5 weeks to Book 4!

Just finished Chapter 4 of Story of the Dead, which is coming along nicely. At the moment, a villain character of trivial importance named Hirirai has just been poisoned by Onathei... He has two and a half hours to live, unless he complies with Onathei's demands in which case he will be given an antidote. Hirirai will go along with Onathei for now, but we'll see if he has something up his sleeve before he succumbs to the poison. And is Onathei bluffing anyway? I'm not even sure yet, to tell the truth.

Feyain and Gyotaren are currently elsewhere in pursuit of two of Hirirai's friends, Kakirai and Kusurai (yep, all of their names end in "rai", and there are twelve of them, referred to as simply the Twelve Rai). Chapter 5 will involve two battles: Feyain vs. Kakirai and Gyotaren vs. Kusurai. By Chapter 6, I think the three Toa will meet up again, perhaps meeting another one of the Rai in the process...

The best part of writing is that while I write the story, it mostly drives itself. I had to create the characters, and from there the characters take over the story and all that's left to me is what words to use when writing down what happens. I'm along for the ride as much as my readers are.

The other day, I sketched out a basic map of what I'm doing with the rest of the series. I created a timeline that goes from the very beginning of time to the end of this series. Also, I worked out the details of "the big picture", so to speak.

If you've been a fan of Bionicle for a while, you're familiar with the concept of getting a glimpse of the big picture... The Toa Nuva and Turaga peering over the ledge in Mangaia and seeing Metru Nui below was our first little step outside of the familiar world of Mata Nui. From there we found there was an entire universe outside of Mata Nui and Metru Nui waiting to be explored. And as if that wasn't exciting enough, we've seen an even bigger picture more recently--there's more worlds to see outside of the Matoran universe.

In my series, we got our first taste of the big picture with that legend of Dairuno way back in Book 2... The Dying Breath was the next significant advancement towards understanding all the mysteries in the series. And you'll receive the next advancement in the short story supplementary to Book 4 that I talked about a while back. Then the third trilogy will advance it even further, and by Book 9, you'll have a basic idea of the big picture. Of course, I'm still going to save some mysteries for the very last minute.

Writing Tip of the Week

At Lepaka's request (and because I always wanted to do something like this, lol), I'm going to give a weekly tip on writing to anyone aspiring to be a writer in the future like myself... Having been writing for several years now (including fanfics that never made it to BZPower, non-Bionicle fanfics, and the rare pieces of writing that weren't fanfics at all), I've accumulated some basic rules as far as writing well goes. So while I won't claim to be a wise writing ninja sensei (XD), I can at least pass on some writing tips to my friends and anyone else who wants to write in the future.

With the introduction out of the way, I would say that my first tip for anyone wanting to start writing would be this: make time to write. Don't start something you can't finish. If you don't have any time to write, then you shouldn't write at all. It sounds harsh, but allow me to explain: My time, as it is, is very limited. I should have no time at all to write. And yet I fit in some time to write every day. Now, don't force yourself to write a chapter an hour or anything. Sometimes, it will only be one paragraph a day. Sometimes it will be just one word. But as long as you take a few minutes from your freetime every day to write, you'll stop seeing it as a chore and start turning to your word processor when you're bored as opposed to, say, a video game. In many cases, I would rather be writing than anything else.

If it helps, do something you like while you write. For example, if you have a laptop or you prefer to write on paper rather than on the computer, go outside to a favorite spot of yours to write. Or perhaps you'd rather listen to a certain song while writing (it tends to help me if I'm listening to a song that fits the current events of the story). Or, say you like hot chocolate, maybe you could be sure to have a cup of hot chocolate whenever you write. Whatever makes you happy, and whatever will make writing more pleasant for you.

Once you've gotten past the idea that writing is a chore and it becomes a hobby of yours, you've fought half the battle and all that's left is to make a story.