I really never stop writing. Some people seem to have trouble getting started or deciding what to say. That’s not my problem. Anyhow, I’m not here to talk about my problems today. This is just an update on my current writing projects.
Norse mythology
In early April, I wrote the ending of my Norse mythology reimagining. It took me another few weeks to transcribe my handwritten changes, and then I started adding the last few sections to fill in some gaps in the plot. The section I added most recently is deeply offensive and totally hilarious. The project is still incomplete, but it is most of the way there. I have been working on it for 13 months now, and it’s currently 75,608 words long. I will probably finish it in the next month or two.
Poetry collection 1
I recently began writing a collection of new poetry inspired by Ovid’s Fasti. Fasti is chiefly concerned with Pagan holidays, the structure of the calendar, and the history behind the names of the months. Anyone who has read my novella Rise of the Pagans will know that these are longstanding interests of mine. I was thrilled to learn that Ovid, famous for his epic Metamorphoses, had written a book of poetry about the calendar; and having read it, I immediately wanted to write one, too!
Poetry collection 2
Having decided to write a book of poetry, the thought occurred that I should first publish some of the poetry I have written previously. For that purpose, I began assembling a collection of all the poems I have written since high school. Surprisingly, there weren’t even that many, until I also included song lyrics. But I have written a lot of songs over the years! I arranged the collection chronologically, starting almost 30 years ago and ending last month. But I wasn’t happy with that ending, because I omitted all the epic long-form narrative poetry that I’ve been working on recently (because I intend to publish it separately), and that left the final section of the collection filled with nothing but Twitter poems. Some of them are all right, as Twitter poems go; but ending the collection that way failed to really demonstrate my progress as a writer, which was kind of the purpose of arranging the pieces chronologically. So, I did what writers do: I began writing some new pieces. The collection now concludes with a series of narrative poems in blank verse, each of them a brief retelling of a familiar story or fairy tale. I will probably write two or three more of them and then kick myself for making the collection too long, and then I will have to make some difficult decisions about what to cut to bring it back down to a readable length. It’s currently about 19k words, including some commentary; which is probably about 18k words too long, lol.
Twitter break
Twitter is a cesspool of toxic sludge. If you know me from Twitter, you may or may not have noticed that I am taking a break. I don’t know when I will be back. Eventually I will need to use the platform for marketing my books, but given the way I’m feeling now, I might just automate my account and avoid ever looking at my feed, ever again. My sister recently remarked to me, “Twitter is a big bowl full of popcorn insults and bulls**t,” which seemed remarkably accurate and also slightly concerning because I didn’t know she had an account. If you are still on there, dear reader, I hope you’re having more fun than I was having before I logged out. Anyway I said I wasn’t going to talk about my problems, so…
Back to the poetry! Have a great day.
Photo: Jesse Smith 2020
