#onwriting

I was surprised when I had them.

Nerves.

In my last blog (https://someplace-that-is-else.tumblr.com/post/790366599240695808/exhibitions-sinners-and-forks-about-writer), I had mentioned that I had nerves about writing something new. Nerves about making such a major writing schedule shift from DARKENED SOUL: THE BREAKING OF CIRCLES to something that was more in tune to where I was at as an indie author.

It wasn’t even just about the writing. It was about…everything. Genre. Output. Productivity. Given my ability to get distracted so easily, it was nerves that I would fumble at some point.

So far? No fumble. I had taken something I already did (my weekly EDITING, TYPING, & WRITING post on my Facebook author page at www.facebook.com/writerguygothic) and used it to keep going. My forward momentum. It started by moving the date of my weekly post…from Tuesdays to Wednesday aka Hump Day. It gave me something to work toward as I hit mid-week.

And…it showed. I usually had something to edit.  I also usually had something to type up…or could think about something typing-wise that I needed to be caught up on. And of course, I always had something to write because I had started on my next big writing project. It was a good feeling to have options.

Did I say that? Yes. But one thing that options also brought up? The idea of MANY choices. And many choices usually led to indecision.

Like in the case of my editing. I took a breather from a short story that I’ve been working on before I gave it an edit and a rewrite. But I did not want to lose my editing momentum. So what could I work on while I was on break? Thankfully, I had other projects that I needed to work on.

Oh, what a bag of worms that opened.

BIG THINGS HAS SMALL BEGINNINGS

First up…SECRETS.

Specifically, a college town full of them.

The horror WiP that I had been working on has to do with Ty Gabriel, a guy with a traumatizing past. He thought that he could run away to the college town of Fallsborough and reinvent himself. Whether it was mixing it up with the local folk or the local fraternity…he had hopes and dreams. That is…until his past follows him to Fallsborough…and someone winds up dead.

My horror WiP also included a mystery involving Monet Harrison and the disappearance of her best friend. A disappearance that may or may not have involved the local fraternity. Was the disappearance part of a hazing…or was it something more supernatural?

That was the main plot to my WiP. There were several subplots running through it. A detective haunted by the death of his wife. A hidden history between two characters. What happened in Ty’s hometown that he is running away from?

It was quite the undertaking. It was also a good way for me to deal with a traumatizing experience of my own. It was also a finished, but unpublished novel.

I had been editing back over it while I took a break from my finished short story. It was interesting submerging myself back into the world of Fallsborough. The secrets. The lies. The character arcs that I had sent up for my main characters of Ty and Monet. I enjoyed the arc that I had for Detective Thorn…who was basically the third main character…as well. It had a flow that I loved. It was a slow burn, but there was a menace to it that I don’t see with my other books. But again…a horror novel.

Still…I worried. When I wrote the first draft of my horror WiP, it had been therapy. It had also been a different time in the world. There had been a shift to trigger warnings. There had been a shift to people being easily offended. I wrote the novel…to write the novel. To heal myself.

Being an independent author meant usually doing everything yourself. That included writing, editing, promoting, and networking. You know…things that in traditional publishing…other people did for you. It could be daft, but it came with the territory.

I couldn’t help, but wonder…would this horror WiP be marketable today?

DO YOU FORGET ABOUT ME

Speaking of forgotten, there was something forgotten that did come up as I was doing the editing.

The Darkenverse.

The world that I established in The DARKENED series (DARKENED SOUL, DARKCHILDE, DARKENED TABULA, the various tie-ins). It was a great dystopian world full of supernatural beings. I still had the last book in the series to work on. I also had the next tie-in to work on. DARKENED SOUL: THE BREAKING OF CIRCLES was a new short story collection that involved several of the supporting characters. There were other tie-ins that had been on my mind from a novella about the Nosferatu Nicholas (love interest in DARKCHILDE) to another story about Aidan (one of the main characters from DARKCHILDE) to my recent serial over at www.facebook.com/darkenverse DARKENED SOUL: THE RYN which was a prequel tale about the wolf shifters involved in DARKCHILDE the Forryn.

There were still so many miles to go in the little world that I introduced in DARKENED SOUL. But outside of THE RYN and the mentions of research on DARKENED SOUL: THE BREAKING OF CIRCLES…there has been very little for me to show as of late. And my mind started to wonder.

It had been a nice thing to have a shift. HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES was an interesting experience. I enjoyed when someone came across it. And I enjoyed comments. But given that my current WiP involved young adults, college towns (again), and no supernatural beings whatsoever, part of me had a different emotion. That emotion was worry. And that was followed by a thought.

Would my readers get to see my Nosferatu (and witches) again?

TO SEE THE WORLD DIFFERENTLY…YOU HAVE TO PRACTICE SEEING THE WORLD DIFFERENTLY

I loved HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES. It was nice to have an African American protagonist. I felt that I grew as an author and touched on things from a point of view that I wanted to do for a looooong time.

But…what’s next? At the time I had been working on how to serialize DARKENED SOUL: THE RYN. In my head. I was at work.

It occurred to me that I had nothing in the vein of HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES lined up any time soon. It made me think of all the times that writing magazines and agents advised up-and-coming authors to at least do two books in similar veins. Part of it was to grow a fanbase for yourself. And that fanbase would be used to what they knew of your writing. Part of it was having a genre to put the up-and-comer into.

Of course, I should work on another novel that was similar to HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES. My writing had shifted. Genre? It was currently fiction. Right now, I guess my current WiP would be Young Adult fiction. It dealt with the restaurant industry and took place in a college town. Definitely different than having New York City as the setting in HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES…but NOT the dystopian future of DARKENED SOUL.

Would I have another novel that was gay fiction? That was similar to HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES? I didn’t know how to answer that. I did have a day where I had a story idea AND a title for my next gay fiction, but would I be working on it anytime soon? I had an idea about a trio of friends…an artist, an author, and a musician…and exploring their ups and downs in their friendship. I even had a title for that, too.

That was still not in the exact vein as HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES. Except it was fiction. All of it would be great practice for writing in the direction that my writing was going. Still the question remained.

What did I want to do?

LOST BOY

It had been fun to get back to editing. Yay for maintaining that editing muscle! Thanks to that, I had unearthed all these lost projects and ideas that hopefully I would get back to. But I knew the truth.

If I was going to get back to those lost projects and ideas, I needed to keep my focus. And focus meant one thing at a time. Or at least managing my time better to naturally flow projects from one to the other.

So for now, I was sticking with my current WiP. I enjoyed it. The words were flowing out of me. And I got a thrill as I was at work, thinking of new plot and character ideas. I had breaks in there for side projects, but so far they have not completely distracted from the focus.

Could I keep that balance?

Or would these projects be like they were before? Lost…and forgotten…?

Hello friends! I have gathered a list of all my favorite resources, vendors, and applications that have helped me write the Eirenic Verses. Here, you'll find writing books, marketing guides, writing apps, cover artists, beta readers (including @dlbookediting), and more!

Okay, not too much on my billionaire romances, Jenna ✋🏿