My Writing Strategy for Veznek
Happy New Year!
I hope you are all doing well in the New Year. I spent my lengthy break luxuriously lounging in the great state of Delaware and preventing ferocious felines from fighting. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t do a lot of work too.
Progress is slow on all projects, but everything is progressing nonetheless. Not much has changed since my last update. If you have not already read my previous post, I go into detail about each stage of my many projects. Click HERE for the link.
Over the last few days, most of my writing efforts have centered around Veznek, the tentative title for the third book in the Color of Water and Sky series. So far I have completed two full chapters, some of the most exciting ones yet. I can already predict that Veznek is likely going to be my favorite in the series.
One thing that makes writing Veznek so interesting is that I have chosen to go about writing it very differently. I addressed this in my previous post, but that was still early on. At the time of my last post, I had not yet put the story down in text. I had only just formed the outline. Now that I am actually writing the story, I see now how different it is firsthand.
Rather than write the story chronologically, which I have done for the previous two books, I write Veznek one character at a time. That means I write all of Character 1’s chapters from the start of the book to the end. Then, and only then, I will start to write Character 2’s chapters and so on. What this means is that I get a lot of time with one character before moving on. This allows me to create a more seamless transition from one character’s chapter to that character’s next. I literally pick up where I leave off. It is my hope that, because of this, the individual character arcs feel more natural.
On another note, I am not concerned about chapter lengths or chapter quantities whatsoever. In the past, I tried very hard to get my book in a certain amount of chapters, each with a certain amount of content. Individual chapters were planned out and mapped. With this book, I don’t care about that. I am writing each character’s story and seeing where it goes. If it seems like the natural place to end the chapter, I’ll end it there. If I think the chapter should go longer, I’ll make it go longer. In other words, I’m not mapping out the individual chapters. Instead, I’m mapping out the overall character story.
It may turn out that one character has 3 chapters while another character has 10. If this is the case, I will not worry. Again, I am not concerned about chapter lengths or chapter quantities.
The question you may be wondering is: Will this book be published in the same format?
In other words, will we see a book like this?
Chapter 1: Bob
Chapter 2: Bob
Chapter 3: Bob
Chapter 4: Henry
Chapter 5: Henry
Chapter 6: Henry
Chapter 7: Elizabeth
Chapter 8: Elizabeth
Chapter 9: Elizabeth
Or a book like this?
Chapter 1: Bob
Chapter 2: Henry
Chapter 3: Elizabeth
Chapter 4: Bob
Chapter 5: Elizabeth
Chapter 6: Henry
Chapter 7: Elizabeth
Chapter 8: Henry
Chapter 9: Bob
I’ve been debating that question. Right now my plan is to stick to the same format I have done for the previous two books. In other words, Bob, Henry, Elizabeth, Bob… It would be strange to change it up all of a sudden for the third part. But the thought has definitely crossed my mind. Lord of the Rings is an example of the first format being employed to great effect.
Anything can change at this point, but my plan is to finish writing each individual character’s story. Once everything is written, I will see where the chapters fall chronologically and put them together like pieces of a puzzle. That’s the plan now. As always, anything can change.
