SilverBear Books

Update!

Wow! It has been a big few days (I have literally no idea when I last updated, has it been a week? A lifetime?) I am continuing to work through about 4 different books. Royal Assassin might be one of my favourite books that I have ever read, I’m almost finished, but I am making it take as long as possible because I’m just not ready to leave this story behind!

I am also working through ‘Beach Read’ by Emily Henry, which so far seems like just the kind of popcorn read that I need right now with some of the weight and complexity of the other books that I am reading. So far everyone is such a cardboard cutout of a character that I can’t help but find it charming. The deliberate employment of tropes and stereotypes in such an up-front and honest way is reminiscent of ‘Independence Day’ in just how stock the characters are, but it feels like it’s in purpose. I’m having fun so far, although I am only at the 10% mark or so.

Add to that I am re-reading Artemis Fowl as a kind of language research for the book series that I am currently planning (more on that later), although this is much more of a light skim. As well as reading Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ which is actually a joy to read and making me so jealous of how someone can sound so engaging while being so nonchalant in their style. If I can learn from him, I know I will be better for it.

As for the book that I am currently working in, it is coming together really fast in the planning phase, but this part is always the easy bit. I have begun work on a ‘just for me’ extended Prologue that sets the scene for where our story starts, but I have begun drawing my maps, planning out my characters and their arcs, how they interact with each other, before I begin full on plot graphing. I’m a planner at my core, so I’ll be interested to see how much of what I’m noting down now ends up coming into play.

The benefit to having an 11 year old who reads a few years above his grade level is that I have in built market research, at least for whether my language use is appropriate and things of that nature. I’m not 100% sure how much it is good to share, but the core of my idea was to take all of the things that I loved as a kid, Power Rangers, Pokemon, Digimon, Dragonball Z, Harry Potter, The Muppets, Captain Planet, Final Fantasy, and pick and choose the elements of all of those things that I loved and see if I can write a story that is tailor made for 13 year old me.

I want coming of age, magical creatures, transformations, animal partners, zany comedy, magical jewellery, flying, awesome weapons, over the top villains, a sprawling world where each place is distinct from the next. I have a magic system that I’m ironing out, a cool setting that feels like Lord of the Rings and the Kanto Region of the Pokemon world, I have magical partner creatures and cool transformations. *Kronk Voice* Oh yeah! It’s all coming together.

I hope to share snippets of the work here as I go!

See you all soon,

SilverBear.