Day 4 was 2,552 words. Again, lower than I'd hoped, but I hadn't got much sleep that night either and this was a few days in a row at that point.
While being tired can help me write, there's definitely a point where it gets to be a hindrance. At this point, I'm not sure whether the book isn't working as well as I'd hoped (although the daily average currently isn't that far under my quota) or the fact that I had several days in a row with almost no sleep. On the plus side, I finally felt tired so whatever it was might be ending.
I've decided to add some smaller/throwaway POVs because I have a major character whose head I want to stay out of yet there are events I need to at least partly depict in order to bridge to other scenes. If some of these end with the character's death, the overall plan stays the same. If I let them escape, the story might change in interesting ways. I'm not sure which direction I'll go because, again, the outline for this book is still developing since I didn't map the whole thing out ahead of time, and I'm still figuring out a lot of events in the middle of the book.
I'm also somewhat torn on what to do for book 9. I started planning out... well, it's a werewolf novel. I suppose I should say at least that to make these updates less confusing. Anyway, parts of it are from an idea I had maybe 10 or 15 years ago, where some of the original ideas will be transferring over, as well as a few things I'd thought of since then, and I need to winnow down the rest. While all of the iterations have a similar starting point, some lore elements vary and the character backstories (and conflicts) are a little different.
However, I have a gender-bending humor/horror/mystery on the backburner (partially plotted, and I keep expecting I'll plot it out further yet haven't) and I have that Christmas-themed horror novel. Basically I have to ask myself if I want to just write horror for the rest of the year, and all of these are adult horror novels.
First off, this is a closed series--eight single books that, when read in order, tell one big story. Like the Harry Potter series. It goes from Point A to Point B and then it's over. As with Harry Potter, I know where the story's going, I've already written the climax and I know how it all ends. That's all I have in common with J. K. Rowling. Since it's essentially one big super-novel, I'm okay with skipping around because I'm doing it within "chapters." If I'm working on Book 2 and suddenly get an inspiration that shoots me over to Book 6, yeah, I'm gonna run with it. It'll all fit together eventually.
I'm not sure I could write like that.
Although I have a roadmap for my entire series that's mostly remained unchanged (although technically book 3's story changed, the villain was the same and the overall impact of the story was the same), I've added things to the roadmap since then and, even though the books are technically standalones (although one book is standalone in the same way that The Empire Strikes Back is a standalone (ie, the ending is basically a cliffhanger setting up the next thing)), I'd worry about running continuity. And the drive from finishing one book has helped me along with the next in the series. I probably could have just written the whole thing back-to-back, but I realized I wanted to try trade-publishing first and that would be a risky strategy for trade-publishing.
It's definitely an interesting approach, though. And I'll mention that my planning hasn't always necessarily been sequential.
Here's where the problems come in. I tend to write slowly, with more than occasional blocks. That's fine if you're aiming for traditional publication. A year or two between books is expected. However, this is intended for e-publishing. In fact, it already has a publisher. This series is a spinoff of two books I wrote for an ebook publisher of erotic romances; part of the contract states they get first look/right of first refusal of any future book employing the same characters or setting/background. A secondary character in the other two books plays a major role in this series, so it has to go to them first. Epublishing in general relies on speed and putting out books as often as possible so you don't lose momentum, or your audience. The publisher's going to want a monthly schedule, and since I'm not a speedster plus I'm given to frequent blocks, I can't guarantee timely delivery--unless I write the entire thing at once, and don't even sub the first one until I've got at least five in the can. Even that would be risky. Better stick to all eight. For all I know, this artificial pressure I'm putting on myself is what's causing the blocks to begin with.
Could you get around that by changing the character or setting? Or would that be too big of an issue? Or just a moot point because you're planning on using the same publisher anyway?
The other problem is being a pantser in the first place. What if I wrote and published the first three books, then suddenly got an inspiration that would vastly improve the story, but contradict what was already out there? (This already happened within Book 1, so I was able to catch it.) Again, this is going through a publisher. I can't just take it down and re-upload a new version. Once it's published, it's in stone. So I need to write either most or all of it before I risk sending in the first one, so there won't be any messy surprises.
Well, I guess where you already have the publisher lined up, the biggest risk is theoretically off the table, so you probably don't have to worry about needing to make massive revisions on one, then the next, and the next, and the next, which is a concern with my series.
Nether - It's a linked short story collection. It's about myths from all over Earth now living on Mars because they were being hunted by humans while on Earth.
Now I just have so many more questions!
Anyway, it sounds like a fun concept. I'm assuming by "linked," they probably all got up there the same way and that the characters from one story may appear in other stories?
NIGHTMARE IN BLACK (Draft 1) – The meaning behind the title is shocking.
I'm intrigued.
