So as I mentioned, I’ve started work on Novel 9. Right now that involves writing out a rough plot that I’m going to try and more-or-less follow.
I’m an exploratory, “pants”-style writer by nature. I love to just sit down and figure out where my characters want to go, and my job is to both make sure they get there, but also to make sure they don’t get there too quickly or too easily. I have to throw challenges in their way, I have to watch them grow as people.
The novel I’m working on, Caitlyn Morcos Book 2 (obviously not the title), involves characters I wrote a few years ago and so I’m spending my time right now re-reading the book and taking lots of notes. Caitlyn has a nervous tick, she has a favourite drink, she always carries her mom’s old service pistol (although she’s only used it once), that kinda stuff. Things so that if you read them back-to-back the continuity feels natural and flows.
But the plot… what actually happens to Caitlyn and her co-workers… that’s ambitious. I wrote Caitlyn Morcos Interplanetary Marshal Service long enough ago that my feelings towards law enforcement were significantly less nuanced than they are now. It was a very simple story, and although I am very proud of it, I want to bring a deeper level of consideration and thought to this new novel. I want Caitlyn to grapple with many of the issues that I myself grapple with these days.
I’ve got a good rough idea of where the story is going to go, but I need to write it down and, perhaps most importantly, I need to figure out the conclusion. Right now I have an idea of what the final conflict is going to be, but I want it to be as smooth as silk when I get to writing it.
Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!