Completed a first draft
Not big news to the world, but big news to me: I have officially moved on from the first draft of my Robin Hood reimagining. I wrapped it up at the beginning of April, almost exactly a year after I began writing it, at a word count of about 73,000 words, set in blank verse. I have no illusions that this project is finished, it needs substantial editing and probably rewrites in several places; but the first draft was complete and it was time to move on to my next project.
Started a new project
Accordingly, more or less the same day I decided I was done working on Robin Hood for a while, I started working on my new project. Don’t worry, I won’t be so foolish as to try to make this one a poem also. This will just be a regular novel like any other novel, with the notable difference that this novel will be a euhemeristic modern reimagining of Norse mythology.
I can’t offer a word count at this time because I write my super-rough drafts longhand in a notebook. I’ve been working on it for just over a month, and I’ve filled something like 46 notebook pages, which includes a rough outline and some notes as well as the beginning of the story itself. I write super slow, you guys.
Research
As before when I worked on the other books in my mythology reimagining series, this project is based on research. In some ways Norse mythology is simpler because there are fewer original sources. No surviving written accounts of the mythology were left by the people who actually believed in Odin, Frigg, and Thor as their primary gods. It was only hundreds of years after everyone had converted to Christianity that the bards (skalds) set down the Poetic Edda, followed some time later by Snorri Sturlusson’s Prose Edda. I obtained two translations of the Poetic Edda, but quickly found the Prose Edda is much more readable. There are a number of other historical records preserved by the people of Scandinavia and Iceland, but the Eddas are the only ones concerned with mythology as the core of their substance. That means, for the student of Norse mythology, the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda are literally the only two original sources in existence.
I’m reading some other retellings, too, though. My sister gave me a copy of the d’Aulaires’ Norse Myths several years ago, which I have read several times with my children and which has fundamentally informed my view of the mythology. I also got a copy of Roger Lancelyn Green’s retelling of the Norse myths, which I haven’t read yet. (Incidentally, my current plan is essentially to mirror Roger Lancelyn Green’s literary career, at least in terms of writing retellings of all the major myth cycles of our culture; with the difference that his versions are straight tellings rated G and meant for younger audiences, whereas my versions are wild modern reimaginings and rated R, probably suitable for basically nobody, lol.) And to round it off, I got a copy of Neil Gaiman’s recent bestselling Norse Mythology, which seems meticulously researched and crafted with the artistry that we have come to expect from Mr. Sandman himself.
And that’s where I’m at with that for now! I’ll posted occasional updates as the project progresses.
