Realization. I think I sometimes bite off more than I can chew. Hell, I’m a parent. I know I do. Any parent will tell you that. And I only have 1 kid. I have to raise a glass to those who have more. Oh, and to those who still have their sanity.
Writing. Putting together a production schedule was the best thing I could have ever done—and I still have to give kudos to my friend Ken who helped me do it. It’s been the perfect solution to a lot of my own backlog of stuff. Oh, and don’t blame the schedule for putting Zoë off. That was a plot bunneh I have since fed and watered and now I have a new book. No, a new series.
And there’s where my Big Bite comes in.
The Set Up. One of my biggest problems in writing is that I tend to think in Series. I didn’t used to think this way because I always saw series as something boring. Nothing ever changed. I mean, look at some of those shows from the 80s and 90s we grew up on. Murder She Wrote was one of my favs, but to be honest, it didn’t really grow much. Yeah, Jessica always solved the crime. But…she never changed. Same goes for Star Trek. Episode after episode and it always ended in the same shape it began. Might be that whole HEA (Happily Ever After) scenario we’re all used to. I was told it was penned as the infamous Star Trek Reboot: where everything’s miraculously fixed at the end.
I think what got me hooked on Series and thinking that way was when I started watching Babylon 5. It was the first series I can remember where little bit by little bit things changed. Not just the main characters but the world around them. I started seeing story arcs forming like in books, small and large. I saw characters die, be betrayed, doing the betrayal, and I even saw a command change. I don’t think I’d ever been hooked on a TV series the way I was that one. I remember stressing over there being or not being a Season 5 when there was a Babylon 5 Trek at Dragon*Con that year — and you bet yer butt I was there. Front and center.
That was also about the time I discovered anime, and noticed a lot of those series also worked in a larger world. Not a lot of reboots, which pulled me in. I want worlds to change. I want characters to change.
And Then It Grew. Unfortunately in thinking series subconsciously, I noticed a lot of my short fiction started meandering in that direction OR, they grew into bigger works (not necessarily series but a full story, not a snippet). Example, just last week I started a new short story for the Free Fiction Friday…after 12,000 words, I realized, This Is A Freak’n Book. That was last week. Tuesday of this week same thing happened. I started a short this week for FFF and BlaM! Book. And I took an hour and fleshed out an outline for two books. Tried again yesterday, thinking, I’ll write a Dags story. Nope. Came up with a whole book for the Grimoire Series (SEE?!). And weirdest of all?
All three are different genres.
First book: Fantasy. Straight up Classic Fantasy.
Second book: Steampunk
Third book: Urban Fantasy
And these books are NOT in my schedule!!
My Point, and Yes I Have One. I have a lot on my plate that isn’t finished. I have a lot to get written, edited, re-edited and finished, all of which are longer works. And I have a ‘tweener that has declared war on my sanity (sigh). So in order to get as much done between now and Christmas/Yule/Solstice, the free fiction will come sporadically while I work on getting what I have on the burner, cooked. :)
But I should also be able to update more WHERE those books are. XD Zoë? Chugging along….
Next Post: Pen Names, I Has Them, and Need Another
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