So I had been planning to write the fourth book in the Regent’s Castle series this year for NaNo. This would involve lots of research into Illinois history, because I’m planning to weave in white settlement, Native American threads, and European ideas of Faerie, and hopefully along the way come up with a reason the Fae agreed to sign a treaty with the mortals in the first place.
Which would be great, if I had the time and money to go live at slightlyjillian’s for a week while I did research. I know, you can learn a lot from books and the internet, but I need to go places and see them as well. I’ve discovered that greatly enhances my writing.
I’ve also, of course, been working on the revising of Shaper. Not a big deal, except that one edit I’m making will change a relationship that develops in Come Ye Back and the unnamed third novel. Still not a big deal, except that in writing book four I would have to make some assumptions of where that relationship would go. Again, not a super big deal.
But I haven’t reread CYB or the third novel in a long time. >.> I have 12 days. I could do it. Except I’m also going out of town Oct 28-30.
*sigh*
Last year, the idea I discarded for NaNo was to take my short story “Hungry” and expand on the mythology and maybe even make it a Truthseekers, Inc., novel. Not that I quite finished Truthseekers, Inc. beyond the climax. *sigh* But anyway. I like the setting (which is a very loose adaptation of the town my grandmother lived in when I was a girl) and the characters. I haven’t worked it all out, but I did start plotting it before I decided to put it on hold last year.
Thoughts? Questions? Ideas? Anyone?
You’re always welcome. Also, our Borders has three cases full of books on Illinois. I was glancing through some of them today. Apparently, we enjoy reading about ourselves. Ha!
*G* Thanks! I wasn’t doubting my welcome, just my ability to pay for it this month. ;) Should I take this comment as a vote for “write the Regent’s story”? :D
Well, first I would say that you need to take a deep breath.
In one of these ideas, you might be able to do one of those “start writing until you hit a brick wall… then start digging under the brick wall” sort of things.
How much of the research on Idea One do you need to know the idea? Is it a direct part of the story or can you weave it in during edits?
Assumptions can some times be a good thing. Once again, could you weave things from the previous stories into edits later on? Instead of a deep reading, you could do a lite read through for the main ideas.
And idea four… you have it plotted out. Sure, the first story isn’t done but you’ve got a good chunk of it and nothing “new” is going to happen in it since you’ve got the climax done… and do I have to mention again that you already have it plotted out?
Just some questions for you to think about.
Psht. Deep breath? What are you talking about? ;)
I actually think I’ll be okay with a fairly small amount of research, though I really do need to buy a popular history of Illinois written for adults. I actually think fact books for kids are a great way to start research, because they give you a general background to know more about where you need to start researching.
The more I think about this, the more I’m inclined to go with my original intentions and write book four of the Regents books.