How often do you change your mind?
For me, and I'm sure for you, it's a regular occurrence. I don't mean big things necessarily, more like deciding to put on a different shirt with that particular pair of pants, or deciding to turn left when you'd planned on turning right at the intersection to get to where you're going using a different route, or scrapping the idea of what you were going to make for dinner because you now want something else.
I know there are plenty of times when even if you want to change your mind that you can't. Been there. Usually for me, that was something work related. Can't really decide you are going to do something with your workday if you're expected to do something else (at least not without repercussions). It happens even as a writer with external sources. Sometimes with internal ones, especially around deadline time. But when I'm not up against a too-close deadline or another commitment, I'm grateful to be in a position where it's okay if I want to change my mind.
And that's what I've done.
I've switched what project I'm working on for my next book.
And I am so happy I did.
The spinoff to my Mixing Up Magic series was going okay. I was closing in on new writing territory as I finished cleaning up what I'd dictated two years ago and fleshing it out a bit. But with that book, I'm a discovery writer. I still don't know who did it or why. And for that book, it's totally okay that my process is that way. It will come to me in time. But one morning, I was struck with an idea that when it hit, I knew pretty much everything.
The who, the what, the where, when, how, and the why. I have scenes popping up left and right, and all I need to do is connect them. And the character was talking so loudly, as were her cats (yes, multiple), that I had to listen.
I gave myself two days to see how it flowed when actually writing. If it didn't, I'd go back to the other project. But if it did, I'd keep going.
Those two days turned into three weeks in which I'd written 8k words. That's more than double the pace of the other project in the same amount of time. And in the few weeks following, I've now hit 20k words.
I'm loving it. I'm so excited by it, and I can't wait to be able to share more with you soon.
But for now here are some fun facts about it.
- Like with the other project I told you about, it is not Book 6 in the Mixing up Magic series but features a place I've mentioned in those books.
- If you read Catastrophe on the Road back in 2021, which will be coming back out this year, it features locations in that as well and some of those characters make an appearance in this one. If you haven't read CotR, I'll have an email about when that will come back out soon.
- There's currently a working title. I'm not sure if it's the book title, the series title, or both. I'll know more as this story wraps up to see if this main character and her cats have more in store for me.
- It will be about 25k words when I'm done. Maybe 30k. I'm always a little unsure about these sorts of things because of being a discovery writer. For those of you wondering how long that is pages wise, that's at least twice as long as Coffee and Calicos.
- Since it is replacing my prior project, like that one would have been, it is due in April and has an expected release date of June 1st.
That's all from me for now, but more soon!
Until next time, stay cozy,
Rosie
0 comments