introducing project diamond
Write my YA fantasy novel with me.
Sometimes an idea comes to you fully formed and buries itself beneath your skin. Sometimes an idea is smarter than you are and you have to work to meet its challenge. Sometimes an idea is so open-ended it requires immense shaping. Somehow, Project Diamond is all of these and more.
Project Diamond (an alias, as the title of the book continues to change) came to me with a very clear beginning and ending when I was seventeen years old. The middle has tormented and enchanted me for a decade now.
Brief History:
I completed the first draft of Project Diamond in November 2020 at a whopping 215,650 words. The next draft in May 2021 ballooned up to 226,231 words. That fall, I knew it wasn’t ready but I pitched to agents to get feedback with draft three at an insane 227,518 words. The positive was that many loved the concept and the world and the writing. The neutral was that some outright never responded (as is expected), and some did not click with it (which I took no offense to). The resounding negative was that it was just too long.
I put project diamond on the bubble and tried writing other novels. Life also created long periods where I was unable to carve time to write as I moved to Atlanta to simultaneously pursue my other dream career of filmmaking. But I have found that this story is the one I must complete in order to tackle both film and other novels. Project Diamond is very much my white whale that I am determined to achieve in 2025.
While the opening and ending have remained the same (with different words) the middle has been playing a game I have been losing. I spent this year researching and working on a creative writing certificate with Emory. Through working on the first four chapters as my capstone project I have at last cracked Project Diamond’s long elusive structure.
At Present:
I have decided to share my journey as I hope the transparency will foster self-accountability. And to kill two birds with one stone (without anything dying), I’ll be sharing writing, behind the scenes, and day in the life of vlogs on my youtube channel, Magma Chronicles, and post periodic written updates on this blog.
Project Diamond is a YA fantasy novel.
(I hope to share more elements about the story/plot but am keeping everything to myself for now.)
Current Draft #: Seven
Current Word Count: 10, 987
I am challenging myself to 1,000 words a day for 2025. I’ll update this site weekly in some way or form with the current word count.
Initial Mood Board
note: this is a portion of a very early stage mood board from Pinterest and I do not know the sources of the art. This is a temporary mood board that I will replace but is reflective of my initial stage of research where I am trying to find any image that resonates with the ideas tumbling through my head. Also, these images are related to scenes that have been in previous drafts but may not make the final cut.
