Believe it or not, I am actually working on something. I'm just at the "flail-around and make a big mess" stage of writing the sequel to Ghost and the Goth. I actually hate this part. I love writing first drafts, but only once I've got that hook. That "oh, yeah, I can't WAIT to see what happens with this" feeling in the pit of my stomach. Other writers have compared it to reaching the top of that first hill on a roller coaster ride, when all the fun is in front of you, and you're anticipating the thrill but also a little scared.
I'm not there yet. I'm still playing. Interviewing characters. Talking to people. My weekend at Linnea's really helped me find some mile markers, but it's all still mush in my head. Still simmering on the back burner. Dude, could I mix just one more metaphor in this post? Sheesh. I haven't gotten the "a-ha" yet, where everything snaps together and suddenly, you've got soup instead of random floating ingredients in some lukewarm water.
Ugh. I hate this part. I remember this with the start of Eye of The Beholder too. There are just so many ways to go, so many options to try. Some of them only a little different than the others, but enough so that it can shift the whole thing from "working" to "not working." And it was a little easier with EOB because I hadn't closed things off quite as much.
Now I've got to go back and look at things, peel back the layers, figure out how to open the story threads again without making the end of G&G seem false.
The only solution is to keep working at it, keep chipping away it (that's like, what, metaphor number six, seven?). It will eventually come together. It always does. It's just a matter of how crazy it will make me in the getting there, you know?
Oh, hey, fabulous book I read on the plane home from Ohio, Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I'd been hearing about it on PW and I think even Stephen King wrote in praise of it. It's truly, truly excellent. Worth the hardcover prices, in my opinion. First chapter is up on Amazon at the link above.
: ) Stacey
2 comments:
I feel ya. I'm working on the third installment of my DU series, as well as a short "space western" tale for an online mag. Both plots are bright lights in my head. Both are in the tedious stage of outlining and routing their courses.
But no matter! Forward! We will prevail! Inch by inch by inch by inch...
SS
Yea! Shane, you're exactly right. : ) Inch by painstaking inch, progress is being made (even when it doesn't feel like it). Isn't there some quote out there from Edison about finding a thousand ways to NOT build a light bulb? It only takes the one! :)
This is just killing me because for sequels I feel like you have to plot them out. Unlike first books when you get to just jump and see where you land. I'm so a pantser (means writing by the seat of my pants--a term you often hear used by romance writers) in my heart of hearts.
Glad to know I'm not the only one try to turn some water and carrots into soup! ; )
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