Wednesday, September 30, 2015

What Now?

I've heard of some writers being asked if they worry about running out of ideas.  I hope no one ever asks me that question, because I'll start laughing and may never stop, which would probably make the person asking it kind of upset.

However, this comes with its own set of issues, which I shall now attempt to sort through.

After spending most of September putting The Book of Lost Runes through massive revisions, I'm more than ready to set it aside for a bit.  The book's in the hands of three beta readers - okay, two beta readers and one beta listener, which was new to me.  While I do need to work on the query letter, I'm not going to sit around and make tiny edits to a story I've already gone through five times while I wait for people to get back to me.

So clearly, I need something else to work on.  And the problem with asking "What's next?" is that I don't exactly have a clear to-do list.  Writing is not a science (at least, not the way I do it), so it's not always easy to know what to do.

The first option is the interplanar race book.  The plot's mostly together, one of the three I prepared for this year back when my goal was to plot three books and write two.  I didn't write this one because I was never quite 100% on it.  I think I've got it, though, now that I realized a character I was never sure about does in fact need to be in the book.

However, I don't want to write another book right now.  That's a massive commitment of time, and I don't think I could get it done before my beta readers get back to me and it's time to work on BoLR again.  I write books by working on only that book every day without taking a break, so I don't want to get started on one when I know I'll be interrupted.

Next, I have option two: start editing the crazy dream book.  Yes, it has a real title; no, I'm not saying what it is because I have to do a ton of editing on the thing for the title to actually make sense.  I finished that back in June, so it's had a good long time to sit and sort of congeal in my head.  I well and truly hope that, when I get back to it, I can make it into the sort of story it's meant to be.  Because I have this strange feeling that it's not quite weird enough.

But I don't know if I want to get started on that now.  Editing one book while waiting for people to read a different one so I can edit that... this is a completely new situation for me.  And considering the story's inspirations, there's something else coming in November that might give me new ideas.

Then again, it's not like the crazy dream book will somehow be etched in stone if I spend most of October editing it.

My third option is the metal fantasy dragon book, which is currently in its... sixth incarnation of plotting?  Maybe seventh?  I've had so many troubles with this one, most of which leave me emotionally drained, I'm not even sure if I shouldn't just bury it for a year or so.  But I had some ideas today that might finally solve that problem.  I'd like to develop that plot more and see what comes of it.

So now that I've hashed all this out, my intent with doing this journal entry was to figure out what I would do next.  I think I've arrived at the best idea: all of them.  I'll polish the interplanar plot, I'll edit the crazy dream book, and I'll do all I can to finally get the dragon book into a workable story.  Because right now, there's really no point in limiting myself.  Any of these things could turn out to be what eventually gets published.  Or, in a perfect world, all of them.

Time to get back to work.  Not that I ever really stopped...

12 comments:

  1. Ha! So you find my methods bizarre? :D

    At least you have options, meaning you'll never be bored. :) I hope you don't get overwhelmed with doing all the above.

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    1. I don't know if I'll ever get overwhelmed, but I do have so many ideas that I'm pretty certain I'll never live long enough to actually write them all. Grr. Arg.

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  2. Options are good! I'm one of those that struggles for ideas.

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    1. Considering you've had four books published (and whatever you've written that I don't know about), I think you're doing just fine. :P

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  3. It's good to have your options open. Unlike you, I never struggle with what to do next, it's always just a matter of beating back the second, third, and fourth in line to work on the top project.

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    1. I don't know if it's so much as struggling with what to do next as it is struggling to get things to the point where they're ready to write. If I could get more of my plots to that point, I'd be doing a lot better. >_<

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  4. Nothing better than having tons of possibilities! Usually, if I choose one and it isn't meant to be, I end up going to one of the others and one of them finally settles in. Good luck with deciding!

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    1. That's how it usually works for me as well, hence my decision to work on all of them. ^_^ It's also insurance against devoting all my energy to something that crashes and burns yet again.

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  5. I have the same problem. I have fallen out of love with my WIP, and I wonder why I'm even bothering to work on a manuscript in this genre, when my agent has two unsold manuscripts in that same genre. I should be working on something else -- something different.

    I DO have ideas, but none of them have solidified into something I feel comfortable drafting yet. I've had that "What now?" feeling for the past month. :(

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    1. Gah. >_< Hope your ideas develop into something workable soon, as I know how frustrating it is to have bits and pieces of something that's not quite ready and/or together enough to become a real story.

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  6. I'm supposed to be coming up with ideas right now...I can't seem to think any up! It's hard to come up with a bunch of book ideas on demand. I have ideas for middle grade books but this is a different type of book and I'm having a hard time jump-starting that idea engine!

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    1. I've found that doing just about anything but trying to come up with ideas is when I have my best ideas. Just this week, I scribbled down a bunch of plot notes while I was at work, which is pretty standard for me. Go for a walk, clean the house, take a shower - do something that will let your subconscious work on the writing thing. Hope you find something that works for you. ^_^

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