Jill Williamson is a chocolate loving, daydreaming, creator of kingdoms. She writes weird books in lots of weird genres like fantasy (Blood of Kings and Kinsman Chronicles), science fiction (Replication), and dystopian (The Safe Lands trilogy). She has a podcast/vlog at www.StoryworldFirst.com. You can also find Jill on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or on her author website. Tagboth (Tag for short) is a goldhorn dragon from Belfaylinn, a hidden fantasy realm on the western end of the Sargasso Sea. Jill is working on the first book of this tale for this year’s Grow an Author series.
Today I am on the road, driving from the Portland, Oregon area to Shannon Dittemore’s home near Sacramento, California so that she and I and our friend Paul Regnier can teach a teen track at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers’ Conference! Arghphth! So. Excited.
I am looking forward to a great week, hanging out with writer friends and teen writers. My favorite!
When on the road like this, I can’t blog. I can’t do much work at all. (Though I am toying around with using a blue tooth ear piece to record myself talking. I’m going to see if it’s possible for me to audibly write a little during this super long road trip. If I succeed, I shall report back.) What I can do, however, is think. There is plenty of time for thinking while on the road. In fact, it’s a great time for brainstorming away major story problems. So that’s what I’m doing today. I’m going to think, think, think, just like Winnie the Pooh. And if that isn’t enough to do the trick, I will think, think, think all the way home again too. And by the time I’m back from this great adventure, I will have figured out the answers to some important problems with my story.
That means, before I left, I needed to prepare my list of problems so that I would have them handy while on the road. So I wrote in a notebook the following:
Onyx Eyes:
-How exactly does my new idea for traveling through the Thin Places work?
-Think through the disease that takes over Drake due to his bond with the dragon. Also, does the dragon get the same disease? Does it affect only the physical body or the mind as well?
-I have five chapters in part three with no story planned. Figure out what is going to happen in those five chapters!
-Figure out who Kaitlyn’s parents were and what they witnessed. Where they are now.
-Explore Kaitlyn-as-bard angle. Could be a bard is more than music.
-Where is the real Quinn?
-Why was the fake Quinn still in Kaitlyn’s home if he was supposed to be guarding the princess?
I have taken this list with me on the road. When I have worked through some of it, and when I stop for gas or lunch (because writing and driving don’t mix!), I’ll write down any notes I came up with so I won’t forget my genius ideas. Then when I am home next week, I’ll be ready to start writing.
Whoo hoo!