Life and Mystical Rome Update

The people that know me in person usually find me to be a confident person. Some of that is just a persona. I'm the sort of people that doesn't like to express doubts. I'm a private person in my real life and sharing some things just make me uncomfortable.

All of that said, this story scares me the living crap out of me. I worry that I am not a good enough writer to effectively draft this story. I feel like I am making occasional moves forward as a writer, but that every inch hurts like the last mile of a marathon.

My struggles with this story include:

There is a ton of research involved that captures the feeling of this time in history. How do I get the various historical details and nuances across without info dumps? The Roman culture was fascinating, but should I care of the reader understands every cultural difference?

The Roman era was a harsh time. This story involves some ruthless people. I worry that my main characters are not likeable enough. The three noble characters are pure evil bastards. The slaves are the most sympathetic ones. I need to make sure I can make these characters likeable enough that the reader wants to come along with condoning their actions.

I need to solidify and polish my writing style. The flow should be more lyrical. I want it be easily read and yet feel like an epic poem without being cheesy.

I did very little this weekend on the writing front, but I did daydream a great deal. I figured out how to structure the opening chapters. My weakness in the last two books was a slow first chapter. Ten years ago, I think you were allowed to have slower openings, but the trend these days is more action in the very beginning. I think I have this now.

Life and Mystical Rome Update

The people that know me in person usually find me to be a confident person. Some of that is just a persona. I'm the sort of people that doesn't like to express doubts. I'm a private person in my real life and sharing some things just make me uncomfortable.

All of that said, this story scares me the living crap out of me. I worry that I am not a good enough writer to effectively draft this story. I feel like I am making occasional moves forward as a writer, but that every inch hurts like the last mile of a marathon.

My struggles with this story include:

There is a ton of research involved that captures the feeling of this time in history. How do I get the various historical details and nuances across without info dumps? The Roman culture was fascinating, but should I care of the reader understands every cultural difference?

The Roman era was a harsh time. This story involves some ruthless people. I worry that my main characters are not likeable enough. The three noble characters are pure evil bastards. The slaves are the most sympathetic ones. I need to make sure I can make these characters likeable enough that the reader wants to come along with condoning their actions.

I need to solidify and polish my writing style. The flow should be more lyrical. I want it be easily read and yet feel like an epic poem without being cheesy.

I did very little this weekend on the writing front, but I did daydream a great deal. I figured out how to structure the opening chapters. My weakness in the last two books was a slow first chapter. Ten years ago, I think you were allowed to have slower openings, but the trend these days is more action in the very beginning. I think I have this now.