The Dangers of Drag
Some time in 2011-12, I decided to write an 'angels trilogy'. It was my first major creative project after The Kira Chronicles, with the intervening time taken up with continuously re-writing my Ph.D novel and (unsuccessfully) pitching it.
The angels trilogy would be my first project where I had to come up with the plot, rather than draw on something long gestating. I was excited and increasingly thrilled as the story evolved, the joy of discovery one of the key benefits of pantsering (there are lots pitfalls too).
By the end of 2012, I was confidently pitching Book 1. None of the major (or minor) publishers were interested. The story of my young Australian protagonist Viv, a street kid in search of her mother and of redemption, and the parallel interwoven stories of three angels seeking transcendence, didn't fit the models of the 'fallen, demonic angel wreaking havoc' or the 'hot new guy in a New York college who turns out to be an angel' or the 'tragic interrupted love story through the ages', all of which are popular but not the Deep Fantasy I write.
I eventually got an offer from a small US publisher with a contract I declined. Then I was 'conned' into NaNoWriMo, which I had never heard of and decided it would be a good vehicle for a stand alone that had bugged me for a good number of years. It took almost a year of rewrites to launch The Third Moon--as an Indie.
Which took me to October 2014. NaNoWriMo had opened my eyes to how quickly I could write (at least for a month) and I wondered if I could come up with a story idea as well, and write it in a month. Yes I could, and yes I did, but again it took me close to a year to launch The Emerald Serpent. Wrangling Amazon also took lots of time (my age makes me a digital immigrant not a native).
Which took me to 2015. Knowing my angels weren't the angels beloved of publishers, and having dipped my toe into Indie publishing, I worked on splitting Book 1, and the half of Book 2 I had, into what I thought would be a six part series, mainly because series have advantages in Indie land.
Once I shook off the 'publishers want trilogies' mindset, and woke up to the fact I was the publisher, and when I had finished cheering at the freedom this gave me, I decided a five book series would a better fit for the story arc.
By this stage, my angel story had been in (interrupted) process five years. A lot of 2016 was spent on sick leave, too exhausted to write productively, but as I clawed my health back, my writing pace picked up, and Book 2 Angel Breath and Book 3 Angel Bone joined Book 1 Angel Blood in the world. Book 4 Angel Bound followed early 2017.
Then I started the final Book - Angel Blessed and got what some writers call writer's block. I wrote every day but didn't know how I was going to use 60,000 words to pull the previous 240,000 word story arc together. I was tired, fed up, and under siege from other stories which had had plenty of time to gestate and now demanded action.
Some writers can write multiple works in parallel. I'm not one of them. Even dragging myself back into the primary world is sometimes difficult. I have been known to wander around the kitchen speaking like my protagonist.
Another problem with drawing out a single work for so long, is that I now want to write in a different style. I think all writers want their next book to be 'better' than their last, and this includes prose, but I can' t change voice in mid series.
Long time periods present other problems if you're a pantser. I don't have chapter outlines, plot plans or anything else. I have a story dating from 2011 stored in my head (and on scraps of paper) and that raises issues with coherence and consistency which gobble up time being addressed.
Unless you're ill, I'm not a believer in writer's block. There is a solution to every plot problem, even though it might be poor and you hate it. My Angel Caste series can end in a number of ways, but obviously I want to tie up the plot threads powerfully and satisfyingly.
After three or four weeks of low productivity (and swearing), the story took off again until early August when (lucky me), I went off to WorldCon in Finland, followed by travel through Iceland, Denmark and Greece. Then I returned and spent two weeks in bed with the flu (unlucky me). So, a six week interruption which returned me to pseudo writer's block again, which took another four weeks to throw off.
I'm now halfway through Book 5 Angel Blessed, the last in the series and determined to launch before Christmas. I am also determined to never again let a project drag out for this amount of time. There are too many other stories to be written.
The angels trilogy would be my first project where I had to come up with the plot, rather than draw on something long gestating. I was excited and increasingly thrilled as the story evolved, the joy of discovery one of the key benefits of pantsering (there are lots pitfalls too).
By the end of 2012, I was confidently pitching Book 1. None of the major (or minor) publishers were interested. The story of my young Australian protagonist Viv, a street kid in search of her mother and of redemption, and the parallel interwoven stories of three angels seeking transcendence, didn't fit the models of the 'fallen, demonic angel wreaking havoc' or the 'hot new guy in a New York college who turns out to be an angel' or the 'tragic interrupted love story through the ages', all of which are popular but not the Deep Fantasy I write.
I eventually got an offer from a small US publisher with a contract I declined. Then I was 'conned' into NaNoWriMo, which I had never heard of and decided it would be a good vehicle for a stand alone that had bugged me for a good number of years. It took almost a year of rewrites to launch The Third Moon--as an Indie.
Which took me to October 2014. NaNoWriMo had opened my eyes to how quickly I could write (at least for a month) and I wondered if I could come up with a story idea as well, and write it in a month. Yes I could, and yes I did, but again it took me close to a year to launch The Emerald Serpent. Wrangling Amazon also took lots of time (my age makes me a digital immigrant not a native).
Which took me to 2015. Knowing my angels weren't the angels beloved of publishers, and having dipped my toe into Indie publishing, I worked on splitting Book 1, and the half of Book 2 I had, into what I thought would be a six part series, mainly because series have advantages in Indie land.
Once I shook off the 'publishers want trilogies' mindset, and woke up to the fact I was the publisher, and when I had finished cheering at the freedom this gave me, I decided a five book series would a better fit for the story arc.
By this stage, my angel story had been in (interrupted) process five years. A lot of 2016 was spent on sick leave, too exhausted to write productively, but as I clawed my health back, my writing pace picked up, and Book 2 Angel Breath and Book 3 Angel Bone joined Book 1 Angel Blood in the world. Book 4 Angel Bound followed early 2017.
Then I started the final Book - Angel Blessed and got what some writers call writer's block. I wrote every day but didn't know how I was going to use 60,000 words to pull the previous 240,000 word story arc together. I was tired, fed up, and under siege from other stories which had had plenty of time to gestate and now demanded action.
Some writers can write multiple works in parallel. I'm not one of them. Even dragging myself back into the primary world is sometimes difficult. I have been known to wander around the kitchen speaking like my protagonist.
Another problem with drawing out a single work for so long, is that I now want to write in a different style. I think all writers want their next book to be 'better' than their last, and this includes prose, but I can' t change voice in mid series.
Long time periods present other problems if you're a pantser. I don't have chapter outlines, plot plans or anything else. I have a story dating from 2011 stored in my head (and on scraps of paper) and that raises issues with coherence and consistency which gobble up time being addressed.
Unless you're ill, I'm not a believer in writer's block. There is a solution to every plot problem, even though it might be poor and you hate it. My Angel Caste series can end in a number of ways, but obviously I want to tie up the plot threads powerfully and satisfyingly.
After three or four weeks of low productivity (and swearing), the story took off again until early August when (lucky me), I went off to WorldCon in Finland, followed by travel through Iceland, Denmark and Greece. Then I returned and spent two weeks in bed with the flu (unlucky me). So, a six week interruption which returned me to pseudo writer's block again, which took another four weeks to throw off.
I'm now halfway through Book 5 Angel Blessed, the last in the series and determined to launch before Christmas. I am also determined to never again let a project drag out for this amount of time. There are too many other stories to be written.
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