I am tearing apart two bedrooms this month. Turns out when you’re expecting a new baby, you need to immediately destroy your entire domicile in preparation for the chaos to come. Who knew?
So yeah, I am ripping up carpet and painting and doing crazy things, which have eaten up most of the schedule of late. So the physical writing of amazing things has been lackluster to say the least, but the THINKING of such amazing things has been amped to 11.
Tearing down the house has made me think about that process in my own writing.
Whatchu talking about?
Bear with me. I’m a swirling torrent of introspection about 90% of the day so it takes a minute or twenty to get up to speed on a coherent line of thought.
I’m talking about expectations. About the plotted course versus the road unseen (at the time). As many of you already know, I am a plotter – a massively obsessed planner of fiction. I have seventeen outlines sitting on my desk that attest to this.
I am knee deep in a new outline, what will end up being Book 9 of a proposed 10 book space opera series. I’ve been wracking my brain, delving into character motivations over the run of the mill conflict at the heart of the drama. With each passing day, I am becoming more engrossed and wondering if it is time to tear down the precarious house of cards on which the series stands.
Seeing the road ahead helps, but what if it is hindering the exploration of the series itself? What if there is a path I’m not seeing? What if the series fails right out of the gate?
This is where I am right now. I’m at the precipice. Right at the edge of the massive climax of the series, and have been questioning everything. I know what it is, of course.
A fear of completion.
Fear might be the wrong word here. It isn’t fear, per se, but more a trepidation of closing the mind to the story being told. Closing the door on a world of characters and situations when you know – when we all know – that there are so many other stories to tell, places to take these characters.
My original outline was 20 books. I tweaked it down to 10, and it is laser focused now. The throughline is present from start to finish. I love it, I absolutely do, but it could have been so much more, right?
Or is less more in this day and age? Are the stories untold still out there and waiting for me down the line?
Apologies on the ramblings this week. My head is filled with dreams and paint fumes.
I know the long break between releases is a pain in the neck. So are these teases about future books. Just know that they will be coming and they will be AMAZING.
