WHAT ARE YOU WRITING?

[Lia Keyes]

What are you currently working on? Steampunk, Dieselpunk, Gaslight Mystery/Romance, NeoVictorian, Paranormal, alternative history?

Are you creating a world only flavored with Victorian mores and manners, or working closely with Victorian history, but subverting it?

[Xeno Gilder]

What I'm working on, and what I plan to work on.

Steampunk, alternate reality/world, Splatterpunk, Mechpunk, Mythospunk (just coined it, relating to Lovecraft), Greasepunk (another one, dirty and grimy world).

And I will be subverting whereever I can

 

[Jordan Stratford]

I'm writing a Crimean War story, where the cavalry is led by steam-driven mecha. It's the Charge of the Light Brigade, with robots.  There's a strong paranormal aspect, as it's three interlacing stories: a monster-hunting priest and his 16 year old protégé racing ahead of the Army to foil the plans of a rogue occultist; a young Hussar captain traveling to the front; and an American reporting traveling with Samuel Colt in the first airship crossing of the Pacific, which is a secret gun-running operation to the Russians.

The whole thing is a pastiche on the boys-own-adventure / ripping yarn tales cranked out in the turn of the century.  It's called "Mechanicals" and the first draft is due... Tuesday.

Back to work!

[Xeno Gilder]

Working on a story/novel where the Crimean War and other historical conflicts never occurred, a world that is free of such hardships, for more then one hundred years. This allowed steam technology to grow by leaps on bounds, so much so that the world has become choked with machinery. The people are obsessed with physically altering themselves to the point where there are hundreds of thousands of bio-mechanical people wandering the planet (SteamSphere). An unknown evil has taken over their world and the only hope is a daydreamer named Xeno Gilder, his girlfriend Antoinette, his Scientist friend Melville Yesod, and his dog Micky.

[D. A. Metrov]

I'm currently completing the third book in my "Falcon Lord" steampunk-fantasy series. I've also written "Machine of God," a Leonardo da Vinci historical fantasy which I describe as "machinepunk." I would hope my novels are excellent since I've been writing (read: working my a** off)  for 30 years! :) I'd love to know what everyone thinks. http://lightmasters.net

[Darke Conteur]

I'm working on (albeit, slowly) on a paranormal Steampunk adventure with erotic elements. I got all the way to ch 11, and then found a flaw in my plot, so I'm in the process of re-structuring. Ugh.    

[D. A. Metrov]

I've had this happen before. Often it helps to go back to the outline stage, and make sure that's working. Then I usually write a treatment, get feedback from a professional colleague to make sure the treatment is working, THEN flesh out the novel. It's always easier to fix things in earlier stages of the writing. btw... my next writing instruction video will be on Classic Story Structure. You'll want to check it out: http://lightmasters.net Cheers

[Darke Conteur]

Yes, I did go back to my original outline. My problem is that I'm introducing a new plot element into the original story. Something that will give the overall plot more depth (I hope), and it conflicted with some things I already had down and now, have to remove. I'm just glad I found this during my first draft. :)      

[D. A. Metrov]

Yeap, re-writing... that's what it's all about. :)

[Carlos Omar Arellano Sepulveda]

well after some time I thought it'd be nice to come and post an update on my current novel, the Planetary Romance/Space Opera Steampunk novel.

 

So far, space travel in 1899/1900 has proven to be a challenge to write, I have to adapt all the research to the 19th century technology and overall view of the world, research takes about half of my work time but I thik it's turning out well, being an Industrial Designer really helps to visualize the Spaceships, the setting and the technology.

Right now the novel is +330 pages long, it was expanded from 3 acts to 4 acts, the current act I'm writing is the begining of the third (chapter 15), overall Im quite happy but there is still a long way to go.

[Michael Grey]

I'm very much in the same position as you, Carlos.  What I thought would be around a 100,000 word novel is currently at 95,000 words and I'm judging I'm around a third of the way through what was my initial broad outline.  

I'm telling myself it will shorten through the re-write.... on the otherhand, I'm probably looking at a rewrite of over 200,000 words.

[Carlos Omar Arellano Sepulveda]

well I'm sitting at 167,448 words ATM, halfway trough.. at this point I think I could find a way to publish two books instead of one, (as every part is somewhat a complete story).

I'm accostumed to write the first draft as complete as posible, doing edition and necessary retcons along the way, in order to aim for few re-writings and a smooth editing process. While it is the slower way to work, it allows for different posibilities (like early promotion/editing, and-or serial publishing).

[Michael Grey]

t this point I think I could find a way to publish two books instead of one, (as every part is somewhat a complete story).

Well that's a bonus.  Did you aim for that, or did it just fall that way?  

I've been looking for a way I could do that myself, but my approach tends to be more organic.  I always start out with a plan, but that's always the first casualty.