A few days ago, I finally gave up on AWJ - at least for now. The writing was going slowly and I couldn't seem to make the story more than just a laundry list of random events.
So I started a new book. It's been filling up my mind with plot points and characterisations. I've got a lot of leg work to do on this puppy. I have to delve into technologies I'm only vaguely familiar with, and while I'm setting it in Michigan, I still have to research the locale because I haven't been to Michigan in six years and I have to make sure they have built anything important or imploded any buildings or anything. Don't get me wrong. I love research. It's just going to take a lot of work on the front end before I can really start telling the story. (Spectacle and Caldera were the same way. Lots of research to make the story believable.)
Last night, however, while I was feeling like something the cat hacked up, and wishing for my nice soft bed, I had an epiphany. It came, as it sometimes does, while I was having my before-bed cigarette outside on the patio. Suddenly, the plot for AWJ was as clear as a summer day. I could see for miles and the road ahead was straight and uncongested. Huzzah!
Now I've got a problem. Which story do I work on? I could throw them both into a pit and let them duke it out, but that would be a steel-cage death match and the only loser would be my sanity. (Especially when you consider I still have Blink to edit.) I think I'm going to give it a whirl and keep my fingers crossed that I can write two distinctly different stories without losing the integrity of either.
My sanity? Well, I wasn't using it that much anyway. ;o)
Saturday Reading Wrap-up 12/21/24
11 hours ago
3 comments:
Oooh, steel cage death match! Love it!
Good luck with juggling both. Some authors can write many at once, others are more one-at-a-time. Me, I can work on two as long as I'm only writing one of them, and maybe editing/revising the other.
Your epiphany sounds wonderful. Yay!
Not ever having been in this situation doesn't stop me having a suggestion to make! Why not work on AWJ until/unless you get stuck again, or even just a bit bored or stale, and then turn to the new book for a while? If it's had this effect of energising you and freshening you up once, maybe it could again. (Great news on the partial request btw - very best of luck with that.)
Ah, before-bed cigarettes -- that's what's missing! I must take up smoking again.
Two at once -- maybe this is why I'm more a poet, and an unproductive one at that. Perhaps it's time to stretch the legs. It's interesting to read about your travails, though, and how you work through them.
Lovely blog -- I'd like to visit again soon.
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