It’s incredible how much you can accomplish when you cut down on distractions.  By just preventing myself from going to Facebook, or following my slew of RSS Feeds, I’ve managed to churn out 5 – Five! – chapters in a little over a week.

So that you understand the significance of that, I had only six complete chapters to show after six years of working on this project.  That’s a chapter a year, although honestly the vast majority of that was written this year.

Anyway, things are really coming along.  I’ve actually “reconfigured” the first six chapters, changing the setting to circumvent a rather troublesome situation that disrupted the story’s pacing and flow.  When I consider how much re-writing I’ve done on Poguri and the Land of Nou, I realize that I’ve probably written enough to fill ten novels.  And that’s fine, because once it’s all said and done, the final product will reflect all the hard work I’ve put into it.

Now it’s time to stop distracting myself with blog writing and to get back to story writing!

Yet another change.  And another big one at that.  I reported in my last story update that I was going to focus more on Maddie in order to better tie together the Waking storyline with the Land of Nou storyline.  Turns out that didn’t work at all.  As much as I like Maddie as a character, she was never intended to be the main character – that was, obviously, always supposed to be Poguri.  So I’ve been putting a lot of work in, going to critique groups, really rethinking the whole thing.

And the results have been promising.  It is getting to a point where I may actually be “outgrowing” the critique groups, because most of the feedback has been small nitpicks like ellipses at the ends of sentences requiring another period – that is, a fourth dot.  Or my occasional overuse of the word “that”.  In terms of content, flow, engagement – it all seems to be there, and that excites me.

Oh, right, and then there’s this minor development: I applied to and was accepted into Goddard College’s MFA in Creative Writing Program.  This is significant for two main reasons beyond the obvious:

1. It means that my writing has improved substantially in the year since I was rejected 4 separate times by MFA programs
2. The low-residency model of those programs that rejected me?  Goddard College invented it.  And they accepted me.  So how do you think I feel about those rejections now?  Couldn’t care less?  That’s right.

So it is my plan to either finish Land of Nou as my capstone for the program, or to finish it during the program.  Either way, what this means is that I can expect to produce a publish-worthy product in the not too distant future.

And that is exciting.

Another fantastic piece by Paul Davey:

Poguri's Awakening

The chapter corresponding to this illustration can be read here:

Poguri’s Awakening
http://www.poguri.com/awakening/

Another sample chapter of Poguri and the Land of Nou is now available for viewing. Poguri’s Awakening provides our first look at the world of dreams.

Actually completed months ago, this chapter has gone through extensive revisions, some revolving around a struggle with point of view, and others a complete re-imagining of how to introduce our hero, Poguri.

I hope you all enjoy the chapter, and please feel free to leave me any feedback, as constructive criticism are the essential vitamins and minerals we writers need!

For those of you who follow the progress on this project at all, you’ve probably read Maddie’s nightmare sequence several times as it has gone through countless revisions and new incarnations.  Well now you’re in for a treat.  The first illustration by artist Paul Davey is a scene from Maddie’s nightmare, and he has more than lived up to my expectations.  Leave a comment, let me know what you think.

Maddie's Nightmare

Thanks to some critical feedback, I’ve decided to make another major change to the focus of the novel. Originally the story switched back and forth between the real life conflicts of the Dreamers and their adventures in the Land of Nou. But it became unwieldy – Poguri’s story (he is the main character lest I forget) was being obscured.

So then I decided to focus more on Maddie, as developing one character more thoroughly gave the story more focus than delving into the personal details of six or so. But as is my tendency, I tried to stuff too much “other stuff” into the novel that didn’t belong, such as some of my real life passions around certain social issues. I vowed from the start that Land of Nou would not be any sort of social commentary, but as I continued to write out Maddie’s story, that’s exactly what it was becoming.

And this created a schism between the Waking and the Dreaming, and a the problem of Maddie’s story having very little to do with the overall conflict in the Land of Nou.  Lest I forget, the story is called Land of Nou!  Now I have decided that the dreamers will be introduced as they were originally – their dreams opening paths to the Land of Nou – but that from there the setting will remain in the Land of Nou, and not delve into the Dreamers’ Waking narratives at all.  There will be a strong Waking component – something I cannot reveal – but it is directly relevant to the conflict in the Land of Nou, which makes for a more focused story.  With this decision I have been able to resume writing, although the going is still slow.  But one word at a time is better than no words at all.

