If you’ve been following me on Twitter, sometimes you may see the angst I go through as a writer. One day I’m writing and all is right with the world. The next, I’m stuck in a fetal position wondering if one book is all I’m able to make. I’m currently in the process of creating a series and even though I’ve already written a novel, I’m seeing that there’s a huge learning curve to getting this right. So, on top of my own agonizing process I have a lot of research to do.
Writing my first book took years. And I’m trying to write another in months. It’s crazy. Hopefully it will come together soon.
— Jarrod D. King (@JarrodKing) August 10, 2016
It took me years to write Pangaea: Unsettled Land. I came up with the inkling of an idea back in 2009, and after multiple false starts, I finally got to where I am now with a near-completed product. Starting this new story is full of false starts as well, but I’m hoping it won’t take me nearly as long to get it done. I started with outlining, but I didn’t know much about the characters, so I began writing like a “panster” to see what the story revealed. I could only do this for a while before getting stuck. I can’t write and not know where I’m going (kudos to those who can). So just yesterday, my goal was to go back to outlining and see what more I can add in order to get some momentum. This step is where I learned a bit more about crafting a series.
You can’t just outline the first book. If you want to do a collection of forward-moving stories, you have to have the bigger picture in mind from the beginning. I already knew this, but my vision was very vague in the beginning and that turned out not to work. So, I plotted out some key points in the series as a whole and now I can say that I think I’m getting somewhere.
So what is the new series about? Let’s just say it involves angels and demons. A full explanation would be way too revealing at so early a stage in writing, but it’s going to have some great characters and action throughout. That I can guarantee.
