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I have no life.
May. 17th, 2006 11:20 amOK, so after 2 days of "taking a break" I've decided that I have no life. Or at least that I'm easily bored.
So today I started writing Book 3, The Vacant Throne. I managed to get about 7 pages written this morning, which is more than I usually get done before lunch. I figure this is because I haven't written anything for a while, and I knew what this scene was supposed to do, so it came easily. The dam breaking and all that. It's a good scene I think, brings in . . . well, I can't say what because then it would spoil some of book 2. But I think it's good because it will remind everyone of the main significant danger introduced in book 2, but in such a way that I'm not rehashing book 2 in an info dump. I think when people read it they'll say, "Oh yeah, I remember that," and sink back into the world. It's written as a dream sequence/memory flashback (and I hear all of you writers moaning out there) but that's only what it appears to be at this point. Later on, we find out it's something more.
I find that I like to do things like this in my writing: write something that seems like it's a cliche to those of us who've read lots of fantasy before, but then turn it around later on in some way so that suddenly its not a cliche after all. Unfortunately, you have to stick around long enough to get to where I twist the idea, and some people won't read to that point. For example, in Skewed Throne, I start the book with what Kate Elliott called a "portentious prologue". You know: Legend says that blah, blah, blah. That kind of thing. But then on page 2 (I didn't wait long to twist this one) you suddenly get a slap in the face when the main character's voice comes through and suddenly it's no longer a portentious prologue at all.
Thinking back, I do this in all my books in some way or another. Even the first one I wrote, called Sorrow. In that one though, the twist doesn't come until much, much later, like book 2. And Sorrow ends on a cliff-hanger. Hmm . . . possibly why it didn't sell at the time. *grin* However, it appears that it might be the next trilogy sold to DAW. I've been talking to my editor and it seems like that's the next project she'd be interested in. No in depth negotiations yet (probably in a few months, closer to when Cracked Throne is coming out); I haven't even sicced my agent on her yet.
In any case, I've gotten started. Now to keep the energy up so I get it finished. It won't be long until I run out of "I know what comes next" scenes though, so I expect a slow-down in the writing, while my brain tries to come up with the plot and catch up to my fingers.
So today I started writing Book 3, The Vacant Throne. I managed to get about 7 pages written this morning, which is more than I usually get done before lunch. I figure this is because I haven't written anything for a while, and I knew what this scene was supposed to do, so it came easily. The dam breaking and all that. It's a good scene I think, brings in . . . well, I can't say what because then it would spoil some of book 2. But I think it's good because it will remind everyone of the main significant danger introduced in book 2, but in such a way that I'm not rehashing book 2 in an info dump. I think when people read it they'll say, "Oh yeah, I remember that," and sink back into the world. It's written as a dream sequence/memory flashback (and I hear all of you writers moaning out there) but that's only what it appears to be at this point. Later on, we find out it's something more.
I find that I like to do things like this in my writing: write something that seems like it's a cliche to those of us who've read lots of fantasy before, but then turn it around later on in some way so that suddenly its not a cliche after all. Unfortunately, you have to stick around long enough to get to where I twist the idea, and some people won't read to that point. For example, in Skewed Throne, I start the book with what Kate Elliott called a "portentious prologue". You know: Legend says that blah, blah, blah. That kind of thing. But then on page 2 (I didn't wait long to twist this one) you suddenly get a slap in the face when the main character's voice comes through and suddenly it's no longer a portentious prologue at all.
Thinking back, I do this in all my books in some way or another. Even the first one I wrote, called Sorrow. In that one though, the twist doesn't come until much, much later, like book 2. And Sorrow ends on a cliff-hanger. Hmm . . . possibly why it didn't sell at the time. *grin* However, it appears that it might be the next trilogy sold to DAW. I've been talking to my editor and it seems like that's the next project she'd be interested in. No in depth negotiations yet (probably in a few months, closer to when Cracked Throne is coming out); I haven't even sicced my agent on her yet.
In any case, I've gotten started. Now to keep the energy up so I get it finished. It won't be long until I run out of "I know what comes next" scenes though, so I expect a slow-down in the writing, while my brain tries to come up with the plot and catch up to my fingers.