Sometimes real life is the biggest obstacle to fantasy – writing it, anyway. It’s been months since I’ve done any serious work on the story, and I wish I could say it was because I’m juggling work and school or some similar excuse, but the truth is that I just haven’t been inspired.

On some level I think that maybe I’m not cut out to be the writer of this story. While I believe the concept to be sound, I am not certain I have the know-how to flesh it out fully into prose. Every book that I read for inspiration actually seems to have the opposite effect, that is making me painfully aware of how I am lacking as a writer.

Pony Ride

But there is hope. One of the things that usually always stirs my inspiration is new artwork. I’ve recently started a collaboration with an artist named Paul Davey, whose style coincides with a new desire to take the illustrations into a more “realistic” direction.  On top of that, his work also blurs the line between fantasy and reality, which is one of the main themes in Poguri and the Land of Nou.

Now tell me, did you notice the  two giant bears in the background?  If not, look again.

That I found Mr. Davey at all was nothing short of what Carl Jung would refer to as synchronicity, but that cynics might consider a mere coincidence.  Either way, I foresee a very fruitful partnership, and hope that I can draw some inspiration from his work and put it towards finishing the novel.

Over the past few days – corresponding to the arrival of a new laptop – I’ve had a real surge of motivation.  In no time at all, after what must’ve been a several-month spell of writer’s block, I’ve managed to churn out a prologue and five complete chapters.  In addition, I have a better sense of where the story is going and how I’ll take it there.

I’ve made some vital changes to Poguri, namely how he’s introduced, as well as making the critical decision to make Maddie the primary dreamer character.  Part of what had made the story overwhelming to write, I think, was that I was planning on jumping back and forth between the adventures in Nou and the real life troubles of five different characters.  It was just too much!  And if it was too much for me as a writer, then it certainly would’ve been too much for the reader.

The surge spilled over into the urge to make a few aesthetic changes here on the website – you may have noticed the top banner now uses a part of one of the scene illustrations instead of the black and white scheme.  On top of that, I’ve added the ability to toggle between a “Day” and “Night” theme – the former featuring brighter colors and the dreamers in the side bar, the latter using darker colors and featuring the bogeys in the sidebar.  The banners are different for each one, too.

So that’s all for now.  Here’ s hoping the streak continues and I’m able to get this book done sometime in the next year.

It’s probably not a secret to anyone who follows this blog – and I’m actually convinced that no one does – but I haven’t even touched the novel in weeks.  My plan to write 2 pages per day was derailed by a serious lapse in confidence, and a general lack of motivation.  It also doesn’t help that most of every day is spent engaged in some really soul-draining work.  Still, there is hope.

God's Debris

Recently I’ve been reading the works of Scott Adams of Dilbert fame, not the Dilbert books themselves, but God’s Debris and The Religion War.  Apart from the stimulating content of these works, Adams chose to write them in a way that would appeal to people with short attention spans – like young people.  My attention span of late has shortened, just in that I find a need to fill my every waking moment with some sort of stimulation.

So I’ve found Adams’ works to be enjoyable in that he spares the reader the usual excess of details.  Both books can be finished in one sitting – a few hours at most, and in a way, it’s refreshing.  Applying this to Poguri and the Land of Nou, I think that perhaps I have been stalled by some need to write the next epic children’s novel.  In my determination to write something that was “literature” as well as entertainment – i.e. socially and/or culturally relevant – I’ve gotten caught up in the details.

The thought occured to me before to write the Land of Nou story as a series of chapter books – short 150-200 page affairs that a child could tear through in an afternoon.  My commitment to writing an epic sidelined that idea before it had the opportunity to blossom.  Now the idea has returned, and I’ve come to realize that the chapter book format does not necessarily preclude the work from being classified as literature.

The tenative plan now is to give each major character individual attention – to tell the overall story from each of their perspectives as they travel back and forth between the waking world and the Land of Nou.  With my current day job scheduled to end soon due to lay-offs, I should have more time to devote to the projects which really matter to me.  Poguri and the Land of Nou, of course, is at the top of that list.

So you’ve all probably noticed – I mean you better have noticed – that I’ve changed the website design.  It still echoes the original design, but I definitely like this one a lot better, for the contrast between color and black and white, and the not-so blocky style.  The main reason for this change was to unite the blog with the main site, and to start using Wordpress to update everything, which makes my life a lot easier.  Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the new layout!