOR A LITERAL DECADE




WHEN YOU CATCH UP TO SOME OF THE SCENES YOU WROTE AHEAD OF TIME



WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT SHARING YOUR SERIES AS IS BECAUSE YOU LOVE THE WORLD/CHARACTERS SO MUCH BUT REMEMBER IT'S LITERAL TRASH





WHEN YOU REALIZE THAT YOU NEED TO GO IN AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT DIRECTION WITH THE ARCS OF SOME OF YOUR MC'S AFTER 10 YEARS...





WHEN YOU REREAD SCENES W/ DEAD CHARACTERS AND REMEMBER THE GOOD TIMES WHEN YOU DIDN'T HAVE DEAD CHARACTERS



WHEN THINGS GET SO DARK EVEN YOU ARE BEGINNING TO QUESTION YOURSELF



WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT ALL THE EDITING YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO DO....SOMEDAY





WHEN YOU REMEMBER THAT YOU CAN'T EDIT 500,000+ WORDS IF YOU DIE BEFORE YOU FINISH WRITING THEM


I've never actually seen this in GIF form...


WHICH IS TOTALLY GONNA HAPPEN SEEING AS YOU TOOK TEN YEARS TO WRITE 1.5 BOOKS




WHEN YOU REALIZE YOU'RE BASICALLY GEORGE RR MARTIN





WHEN YOU WONDER IF YOU SHOULD QUIT, BUT REMEMBER THAT YOU LOST TEN YEARS OF YOUR LIFE TO THIS AND YOU GOTTA SEE IT END





  So there you have it, just some bits and pieces of what it's like to write an epic fantasy. Have any of you gone through this terrible but awesome experience? What's your favorite epic fantasy series? Let me know in the comments below!

Comments

  1. That's so exciting and cool! Congratulations!!! :D

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  2. I gave one shot in fantasy fiction. Finished up a few years ago and put in on my blog. It took me a year just to do a 10,000 word short story! After that one year worth of short story, I can say I HAVE written fantasy short story that I posted on my blog as chapters and will likely stay on my blog. Good job on yours!

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    Replies
    1. Wow, that's awesome! Fantasy fiction is definitely hard work. Thank you!

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  3. HAHAHA! Perfect. :) I love it.

    Yeah, at least you're doing better than I am. My series has been stuck in my head for well over a decade and the book I'm currently working on (second in the series) has been in WIP status for five years. And it's long too! I'm already at 150K and I have 18 more chapters left to write. I had to release a novella and a few short stories just to prove to myself that I can, in fact, be brief.

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    Replies
    1. I don't know what it is about creating a new world, but it's really hard not to explore ALL OF IT. And that takes a lot of words. XD

      Here's to someday finishing our epic series! :D

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  4. Hahaha I love this!! Congratulations on finishing your project!

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