..:: Written .:. Off ::..

First off, thanks to all of you who left comments on my last post. It’s great to see that there are writers out there who are able to think past what they are told by all the naysayers in the world. If you have some time, take a moment and read some of the comments on my last post. Some of them are quite interesting and eye-opening.

Now…onto the novel…

I’ve been thinking about my idea for the sequel, and unfortunately, it’s not lighting up my creativity. My first novel has a clear ending. I did not want to fall into the Fantasy Trilogy Trap. I like books that stand on their own, and swore that I would never write a trilogy, just because it seems to be the trend. For some reason, three is the magic number.

Yawn.

So why am I writing a sequel? Well, it’s so much a sequel, as a continuation of the main characters story. Since the first novel is very personal, I figured that I would make the second more epic. It just seemed to be the logical move. I had an idea for a story that dealt with huge armies from different dimensions converging on the world in question to battle for power. While this idea has possibilities, I’m still not sure if it’s the right story to tell at this point.

Last night, while tossing and turning in bed, I had a much better idea on where to go with the sequel. It’s a much smaller scale, but a lot grittier. I like gritty, and most of all, I want the story to be different. My philosophy when it comes to art is to do things that have not been done before. I don’t see the point in writing something that has been done to death a thousand times over.

I also find that I can’t just write for the sake of writing. Writing prompts and flash fiction challenges hold no interest to me. I’ve tried these before and my output is mostly crap. The only time these seem to work for me is if I already have a quality idea floating around my head that doesn’t fit into my current project. Some writers do well with writing on the fly, but I just can’t seem to get the hang of it.

I know I’m on the right track with a story when I get a flood of ideas. I had a lot of ideas last night as soon as I came up with the new direction for the story. The challenge now is to sort through them, and then combine them with the bits from the original idea that are worth keeping.

It’s always good to keep track of any ideas that you might have, even if they don’ seem relevant to your current project. I’m not really organized, so sometimes I will jot stray ideas down in a notebook, or create a computer file with a few sentences. So don’t throw anything away! You never know when you will need it.

All of this novel planning makes me feel complacent. I haven’t actually written much in the past few weeks. My next steps will be to organize my ideas, and write a chapter or two. Even if I don’t use these chapters, it will help me establish the tone of the novel.