31-27

42 - 15 = 27

Twenty-seven years of storytelling.
Twenty-seven years of getting the timelines right.
Twenty-seven years of ordering the chaos in my head.
Twenty-seven years of manuscripts.
Twenty-seven years of finding a new keyboard, a new notebook, a new way of recording the madness in my head. 
Twenty-seven books all set in the same scape.

31-27 = 4

Four years left to go.
Four more books before it is all done.
Four more times.

Book 2 - Too much info (Problem Statement)

So, this is another one of those blogs where I discuss my writing issues in the attempt to shed some light on my writing process, with the slim chance that someone might find it helpful.

Question: Where do you go when you have the whole story mapped out on paper, and in your head, but you cannot seem to get started on the keyboard?
 
To put this into context, book one of #T2B landed at around 120k words. It took around 3 months of actual writing time. OK, so around a year in total, but to be honest, I only took approximately 9-12 weeks to get the first draft out. Another month to get the edit through the team.

So what's the problem I hear you yell?

Well, the problem is simple. When you land a good story, sink all your efforts into a great (well I think it's excellent) plot. You want to make sure it keeps flowing, keeps moving forward. 

There are many problems which come with writing a sequel.

• You can fracture too quickly.
• You can deviate from the characters original core.
• You can spin in all the wrong directions with characters that your readers have come to love, and fear.

So you have to be careful. You cannot betray the trust you have built up with the reader.

So where do I find myself? 

• I cannot just cut the same story, and send it out with the #2 on the front. 
• This is too dangerous, although the reader will be safe in the knowledge that they will be up for mark 2, you as a writer will be following the same old motion. 

This is not a good place to be. 

Five in Five

Book two is going well, so just as I was gearing up to punch into act two, I received a challenge to undertake the following. 

Five stories in five days. They are ranging from two thousand words all the way to five thousand. Yes, the writing competition season is upon us. So my editor and longtime writing buddy wants a backlog for possible submissions. 

That said, he also does not want me to take my foot of book two. So, with all that in mind. Here we go.

Five stories, five days. #5in5Writing

For those that have read my blog before or for that matter my twitter feed. Will know that sleep, or my lack of it, has enabled me to generate ideas pretty quickly and abundantly.

So let's put that statement to the test shall we, and see if we can produce five fully formed short stories in just five days. The genre's and size will be set by the other half of the Richards&Howell101 team. 

Check back to see how we are getting on. The official start date will be Monday the 4th, for those that want to join us. Please feel free to drop me a line, and we can do it together.