As far as the weather goes, March came in like a lamb this year around here. Does that mean it will go out like a lion?
While March does whatever it’s going to do, I’m still working on the second book in the Edgemont series, and I’m so close to finishing it! Many people seem to think the hard part of the writing process is coming up with ideas, but I’m here to tell you that the actual writing is the truly hard part.
Ideas abound. Most writers, myself included, have a list of story ideas tucked away in a notebook, in a file drawer, or on their computer. Ideas spring from passions, conversations, intriguing turns of phrase from other books, stories passed down through families, and the list goes on. Turning an idea—or the kernels of several ideas—into an 85,000-word novel is where the work begins. Don’t get me wrong. Writing can be fun, too, but it does require some effort to get from what you want to write about to how it will play out over the course of 300 pages or so.
The idea for my novel Simply Mystical didn’t come to me as one cohesive whole. Several years ago, I became fascinated with the idea of spirit guides—souls who choose not to incarnate so they can provide loving guidance to humans. That led to me wondering what might happen if a spirit guide fell in love with his or her human. Or what if they’d been in love for centuries and he couldn’t stand to be separated from her for even one lifetime? That was the central idea, and it bloomed into a book and then into a series. That sounds simple, but bringing it into full bloom took a lot of tilling, fertilizing, watering, and pruning—or brainstorming, drafting, revision, and editing.
So, ideas are the easy part, at least for me. Now back to tending those tender buds on Book 2.
Take care!