Have you ever had that special project you couldn't wait to get to work on? You know the one. It sits there calling to you, telling you how much fun it's going to be, how much of a difference it will make. It could be building a birdhouse with the kids, redesigning a room in your house, even just trying a new recipe. Something you thought about, prepared for, and now all you want is to jump in feet first. We all that the special thing that gets our hearts racing and can't wait for when we can get going on it. For me, that special thing is writing.
Like most authors I have more books in my head than I will ever have time to write. Just sitting here right now I can think of six novels that are drafted and need to be edited / rewritten, three more that are in some stage of the first draft, three novellas that need to be completed before one of those novels can be released, and a total of four series I am somewhere between outlining and publishing. At the moment I am working to complete a series that is extremely emotional, serious, and personal. I don't expect them to become big sellers but the characters deserve their voices to be heard. Even if I knew only a handful of people would read them, I would still complete the series. At the same time, being such emotional subjects makes them difficult to write and puts me in a sort of funk. All of this combined with intriguing characters, plot lines, and a recent breakthrough for the series, I have a different project that I am just dying to sink my teeth into.
Right now, as mentioned above, I have four series I am working on. I have the Sharing Strength series which is the emotionally charged, PTSD based series I started years ago but am still slowly working to complete. My Voices series is half written and once the fourth book is done I will be doing a full series rewrite and edit in order to make sure everything flows correctly from beginning to end. This series is fun, has a killer playlist (no pun intended for those that know the premise of the series) and has been revealing at every stage of the process. My newest series has an unknown number of books and is in the murder / mystery category. It is the first fictional series I have tackled based here in my current home of Las Vegas and I am very excited to put my newly minted detective on the case.
None of those series compare, however, to my Syn series in terms of personal thrill. This is the first one I ever conceptualized as being a series. I had spoken to more authors than I can count about the benefits of writing a series to keep readers engaged and to develop a story and the characters into on ongoing adventure. I needed something with multiple parts to base a series on, and due to my own personal fascination, I decided on the seven deadly sins. I meditated (yes I meditate) and allowed the characters and the story to come to me. At first nothing happened. I thought I made a bad choice but then one day while driving back from a camping trip while my boyfriend slept in the passenger seat next to me, a voice spoke up inside my head.
Her name was Persyphone Syntel and she had a story for me. She spelled out the entire thing, beginning to end. That year I wanted to participate in Nanowrimo but I was working two jobs and fighting terrible health issues. Because of Persephone's insistence and clear storytelling I still managed to complete Nano and the first book in a seven book series. I put it on the shelf for later editing and there it has sat for far too long. Less than a week ago I had another shove from Persyphone, telling me something I desperately needed to know for the series and now I am so distracted by it I can barely focus on what my original writing plan was supposed to be.
In my mind I decided I would finish the Sharing Strength series, then the Voices series, then work back and forth on the Syn and Casino Murders series. Of course the characters have other plans and want me to work on the second half right now and just forget about the first two series. There are also some stand alone books sprinkled in there as well currently getting pushed aside. How to focus and actually complete things when the shiny new toy is always calling instead?
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