I have struggled with getting into a new book after finishing my first. I used to be certain that I had no interest in being a writer. And then, one day (October 5, 2013 to be exact), the idea for my first book came to me. And I had to write it.
Once I started writing, I discovered this incredible wealth of story ideas all around me. Watch a documentary: book idea. Rewatch an episode of "That 70's Show": book idea. They were everywhere. Some were little snatches of story. Some were an entire novel's worth of ideas. I dutifully wrote them all down and put them from my mind as I continued writing that first story idea.
I have been querying that finished novel since the end of October of last year. I like my story. I think it is good enough to publish. I also know there is a lot of luck involved in finding that perfect agent who sees what I see in my work. I accept (or at least I think I do) that there is a good chance that I may not get that book published. I hope I do, but I have all these other ideas to write down perhaps it will be one of those that finds me that perfect agent.
The problem I am having is really getting invested in a different story. There are a couple of reasons for this.
First, I have been immersed in the fantasy world of my creation for the last three years. I know all about that world, how the magic works there, how people act there, everything. I have lived and breathed that world as I've coaxed the words from my mind down through my fingers to the page. It is incredibly hard to move away from that world into another. Both of the books I've attempted writing since finishing my first have been, if not based in the real world, have people from the real world transported to a world of my creation. Which means a huge shift in how I write my characters, since they have to be true to real, actual people alive today.
Secondly, the book I have written is not a stand alone book. I don't know if I intended it to be a trilogy when I started writing it, but that is how it's come to be. And I desperately want to write the second book. I get those mental images of scenes from that book, or even ones from the final book of the trilogy. And to have to tell myself that I'm not going to write it is really difficult.
I've struggled with this for a while. It always felt like I was having to choose between the art of writing and the dream of actually being a published author. Yes, I know I can self-publish, but I'm not interested in starting my writing career like that. I want to have an agent and go through a proper publishing company. That is my plan, and it's one I've given a lot of thought to. So, if I write the rest of the trilogy now, two things would happen. One, no agents I query are interested in my first book, and therefore I cannot query the second and third books at all, and I have to wait for years before having something to query with again. Or two, an agent down the road does decide that she/he likes my book, signs me, gives me feedback and I have to rewrite the first book, therefore throwing off the rest of the books as well and wasting a lot of writing time.
So I've tried to get into these other two books. Both are good ideas. Neither of which have clear outlines, either on paper or in my mind, about what should happen. Which makes the non-pantser in me struggle a great deal with sitting down and writing.
I know this. Yet, I have not sat down to get an outline planned. And I think a great deal of that is that I really want to finish the trilogy I have begun.
Then the other day, I figured it out. I think I was driving somewhere (we're wrapping up Girl Scout cookie season... there has been a lot of car rides to deliver cookies to nearby towns) and I suddenly figured it out.
I'm going to write my trilogy. But not all at once.
I attended a Writing Workshop in Minnesota in February. There was a wonderful speaker there, Chuck Sambuchino (amazing guy, you should look him up) who gave a talk about the options in publishing available today. He talked about both traditional publishing and self-publishing. I listened attentively in that "Well, I'm not ever going to self-publish, but this is interesting and Chuck's a great speaker" kind of way. He talked about how you can get the best of both worlds by having a traditional publisher but self-publishing on the side. Short stories, poems, things the traditional publisher isn't interested in, or even proper books that the publisher has turned down. I thoroughly enjoyed the talk, but was still certain I was never going to self-publish.
But perhaps I will.
This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to outline both of my book ideas and find those endings. I am also going to outline the rest of the trilogy. Then I am going to write one of those new, completely different book ideas while merrily querying five agents a week. I will finish this new book, revise it, polish it, all that good stuff. Then I will start querying that one while I write the second book of my trilogy. Once I've finished that, I will write the other new book and query that one while I finish my trilogy.
Hopefully the book I am querying gets picked up. If not, hopefully one of the other books will get me published. I will keep writing, and the more I write, the better I will become. And down the road, maybe nearby, maybe far, far away, I am confident that I will get published.
And then, I will offer them my trilogy. If they want it, great. If they don't, I will look into self-publishing it.
I am not going to give up on my dream of getting an agent and being traditionally published. Nor am I willing to give up the rest of this story I have begun. I am going to do both.
And isn't it a glorious world where I have that option?
