The Dark Lands Book 2 Week 1

It begins again. Today is day five of writing the second book. I have to admit that I was a little worried starting the book. I have been working on the plot in my head for the last month and I didn’t really like where I was going with it. I seemed stumped in several places and was starting to worry that I had written myself into a corner.

This whole experience is just so new to me. Book one was already the largest story I had ever written and book two picks up right where book one left off. Which of course means that this really large story is just getting huge (huge by my standards not huge by say George R.R Martin’s standards). I took notes while editing book one and feel like I have a handle on the story line’s arc.

Having a good feel didn’t really help. I had several stories that I wasn’t sure how I was going to get them where I needed them. One of the problems I was having was the introduction of new characters. The story seemed to be getting too big for its britches. That was the first big decision I made. I eliminated two story lines I was going to put into book two. If I can get them in using one of the main characters I will.

This was a great decision because it seemed like once I made it the jigsaw pieces of book two all began to click into place. I sat down on Tuesday and started writing. I finished 5,000 words this week, meeting my 1,000 words a day goal. Chapter one is done and I have started chapter two. Even more importantly I am really psyched to see where my characters take me this time. I have been thinking about the story pretty much non-stop since I started writing.

One thing I understand more now than ever is why authors take some time off between books. I really haven’t. I finished book one in June and have been rewriting it since. I finally had it to a point that I felt comfortable letting people read it. I am now three for three with people liking it. I didn’t write total slop, yeah me! I was a little worried about going right into book two. My brain was all over the place on the story but once I started writing that all seemed to calm down. I did give myself a week off in Hawaii, I am sure that helped.

I will continue to write book two while I make changes on book one (from my readers’ notes). I want to get as much of book two done during the the summer as I can. I sent book one off to an agent. It is a really good agent and I have no expectations of being picked up. I was just working on the process and hoping that I could get past the first level of submissions. I will use these updates now to mostly talk about book two but I will keep everyone updated on anything that comes up with book one.

I have also decided that I will not be posting excerpts from book two in the blog. I really don’t want to give any of the cliffhangers away from book one. I may never be published but I do plan to have this book read, I worked too hard not to. So as the book one gets read by friends, family, strangers, I don’t want to ruin any surprises if they decide that they want to read book two. Since everyone who has read it or had it read to them has wanted to read book two, no more excerpts. Cliffhangers are nasty, wait until you see what I planned for book two.