Monday 23 September 2013

Multi project!

Just one of my projects.

This year has been a strange one so far. Last year I wrote frantically, finally finding the confidence to get ideas that I had been fostering for years written down. I wrote Heal The Sick, Raise The Dead in two months. I wrote Cuts of Flesh in nine months, (six novellas) and three short stories, even cramming in a novel during NaNoWriMo. Since then I have flitted between ideas, crafting covers and trying to fire myself up for something big, something important, something that will get me noticed (if the end product warrants it). "Last year was practice, this is the main event!" is the mantra that I've been trying to push myself forwards with. 

It hasn't worked. 

I've got a list of stories of various lengths that I've started and then left when the fire has faded a few weeks (or even days) later...
Gloom
Carnival
Clock
Ojiisan
Ragnarok
The Oddments
Blink
The Keep

This isn't actually a new set of circumstances. I used to do this all the time, but the only difference now is that I've finished some of them.

I could even add The Overcloud Codex to the list, as after a satisfying first couple of chapters, my plot began to bore me. I had envisaged a slow set up for maybe a series of books, a story of a world thrown into flux, but after planning a couple of chapters of political webs and conflicting relationships, it just seemed too ponderous, like discussing trade routes in those awful Star Wars prequels. I'm plotting a major rethink, but am putting the story to rest for a few weeks so that I can look at it fresh. 
And now, stepping into the fray, is Shy - a "choose your own adventure" mature horror set in Japan. Think Lovecraft in the east. The uncanny, the unknowable, red herrings, immersive terror... and it's great fun to write! As I've said before, I'm no literary fiction writer. I'm pulpy, shlocky, and at times cheesy. That may change as I practice (as that's all I'm really doing at this point), but for now, I'm going to continue to write what I enjoy, just to keep writing. Plus, I think the choose your own adventure set-up has enough retro charm to actually do quite well, especially with a more mature edge. A lot of people who have normally been lukewarm about reading my books have seemed genuinely excited to give this one a go. It even has scope for a series if it does well...