Processes

No kids in choir stories today because I'm done with children's choir. Oh happy, happy joy. Well, until the fall because I'm a sap and agreed to do it again. I was sitting on the sofa, writing, when I had a moment of panic at the time, and then I remembered that I didn't have to go.

I only got a little more than 2,000 words written yesterday, but then about 45 minutes of my work time was devoted to brainstorming, and now I have at least the next four or five scenes figured out, and I have a few new twists that I hadn't anticipated that will make things a lot more fun. I'm really enjoying myself now.

This particular series is a weird one for me. For one thing, my process changes entirely. I do a lot more rewriting as I go, sometimes multiple drafts of the beginning before I move on. This is because I don't seem to really know what it's about until I write it. With the first book, I had one idea when I started, and by the time I was done, it had changed entirely. It's about as close as I get to "seat of the pants" writing, and yet I do extensive plotting and planning. Also, I can't seem to write it in silence. I have to leave iTunes playing on shuffle while I write. With almost everything else I write, I need total silence or just instrumental music (movie soundtracks work). With these books, not only do I need music, but I need music with lyrics. There's occasionally a pause to sing along, but when I'm really going, I can tune it out.

I just can't take as long from start to finish on this book as I did on the previous one. I wrote three other books between the time I started it and the time I really considered it finished enough to submit. I started researching in the summer of 2009, started actually writing that fall, and will be releasing it this summer. The sequel just has multiple rounds of revisions on another book in the middle of it.

It's funny how different books have different demands, and it takes a while to figure out if this is a music book or a silence book, an afternoon book or an evening book, a push to the end book or a revise as I go book. Usually, there's some process consistency within a series, but not always.

I probably need to start figuring out what to write next. Probably the sequel to the steampunk book to offer it as an option book on that contract, and then have it ready to self-publish if they don't want it. But they didn't really want to think in terms of a series, so it might be better to give them a standalone until they see how the first book does, but then that would delay publication of the sequel. This is a chat I'll have to have with my agent after I get this book done.