My Insanity.
I'm currently working on three projects. Yeah. Three.
It was supposed to be only two-- writing the first draft of DARLINGTON and revising THE TIES OF BLOOD. Totally doable, right?
And then... My lovely brain decided to throw me a curve. See, back in February I got this idea for a new story. I think it was partly dream-inspired but I don't really remember the dream anymore, just waking up with an image in my mind & a couple characters. So as I do when these things happen, I wrote it down. I didn't get any more thoughts on it until June, when the MC's name changed. So I wrote it down, along with the other few notes I came up with at the same time.
Until Thanksgiving. And that was when my new MC, Nat, decided to give me all sorts of things. I was in the back of the minivan with my whole family, on the way home from my dad's cousin's house where we go every other year, and I had no paper (bad writer, no cookie!). But I did have my Reader. Which has a text notes section. So I sat there & tapped at the on-screen keyboard (poorly) for about a page worth of text.
I wrote about 1600 words when I got back that night and I knew I wasn't getting out of that story there. I also realized that, since I've been saying how I'm so-very-not a plotter, guess what? My brain threw a murder mystery at me.
I've always wanted to write a mystery. I'm totally a fantasy girl now, but growing up? Mystery all the way. My favorite Black Stallion book? The Black Stallion Mystery. My favorite Baby-Sitter's Club books were the mystery series. I inhaled Nancy Drew & The Nancy Drew Files. I graduated to Lilian Jackson Braun & Agatha Christie. I still watch mostly cop/detective shows on TV-- Castle & Bones specifically are my favorites, especially since both combine authors & crime-fighting. And now, I have a mystery on the brain! But...
How does one write a mystery???
Yes, ACCURSED is a mystery. But I freely admit that I had no idea it was when I started it, and that it morphs into one throughout the plot-- I had a lot of time to get to know the characters before I figured out whodunit. This new book, which I thought would be another exercise in setting like DARLINGTON (I'm calling it Alt-World Futuristic Historical), is turning into an exercise in plotting instead. Because I have to know who killed Inger to get anywhere past the first couple chapters.
My brain feels very 'splodey thinking about it. But also excited. I'm gleefully planning to read more Agatha Christie than I've read in the last few years, re-watch all my Castle DVDs, and my copy of Sue Grafton's "Writing Mysteries", which is already tabbed-up from revising ACCURSED, is about to get even more post-its.
Of course, I'm also still working on DARLINGTON (all I have is with my CP awaiting her cheer-leading) & THE TIES OF BLOOD, which now has a new first line in A's perspective, since I'm changing his voice to first person, too. I tried this before & it just Was Not Working, but with this new line I've found him again. Yay! But this does mean I'm actively writing three books again.
Honestly, I love this part. One of these projects will pull ahead & take precedence (I assume DARLINGTON, since it's closest to first-draft completion), but until then, it's so fun hopping in & out of these three totally different worlds & playing with so many wonderful characters that I love.
Anybody else playing with multi projects right now? Or writing a mystery?
Find me on Facebook
Follow Me on Twitter
Follow Me on Pinterest
Good luck with that. As I mentioned on twitter, I drew myself a mind map to keep track of evidence chains, clues, red herrings and when my heroine would realise who did what. But I always knew who my bad guy was.
I am jumping between the second book in my erotic series and my steampunk tale. ST has now decided to be a full length novel, but I'm trying not to think about it too hard and just go with the flow. It sometimes can be a little confusing to jump between futuristic paranormal to Victorian inspired alternative history, but I'm chipping away at both. We'll see how it goes.
Yes! I'm definitely going to take up that mind-map idea. I think I still have some poster board around, too. The problem, of course, is not knowing who did it yet! I thought I knew, but when I started getting to know that character he was Way Too Super Obvious. *sigh* So back to the "character board" to try & figure it out.
Ooh, your projects sound so interesting! I'm totally in love with Victorian stuff right now, & that sounds so fun! Good luck with them!
You're right, you're completely nuts!
Don't go breaking yourself working on so many projects at once ... exploding brains are veryvery messy ;O)
Hehe. Thanks for the confirmation of my insanity ;-)
I'll try not to break anything! I've got to get around to epic Christmas cookie baking soon, so that should slow me down a bit... er, or not, as I always get the best ideas when I should be doing something else!
*Groan*. Me too - and always when I can't get to pen and paper to jot them down, or when my hands are covered in baking stuff! Hope the cookies turn out well - it makes me drool just thinking about it :O)
Hello! New follower. :)
In the past, it used to be the norm for me to work on several projects at once. I'm really tempted to get into that kind of habit again, 'cause I've noticed how I seem to be more productive when not forcing myself to work on just one WIP. Good luck juggling your three WIPs!
Good luck with writing a mystery as well! I've never written just a mystery before, but a few of my fantasies do have whodunit-like plots. It's definitely a challenge writing plots like that, but a fun challenge, IMO! (And it also gives me an excuse to watch Veronica Mars whenever writing something whodunit-like, which is never a bad thing, so even better! XD)
Also, I totally agree about the Mystery Babysitter's Club books trumping the regular ones! I could never seem to get into those....
Hello, new follower! :) Nice to meet you.
I went back to multi-WIP work after my last revision was finished because it definitely makes me more productive. Trying to force one story when it just doesn't want to come doesn't work for me-- and if I can get a few thousand words on another pending work while the other one gets mulled over in my subconscious, so much the better!
Thanks for the mystery-writing luck. This one is still fantasy/fantastic, but the core plot is going to be mystery/thriller based on this murder. I definitely enjoy figuring out whodunit, I just need to go about figuring it out differently than I usually do! I do like a challenge, but, like Lisa Simpson, "a challenge I can do!" hehe
Trying to force one story when it just doesn't want to come doesn't work for me-- and if I can get a few thousand words on another pending work while the other one gets mulled over in my subconscious, so much the better!
This is exactly why I loved working on multiple projects in the past. Why battle a blank page when you can churn out some creativity elsewhere until it's ready?
Have fun figuring out the whodunit aspect! :)
Post new comment