It’s been a while since I’ve been ahead of my own schedule. Like never, actually. And I still can’t shake that panicky feeling that I’m behind.
I’m not behind on writing itself. There are other things that I am, like the audiobook for Bloodlines, of which I’m only a third of the way through the recording. But it’s coming, but it probably won’t be ready for the text release of the ebook and paperback versions.
So, it was super surreal to sit down and start playing with a book that isn’t on my 2020 schedule. It could be, if it ends up getting finished, but I’m not putting it there yet because I don’t know if I’m going to finish it. It’s not part of an ongoing series. It’s totally new and I’m loving playing around with the characters and the plot and generally having a good time with something that doesn’t have a deadline.
I’ll probably start edits on Reapers 3 next week, because I’m also itching to get back to that world. I love my Reapers and I’ve already started working on book 4, which means I need to finish book 3 so I can have the details of that book available. I also know that I need to add a few scenes into Reapers 3. Not anything like the rewrites, but a couple extra scenes to strengthen the plot and the romance and the ongoing series arc.
There are two things I hear from a lot of authors and this is kind of the culture these days. Everyone is so desperate to be seen and get their books out there that they focus on publishing as quickly as possible. Inevitably, those two things are a lot of authors say they don’t have time to write for fun and they don’t read for fun anymore.
I find this a shame. I’ve noticed that when I’m in a reading slump, a lot of times a writing slump starts shortly after. Reading is my writing fuel. I have 3-4 authors that when I’m feeling creatively slumped by my writing, I will reread their books and suddenly, I’m inspired and feeling ready to tackle the writing I’ve been putting off.
I mean, a lot of writers get their first start in reading. We get inspired, we get an inkling of an idea of something that we’d like to read, but hasn’t been written yet. So we write it. If you cut out the reading part, what are you left with? How do you fill up the tank again?
Since I finished Reapers 3, I’ve been reading a lot, so I’ve been itching to work on something. But I wasn’t sure what. So I indulged myself and started a book that isn’t on my list of projects. Will I regret not going to my list and working on a book I already scheduled?
Possibly. (Probably.)
But I’m having a good time with this story. I may put this one on the serial fiction site after this. I don’t know. For now, I’m just having fun with it. If a book comes from it, great. If not, it’ll be a fun diversion for a few weeks.
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