Shauna's Spot

I go back and forth on what I want to work on once I finish a project because I have so many ideas gamboling around in my head and I want to get them all done right away!

On Friday I finished the hard edits of Fire, book four in the Elemental Series, so I need to transcribe those edits onto the computer, giving me my second draft. But I also want to start a new project. I’ve been working on the Elemental Series for the last four years so I definitely want to take a break from that world for a little while. But at the same time, there is a loud, panicked voice in my head screaming that I need to write the fifth book right now. Because if I don’t write it right now it will never, ever get done!

The new project I want to work on is an adult Urban Fantasy story with a strong Paranormal Romance plotline about a witch named Mattie. I’ve written a few flash fiction pieces about Mattie and she is just so, so much fun! She’s got a bit of an attitude problem and a smushed-faced cat named Artemis. In Mattie’s world all the supernatural and preternatural creatures live out in the open with the rest of the mundane humans of the world. I think it will be a lot of fun to write in a world where the magical creatures don’t have to hide their abilities and true selves.

And of course I have the projects for my pen name that I feel like I need to get done right away. And those are always much shorter than the novels I write under my real name so that screaming voice in my head tries to convince me that I should tackle these first because they won’t take long! But if I put off my longer projects then it’ll just be that much longer before I finish them! Do you see the vicious mental cycle I go through!

I’ve never written two projects at once; I can be in the editing stages for one and writing another, but I’ve never tried to write more than one at a time. Maybe it’s time to try that?

As for Mattie’s story I did sit down this morning and start the outline, I think it’s probably only for the first quarter of the book, if I’m lucky it’s the first quarter, but we’ll see once I start writing. I have never outlined before; as a rule I’m a pantser, which means I just sit down and write by the seat of my pants. When I tried to write my first book I outlined the whole thing from start to finish and then just couldn’t write the damn thing. It took me a long time to realize it was because I felt like, having such an detailed outline, that I already told the story and had no motivation to tell it again. But I’ve been having such a hard time thinking about what Mattie’s story is that I needed to sit down and jot down some ideas about where the story could start. I didn’t outline in detail so I think I may still be safe.

I think I’m probably going to start with Mattie’s story this week. I’ve been wanting and waiting to write her story since this past summer, so I think she’s waited long enough. I’m excited about this one. We’ll see how it goes, I may try to shop it for traditional publishing, but I’m not sure yet.



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