The Lousypoet

Almost a month ago I wrote about the need for a Novel Blueprint; I was frustrated with my lack of success at just starting my book without having done much in the way of planning or research. Well, I’ve done some reading, made some notes, and I thought I was on track at getting this thing started. And then I made a mistake that I wonder if any real authors have; I went back and opened my folder of story ideas and false starts and read the whole lot.

While I did this, I realised that the story I was currently working on just wasn’t as good as I thought it was. It just didn’t capture me the way that one of my ideas that I had previously discarded did. And so I was left pondering, do I shelve this current project and return to my old premise, or do I forge ahead, with the constant buzzing in the back of my head that I’m writing the wrong story?

I wonder how established authors deal with having more than one story idea in their head at once. Do they write more than one book at once? Do they flip a coin to decide which to write first and then continue making notes for the other when thoughts occur to them? I wonder….

I figure that’s what I’ll do. I’m going to write the one story, and then if any ideas present themselves for the other, I’ll just add them to the growing notes. Then, hopefully when I’m finished book one (how long have I been trying to write a book now?) I’ll have amassed enough material to start book two right away. Yes, I live in a place of high hopes and few realised expectations.

I was talking to Carolyn the other day, and she pointed out the obvious; unless I stop talking about all these different ideas and just settle down and write one of them, I will never see this dream realised. I don’t know why it’s so hard for me to just do that. I suppose I’ve never believed enough in myself or my ideas to sit down and write; or my ideas have not provided me with the inspiration to make writing fun, it just seems like a chore.

So I have finally made my decision. The story I’m going to write I will refer to under the working title of Song of the Seraphim. I’m not sure if that will be the final title. In fact, at this point I’m sure it won’t be, but I’ve always thought that would make a cool title, so I’m using it for now. I’m hoping as the process goes, I’ll find the true title.

In the meantime, so the work of the past has not been completely for not, I’m using some of the research I did for my previous idea in SotS. In fact, one of the reasons I abandoned SotS in the first place was that I couldn’t come up with a compelling villain. Well, my research for my previous story (Which was under the working title Ashdale) has provided me with one. So, that’s a big hole filled. I also liked the name of my main protagonist, so I’m going to use it in SotS, I’ll just have to find a new one if I ever decide to write Ashdale.

So, where to start? Well, I have some ideas plotted out for the start of the book, so that should hopefully get me underway. Then I think instead of trying to plot everything ahead of time, I’m going to let the story take me along, and show me where it wants to go. While planning ahead is a great pursuit, and probably works really well, right now it’s just something I’m using as an excuse to not get any real writing done.

I’ll update as I go along….