8/06/2013

Novel Writing Update!

Here's a teaser I played around with a bit yesterday while eating my lunch


I'm writing the next Tyler Cunningham novel. In some ways, it's more fun than reading a good book; in some ways, it's the most frustrating thing I've ever done.

I had the first novel, "Here Be Monsters" in my head (big and sloppy parts of it at any rate) for years before I ever started typing. The two companion novellas, "Mickey Slips" and "Bound for Home" were shorter and easier writing projects, lacking the depth and breadth of story and characters as a novel. That being the case, I was understandably nervous going into the summer, which I have designated as my serious writing time.

I did a lot of planning and thinking and list-making, as well as drawing lines and bubbles on big pieces of paper, to help me get a feel for this next book before I began the writing.

I set myself a goal of 2,000 words each and every day in the month of August (a touch more than the NaNoWriMo goal of 1667 WPD), and so far I've beat my goal every day.

As of yesterday afternoon, when the whistle blew in my head, I had about 24,000 words written on "Caretakers" so far. It's not exact because the novel is currently living in numerous files in different neighborhoods of my laptop, and I'm not planning on compiling it into one piece until I'm done.

"Caretakers" is going to be a longer and more complex novel than "Here Be Monsters" was/is: it's written in multiple voices over multiple generations, it's more of an actual mystery than HBM ended up being, and there is much more historical and regional information and involvement and interaction in this story.

It's a wonderful feeling to sit down each day and tell a piece of this story, and the best part is thinking about sharing the finished product with people who have enjoyed the first three books, and are ready and waiting for more.

I'll post more updates as the project continues to move forward; I wrote this blog entry this morning instead of beginning work for the day only because I have a doctor's appointment mid-morning, and haven't been allowed coffee yet, which is an integral part of my writing process.

My plan is to finish the lion's share of the novel during the month of August, before my other job begins for the schoolyear, finish the writing during September/October, and then work with my editing team during November and December to get it into shape for publication in early 2014 (keep your fingers crossed).

Thanks,

Jamie

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