Life, Writing, Story

Hi everyone, It’s been a while since I posted. Here’s an update:

Personal life

I applied to dental school this year, was waitlisted but didn’t receive final admission. Now I’m left with a year off. I could write full-time since I live with my parents (yes, I’m a 23-year-old parasite). However, it might be best if I get a job in the meantime–wrote full-time during the summer, now broke. I’m looking at English teaching positions abroad. Not having any teaching experience or qualifications isn’t helping, but my Bachelor of Science seems to at least act as a key. I’ll keep you updated on my adventure.

 

Writing

Writing full-time during the summer was absolute bliss. Heaven. I’ll never experience such freedom again in my life. I got to write all I want, world build, etc. Overall, I had the chance to produce ~59,000 words of my first draft—I’m actually proud of where the story is going and the world I’ve built. I very well should/could have finished the first draft of my book over summer, however, I’ve come to realize, I need to edit as I go. My OCD doesn’t allow me to move on until I’m very satisfied with a particular chapter—though, this is only possible because I plot very tightly. (Even so, as the story progresses I take note of revisions I should make to improve the story and better fit the plot, etc.)

I write slow. But, that’s the perfectionist in me. I just want to produce a strong first draft so subsequent drafts will be even better.

 

My Current Project

I’ve spent enough time figuring out my story that I’m comfortable discussing it now. There are several layers to the story, but the epic storyline could be summarized as: The sun is about to die; the protagonist is out to set fire to the sun. (It might sound like SciFi, but it’s certainly High Fantasy with no rockets, etc.)

The world I’ve created is unique as well, very different from our own—both flora and fauna. (Thank you, Brandon Sanderson, for expanding my mind, showing me the extent to which a fictional world can be built.) Coming from a genetics/evolutionary biology background, the world building was (and still is) very fun. For the first time in my life, I played God! I’ll post more details about the world when I’m finished writing the book. (That hopefully won’t be too many years from now, Ha!)

 

Thank you for reading! Hope you have a wonderful day. 🙂

-Thomas J Benedict