Thoughts on Writing #7: Procrastination and Plot Bunnies!
So, I'm planning on releasing the next book the Celestial Kitty Danny-Chan series the following winter. Spring if I can make it.
I know it's a little early to be thinking about the next book, but deadlines help me stay motivated, and making my deadlines public helps me make sure I meet them. The first three books of CKDC have already been written; it's just a matter of editing. It would be nice if I could finish the first series before I graduate. I know that that is a pretty audacious goal, even for me. For the record, CKDC will be a nine book series, split into three trilogies. So if you're with me now, you’re with me for the long haul. Don't worry, though. I tend to write pretty quickly and the books will not remain this frivolous and silly.
Oh, they will not be remaining this silly.
Though, I tend to write with an air of comedy, even when trying to be serious. I guess you'll just have to keep reading and see what happens. But while I'm on the subject of deadlines and writing, I thought I'd talk a little bit on procrastination.
It is what I'm dealing with now.
Of course there is the standard form procrastination. Netflix calls to you. Facebook gets in the way. Most of these forms of procrastination can be beat by keeping a strict writing schedule and remaining determined. The stickier situation is the story that you're telling isn't the story that you want to be telling, and you’re considering starting an entirely different piece.
This, in the writing biz, is what we call a plot bunny.
Whether or not you should follow a plot bunny is something under intense debate. On one hand, you might follow your white rabbit down a whole and end up in a mysterious world of fantastic story ideas, or it could go nowhere. And now you've wasted time.
Being a young author, I tend to live in the world of the first argument. There is no rush to write a story. There is no age limit on being an author. Most people don't publish till their way older than I am, and by then, they have more than a few washes up manuscripts in their desk drawer. Why work on something you don't enjoy and never plan to do anything with?
Well, the people from the other side of the fence would argue that writing the perfect ending is as much of an art as writing a perfect beginning, and art takes practice.
Still, I feel the better exercise for learning how to end a piece would be starting with short stories.
There is also no reason that, once you start a story, you can't go back to it. There is an author I follow on youtube named Jenna Moraci and she had some very good advice about maybe taking a week to follow the bunny, write it down, get the idea out of your head, and then return to your novel. "Think of it like having an open relationship with your book." I think that's a good way to think about it.
So what do you do if it's still not out of your head in a week? Keep writing. The real waste of time is the days you write nothing. If your first story is going so badly that you can't write anything at all, don't be afraid to pick the second idea. If you blank out on both of them, well, that's another problem. That's when you look at which one you've written more too and try to power through that one. If you feel like you can write about both of them endlessly, go back to the one you were originally working on. At least you have enough of the second story to come back to when you’re finished.
And don't think that, even if you didn't finish, that first story is a waste of time. There might be something you can pull from it later. I reuse characters in my books all the time. Nobody is going to know that one of your side characters in story X is actually your main character in story Y unless they read both X and Y. Even still, there are a lot of franchises that capitalize off of the whole characters-existing-in-the-same-universe thing. Don't be afraid to steal, especially from yourself.
So how does this relate to all that CKDC stuff I was saying up there? Well, I've come to a little roadblock on what to do after the first three books. The logical option would be to move directly to the 4th. If CKDC is able to pick up any sort of following in the next few years, I assume that's what they would want me to do. But I'm considering taking a little hiatus. I've been working on a new sci-fi series about marching band in the future. It's been going well for me. I've been holding an average of 20 pages a week on this story. I imagine the finished product would be a single book, pretty thick, probably around 90,000-100,000 words. I also have the added bonus of knowing a few literary agents who did band in high school and are looking for some exciting, unique marching band stories. So far I've gotten a lot of excited buzz going for this piece. My boyfriend really likes it. My writing club wants to read it. I know some people from my marching band in high school that can't wait till it comes out. I think this might be a story a plot bunny worth following.
Only problem, I'm only about four chapters in.
Oh course, each chapter is about 20 pages double-spaced (not like CKDC at all). Still, there is no telling if anything will come of this exercise. If I do finish the story, I can see it being released between the 3ed and 4th CKDC books. 2ed and 3ed books are already written, but I don't think I'd be able to finish the 4th book with this new idea buzzing in my head. Maybe I need to give this relationship a break for a little while (I mean my relationship with me and CKDC, not me and Paul). The good thing is that "Drum Corpse" will only be a single book. This might mean waiting a little bit for the 4th book to come out.
