Yes, it is that time once more!
Yesterday I made a start on the third book in my three book challenge. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with writing the first fifteen to twenty thousand words of a new story. It is of course easier if it is the second in a series, and you're not introducing a new world, and new characters, to your readers from scratch. However the follow on books in a series come with their own problems.
First lets list the Pros:
1. I love the feeling I get when I open a brand new writing pad and set pen to paper.
2. I love knowing that in a few months time the book will be completely full of my handwriting.
3. I love that I know already the path that I want the story to take, but also know that the twists and turns that get me there are going to take me by surprise!
If it's the next book in the series then there are even more Pros:
4. Catching up with familiar characters. I love writing about characters I've already developed, when I started writing Broken Truce I could hear Deeta's voice in my head as though she'd never been away.
That sounded crazy, didn't it?!?!?
5. Revisiting a world you love. It is soooo much fun to pick up where you left off in the last book, and add more and more detail to a world that exists entirely in your head...
I'm back in to crazy territory, aren't I???
The Cons
1. Engaging the reader. I know that's pretty basic but it is SO HARD to set up the story, everything that's to come, and hook the readers interest at the same time. Information overload is a big risk at this point!
2. Don't rush! Another thing I really struggle with: as the writer I know what's coming, and I can't wait to start writing about it! Building up to the BIG scene, the one that hooks the reader completely, is sooo important.
If it's a book in a series:
3. Making sure your characters are the same. This one is the one that's giving me sleepless nights at the moment. We've all read that book, had our favourite characters and waited, oh so impatiently, for their book only to be disappointed when finally reading it. THIS isn't the character you love, sure they have the same name, live in the same world, and have the same friends as the character that you love. But that doesn't make them the same person!!!
I hate, hate, hate it when that happens!!!
I want to find the writer and demand a re-write! Somehow it's very personal, like the writer destroyed my favourite character on purpose, just to hack me off!!!
Sooo obviously I don't want to be putting anyone reading my books through that experience!
On the plus side I'm really enjoying writing 'Severance', it's my Nana's and my cousin Bobby's favourite series, and they both keep telling me how excited they are for me to finish...
So there's no pressure then!!!
DeeDee xxx
D.D. Chant
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