Writing is a funny thing. It’s like taking a hike in the woods, with an incomplete pocket map as our guide. When we start, we look at our options, and pick a direction based on a general sense of where we want to go. As we make our way, the map changes. We often don’t end up where we thought we were going. We know this. We expect it. And we set off anyway.
Nothing illustrates this better than me, right now. After figuring out a crucial puzzle piece in my narrative, several things fell into place at once. So I updated my notes, and realized what I wrote here on Badcrowbookery was woefully outdated. Everything has changed. What started out as five books, maybe more, is now seven books, maybe fourteen. And possibly counting. And book three got shuffled to book seven (or thirteen and fourteen?), and I now have titles for all of them figured out.
So I updated.
I updated my flocking works list, and I updated my author profile. You can find both by browsing the site, or you could just follow these links.
Profile:
Book List:
The process was not all at once, of course. It was a gradual thing, which evolved as I progressed in my drafting. Characters went in places I didn’t expect, narrative opportunities came up which I could never have anticipated, dominos I initially thought would be easy to line up turned into long drawn out processes, and as I learned about the story I was trying to write, things shifted around.
One of the biggest possible changes from my initial vision has to do with the number of books I am writing. Due to the complex narrative nature of my stories, each featuring multiple interwoven plots, as well as the story arch layout I tend to slide into, I have come to the realization that my books might benefit greatly from being put into a part one and part two format. Each part could arguably be its own full length book, so while I still think of it as seven books, in practicality, it may end up being twice that.
For example: Devil’s Contract may be released as Devil’s Contract part one, and Devil’s Contract part two, with a possible combination of both as a collectors (Author’s choice) release. Exciting!
I am under no illusion that my current vision is exactly how everything will play out, of course. Who knows, by the time I am ready to send my imagination babies out into the world, I may have a series of trilogies. Ha ha. Kidding. I think. I do know my current vision is closer to the final result, though. And it’s thrilling to gradually pull back the veil to reveal more and more of what I’m creating. So I will continue my quest, letting my incomplete map guide me, and I look forward to seeing where it takes me.
Until next time, Stardust.
May your creative journey be as exciting and fulfilling as mine is turning out to be.
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