The Siren Song Of New Shiny

Now that the initial excitement of releasing Forsaken By Shadow has passed, I’ve stopped the obsessive checking for sales (there have been 11 so far)–well mostly.  It’s like twice a day now instead of every twenty minutes.  It has fallen off the “Most Recent” lists at its assorted locations, so it is clear to see the reality of releasing a book of any kind yourself: That it takes TIME to build a following.  I knew that logically.  I’m planning a blog tour for the month of May (if you’re willing to have me as a guest, please drop me a line).  Until then, it will do what it will do, selling a few copies here and there as people stumble over it or as my friends continue to stop by.

In the meantime, I had great plans to work on its sequel, Revelation, which I plotted out last month.  Or maybe the month before.  It’s all kind of run together.  Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I have been dragging my feet.  I was dragging my feet on it even before hubby broke his leg and my flagging concentration.  I kept thinking that I just needed to do some more character development, connect with them.  And I have done that.  But it hasn’t set me back on fire to write it.

Instead, I have been ambushed by excitement for a New Shiny.  New Shiny is related to the Sooper Seekrit Project and has, as my friend Myra would say, got up and went!  I’ve been making lots of notes about that so as not to lose the idea, but I keep pushing myself to go back to Revelation.  It is always a very bad sign when it is a New Shiny that captures my imagination–not because I am necessarily going to go haring off to work on it (I think I have broken myself of that habit).  No it is bad because I know myself.  If a New Shiny is knocking at my brain, it means there is a Problem with current WIP.

I started thinking last night about the difference between Revelation and New Shiny.  Apart from the glaringly obvious fact that they are different genres (New Shiny is YA), New Shiny began with characters.  Revelation began with plot.  Now for someone who is a very plot driven writer, you’d think the latter would be better.  Not so much.  The deceased Hunted In Shadow started with plot.  Forsaken By Shadow began with characters.  Actually, Revelation began with A character.  My heroine.  Her, I get.  Her I’m fine with.  I’m thinking that it’s my hero that’s a problem.

See, when I first started talking to Pot about Finn trying to figure out what kind of a plot would center around her, Pot offered up a brilliant skeleton of an idea that I loved and immediately ran with.  My current hero, Ransom, therefore was kind of incidental.  He was what the PLOT needed.  And I am thinking that maybe he’s not what Finn needs.  Which means that I have the wrong hero for this book.  Which means that my nice, pretty plot may just get thrown out the window.  Yeesh.

So…yeah.  We have yet another false start.  :headdesk:  SO not what I had planned for the start of the year.  Thank God the only deadlines or pressure I’m under is my own.

Now what?

Well, I will take a few days to chew on this, but I can say with about 90% certainty that it’s what I have to do.  Then I’ll take some time to clear my brain of the existing plot and focus on Finn.  What she needs to do in the story doesn’t change.  Her character arc doesn’t change.  But how she gets there probably will.

In the meantime…well, who’s to say I can’t work on the New Shiny instead?

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