We’ve all heard phrases that begin with, “Life has a funny
way of...”
Well, not only does my life have a funny way of taking unexpected detours that I could never have seen. My writing often does this and with concerning regularity. While writing a fantasy trilogy (which will probably never see the light of day; sorry) I had a secondary villain predict, at his public execution, declare that whoever killed him would never live if they crossed a certain geographical boundary of that world. Well, the villain quickly overpowered his guard, grabbed a sword and was going to kill the king he’d betrayed. A major character, who I had plans for long down the road, decided to jump in the way of the charging villain, deflect the strike, and he killed the bad guy.
There I was, writing the scene out, thinking the whole time, “What are you doing? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?” And when the damage was done, I had to figure out a new way around things. It worked in the end, probably better than had I gone through my with initial idea, but man it was unnerving to have a character act on his own. (Lends itself well to jokes about writers being crazy.)
Well, not only does my life have a funny way of taking unexpected detours that I could never have seen. My writing often does this and with concerning regularity. While writing a fantasy trilogy (which will probably never see the light of day; sorry) I had a secondary villain predict, at his public execution, declare that whoever killed him would never live if they crossed a certain geographical boundary of that world. Well, the villain quickly overpowered his guard, grabbed a sword and was going to kill the king he’d betrayed. A major character, who I had plans for long down the road, decided to jump in the way of the charging villain, deflect the strike, and he killed the bad guy.
There I was, writing the scene out, thinking the whole time, “What are you doing? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?” And when the damage was done, I had to figure out a new way around things. It worked in the end, probably better than had I gone through my with initial idea, but man it was unnerving to have a character act on his own. (Lends itself well to jokes about writers being crazy.)
So, I’ve been editing two completed novels. During the course of cleaning up the second
one, I began to wonder if the ending should be changed and instead of leaving
so much hanging that could lead to major story arcs, long term plotlines, and
such that would tie down any future novels, I found myself wondering if I
should just wrap up all those storyline in the second novel and allow myself
some breathing space.
After pondering it for a few days, I talked with the missus and came to the conclusion that that would be the best thing to do. Almost immediately, I had a new stand-alone idea for the third novel develop over the past 48 hours that has more potential than the previous idea for novel number three (and idea I haven’t abandoned, but one that I think with a little more work could be fun to do).
As of now, I’m keeping with my plan of releasing Guidry Number One and Guidry Number Two sometime late this fall or early winter. This while working on Guidry Number Three, the Ancient Corinth Novel, and continue slugging away at turning my thesis in to a Scholarly Journal Article for submission.
After pondering it for a few days, I talked with the missus and came to the conclusion that that would be the best thing to do. Almost immediately, I had a new stand-alone idea for the third novel develop over the past 48 hours that has more potential than the previous idea for novel number three (and idea I haven’t abandoned, but one that I think with a little more work could be fun to do).
As of now, I’m keeping with my plan of releasing Guidry Number One and Guidry Number Two sometime late this fall or early winter. This while working on Guidry Number Three, the Ancient Corinth Novel, and continue slugging away at turning my thesis in to a Scholarly Journal Article for submission.
