Back at the start of last year I
decided to try writing something new. I needed a change from dragons and
damsels, or detectives facing vampires and wayward housewives. I decided it was
time I ventured deep into outer space.
As usual I started with a scrap of
a plot and plunged right on ahead. I knew what the opening chapter would look
like, and the final dramatic scene. All I needed was the middle part of the
beast. My Beta reader uncovered the usual number of faults but I pressed on.
Unlike some authors and betas, we look at each other’s work as it goes along, a
few chapters at a time. We don’t wait until the completion before we do the
swapping of manuscripts and the serious critiquing. The advantage to me is I
pick up on any problems early enough to incorporate the fixes as I create the
next section and repair the last.
I usually write quickly. I’ll start
each day by reading and editing what I wrote the day before, and then charge on
ahead. I also go back, adding scenes, inserting comments, sprinkling in
incidents as they pop up.
Decided on a working title: “Of
Destiny’s Daughters.” So, what happened after I finished this epic? Sent it off
to the publisher and settled down for the usual waiting period, chewing nails
to the quick. Of course, the brain keeps active during this period and the
ending had generated some ideas on what might happen next in the story.
Might as well keep on writing, eh?
My beta reader complained the start
of volume number two was a bit slow. Okay, I add an opening scene with a
flashback complete with explosions. Somewhere during this process I also
imagined a third volume. Then of course I changed my mind and compressed the
projected third volume into the end of book two, which had a working title of
“Hammer Across the Stars.”
Might as well finish this off and send
it to the publisher so she can get an idea of how the tale unfolds beyond the
first book.
Of course, as I put volume number
two to bed there is an itch in the back of my head. The revised ending has
given me a brilliant (I may exaggerate here) idea for a third volume. No, I
haven’t started on this one yet, but the ideas are percolating.
One reason I haven’t started
anything on book three (working title unknown although “Expedition to Earth”
has a nice ring to it) is that I’m now up to my eyeballs in edits on the first
volume. The publisher has said “Yes!”
The moral here, persistence pays
off. Now about that book three…
R.J.Hore
The Dark Lady Trilogy (Volume 1,2,3)
The Queen’s Pawn (Volume 1,2,3)
The Housetrap Chronicles (Volumes 1 to 8)
Alex in Wanderland,
Knight’s Bridge
We’re Not in Kansas
Toltec Dawn (Book 1, 2, of 3)
