Hello, Readers! Clevenger here.

So, yeah. It has been a year! And we’ve got more to go. “Manticore’s Shadow” is going well. Our feedback is coming in bits and pieces and has been overwhelmingly positive. One of our Betas has already asked to be a Beta on “Shadow’s Reality” and the rest of the series as it comes.

While we did get a little surge on “Revelations of Shadow” the surge has faltered again. *whomp whomp* But why?

I think it’s fatigue. To a degree.

We’ve been living in this story for over 3 years now. Week after week, we dive through the twists and turns of Sainan and try to uncover the little gems that we can show to Readers. Balancing the intrigue plots of what WE know versus what the READER knows versus what the CHARACTERS know.

It’s challenging. But it’s also exhausting.

I’ve said before that writing a book was simultaneously the easiest and hardest thing I have ever done. It was easy because the story was there. I had an amazing cheerleader in my writing partner, pushing me to places that I had never gone. Writing became second nature. I easily moved from struggling to put 1500 words on a page for my first attempt; to putting 9000+ words a week in.

And as Graham said in his last post, it’s not about creativity or ability. I can still sit down and drop 2k words on a whim. I still know the character arcs that need to be discovered for “Revelations.” It’s just not being put on the page. And it’s a struggle.

The challenge of a symbiotic writer’s relationship with their writing partner is when they struggle, you struggle. The beauty in “Manticore” was that Graham fed the intrigue plot. He would drop scene after scene of our Big Bad Evil Guy (BBEG) and their twisted plot. Manipulative scenes where you saw how many strings they were pulling.

Between these, I would swoop in with character arcs and exposition scenes drawing lines between the narrative and setting the backdrop. We got into a rhythm that exploded into two full books. But when the illness hit, Graham lost a bit of that. His vision of the intrigue for Book 3 was clouded. Suddenly, the questions were being asked of me, and I didn’t have an answer. Intrigue is not my strong suit.

Without my navigation points, I struggle to put words on the page, because I need my “springboard.”

Now, here’s the plus side. We have a full book written. I am proud to say, that not many people can say that. And what’s more… nobody can take it away from us. We did that. It happened. So all of our next goals (publication, finishing books 2-4, etc.) are AHEAD of themselves because we did the first one. The biggest one. We wrote a book!

Now, Graham and I talk about how do we get to the next phase… and well, it looks different for both of us.

I cannot move on from Sainan. Not yet. Until we complete this story, my brain will not plan other stories. I have “snippets” or ideas of characters, or setting, or plot concepts… but nothing will coalesce. So I have to turn my creative juices to other projects. I have returned to building the campaign setting (the circle completes) that Sainan was going to be. Building races, and magic and subclasses all designed to put this on the table at one point and immerse my players in this world.

I have also started a small writing project that doesn’t require me to generate the story. It’s a “hybrid” almost “fan-fic” style of writing (that I cannot go into details about due to “reasons”) that challenges just my ability to write, not be a storyteller.

Graham needs to take a break from Sainan and tell some new stories, just to get the ideas that have built up for three years out and allow him to come back and restructure the parts that he knows are still there, but need his “world-building brain” fully engaged.

Just like him, I keep a screen up, with the “Scene Drafts” document (which is what we call our Manuscript), open and peruse it from time to time, looking for the next “spark.” Because, I know… somewhere… its in there. Or will be.

I have no doubts that “Revelation of Shadows” and “Shadows of the Dead” (Book 4) will be completed. They are two books that just need to be written. And you see… we’ve already written a book. So I know we can do it.

Until next time.

Be Kind.

-Clevenger