A moment of calm
For the past several months, I’ve been structuring my weekends in a very particular way. Friday nights, I attend (and now host!) a Shut Up & Write session. Saturdays are for errands, appointments, and socializing. Sundays I write. Unless I’m really hankering for it, I rarely write during the week. There’s just no time!
However. I think, since I’ve been sticking to this routine for so long, it might be time for a little break. I’ve been going through my beta reader feedback for Three Willows Book 2, and there are a few structural things I need to rework, I think, as well as adjusting my marketing approach to make sure I’m attracting readers who are interested, and that I’m clear about the type of book it is up front, as well as considering my writing style, and who it appeals to. Lots of big thoughts. I’ve been revisiting this manuscript much more than I did with Then Came the Thunder, and I think I’m at a point where a little distance might help me see things clearer, or more like a reader, the next time I take a look. Like good dough, I’ve got to let it rest.
So I find myself here, on a Sunday, trying to let myself experience some calm. Slept in. Still wearing the comfy clothes. Had a donut. I AM, however, thinking about what I can turn my attention to the next time I’m setting up to write. Even the side stories I’ve been working on are too close to the Three Willows Universe. The question (a very scary an intimidating question) is, what’s next?
I have 3 Next Projects™ that are all at the 75%-100% stage of their outlines (two of them don’t have endings. I’m so bad at endings) that have the potential to become the one I turn to. And I really just can’t decide. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll call them Ghosts, Birds, and Hex. I love the characters that have developed from these potential plot lines and dialogue sketches I’ve done. What’s giving me the most pause, I think, are the settings. Ghosts is a contemporary/historical with paranormal elements that would require some research. (If any one knows any resources that would teach me specifically about passenger ships and 1924 mental health practices, I would be extremely grateful). Birds and Hex are both fantasies. And fantasies need worldbuilding.
I’m a very impatient researcher. It’s one of my flaws, for sure. I like to get right down to the story meat and handwave details when I can. Which is a really bad habit that I need to break. On the other hand, worldbuilding is pretty intimidating in that I really have no clue where or how to begin beyond the basics of what I know to be true in each respective story. It’s the details that will kill me, so it’s the details I must defeat.
As of right now, I’m looking into two different systems to add to my arsenal. They’re games, because of course they are. The first, which I think would apply to the world of Project Hex, is The Quiet Year, a game focused on creating the community of a world after a large societal collapse. Each card gives you two questions/situations to apply to your community. It’s not so much an RPG as it is, well, a worldbuilding game. I’ve watched a few streams of it being played, and I think it might be the perfect tool for helping me fill in the gaps of what I don’t know about Project Hex’s history and how it became the way it is.
The second, which I just learned about today, is Mappa Imperium. This one focuses more on the map, the geography, the factions and resources of a world, and the changes it undergoes as things expand. Project Birds is a more epic-ish fantasy that will need thinking and lore on this scale, so I’m pretty excited to give it a try. Also, there’s an element of random, since I believe some things are determined by dice rolls. I, as a person who hates making decisions, LOVE THIS. Best way to get me to buy something? Offer it as a mystery pack. Make it so I don’t have to choose. Surprise me. In my opinion, nothing gets the creative juices flowing like restrictions.
I may play around with one of these in the near future and will be sure to report my findings! Stay tuned…
Video for today. This has become my go to channel whenever I need something to throw on the TV for background noise/focus/escapism. Because I’d love to be in a fancy hotel while it rains.
