What’s On Deck?

tyunglebower ♦ July 15, 2013 ♦ 2 Comments

It’s All-Star week in Major League Baseball, so I titled this post accordingly.

But it wasn’t random. This post is about what’s on deck for me as writer. (That is to say, what am I working on next.)

It seems like a good place to lay out a plan, what with my first novel having gone through critiquing and being put on hold for a few months while that experience cools off and get processed in my mind. Not that I have worked on nothing else during this time, because of course I have. But periodic stops to get the lay of the land can be useful.

But why share them here? After all, how concerned are any of you about just what I’m working on next? Probably not a great deal. But to begin with, talking about it here where anyone can see it provides a small bit of accountability. I don’t think any of my readers will badger to make sure I’m doing what I said I would do here, but there is still that tiniest sense of people knowing what I plan on doing.

Also, as I pick what’s next, I don’t really want to explain in each post what I’m referring to, should an observation about one of my projects come up. I can just use this post as a reference.

One thing I know I’ll be working on are the shorts stories that are set in the same location as my novel. I’ve mentioned them before, I believe. It’s a set of ten short stories that I’m thinking about publishing on my own in order to gain some interest in my novel’s setting. None of the characters are the same, but these stories take place in the same community theater as my novel.

I got the idea from fellow author and friend of mine, J. Lea Lopez. She published on her own a collection of erotic and romantic short stories called Consenting Adults  in advance of her publishing her own novel, Sorry’s Not Enough. (Click the respective links to check them out on Amazon. The short stories are free!)

In her case, the short stories were of a similar tone as that of her novel, though not the same setting, but the idea is the same. To gain some interest in the writing in small, free chunks in order to lead people into buying the novel.

I’ve written rough drafts for three of the ten stories so far. I’m also considering a sci-fi series of short stories. I have the setting and major arc of those set down already, but not any given story. Whether the stories at the theater or the sci-fi thing, I think having a series does me a lot of good. Always something to go back to that is familiar for the times I’m, shooting blanks on totally new work.

Then of course there is the ongoing for-hire project I’m working on. Confidentiality prevents me from discussing that further, though I imagine that writing project will be concluded by the end of summer.

The big question for me is whether to go back to working on Novel 2 soon. I like to have a major project going on while I work on smaller things, and the second novel is one possibility for that.

Some of you may recall that that sort of ended up as a mess. My original plan was to have a rough draft of that completed by about now. But it was flying off in so many different directions, even with me having outlined most of it ahead of time, that I didn’t think it could survive in it’s current form. So I cut out a lot of words and eliminated several plot points. Then I set it aside sometime in March, and I haven’t been back to it since. Is it time to go back over the large, disconnected pieces and try to assemble a rough draft out of them? I don’t know. Probably, but I feel hesitant for some reason. I wonder if enough time has passed before jumping back into that one.

As far as major projects, Novel 2 is by far the most ready to go, but there others. I’ve also kicked around ideas for a stage play and a screen play. I’ve only ever written one screen play, and the market for that is crap, honestly. With my local theater connections there’s an outside shot that a play I wrote could be performed one day, though not for any money. I have attempted only one short play in the past, so it would be newish territory for this actor.

And of course I’m still in a local writers group, and will on occasion write stories for that. And some one off stories of various kinds. (Though I do better with that when there is a deadline of some kind.) I should submit more short stories to places, I suppose, but I hate going through all of that. I have never had one accepted so far. I don’t write to the trends, anyway.

So that’s where I am now. Decisions to make and writing to accomplish. The main criteria for deciding what’s next will be what will keep me engaged and excited to write the most for a while. All writing gets tedious at some point, even if you love what you’re working on. But hopefully I’ll get on something here soon that will be worth it in the long run.

What are you working on?