What Next?

 

What am I going to write next? Am I going to write anything next? Two interesting questions. Two questions without answers at the moment.

I certainly would like to be writing my next story. I love to write, and I have a 15+ year habit of writing for an hour or two, every morning, and sometimes at night as well. A habit that I have no desire to break.

However... It takes more than a desire and a habit to produce a story. It also takes more than a story idea to produce a story. You may first need a story idea, but then you need to be able to hang incidents and episodes on that idea to fill it out and arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. Which is to say, you need a plot to go with the idea. At the moment, I am entertaining two story ideas, but alas, both of them have issues. Issues that may or may not be able to be resolved. I may very well need to come up with something else altogether.

Over the last 15+ years I've managed to come up with enough story ideas and plots to write 20 novels and 6 novellas. And these were not cookie-cutter formulaic 50K generic genre novels. It seems that, without really trying, I've actually been a rather prolific novelist, especially given that all these stories were written since I turned 60 years old. But it has always been touch and go when it comes to stories... I don't have an abundance of ideas like some writers. And then there is the fact that I'm not getting any younger. At 76 I might be forgiven in slowing down, though to be honest, I don't see any physical reason for doing so... knock on wood. But on the other hand, with 26 published stories, I don't feel like I have to prove anything to myself. It's have a legacy already. For what it's worth.

So, where does all this leaves us. To be honest, it leaves us still wondering what I'm going to write next, and when. 

Currently, I am exploring two ideas for novels, and have been for some time. However, neither of them are clicking. 

I've already mentioned one of the ideas some time ago. Back in April, which you can find a blog post entitled  A Bird in the Bush in which I discuss it. 

However, there is a big problem with this story idea. It's not the story. It's me. 

Blame it on my lack of youth, but at the age of 76, I find the scope of that story idea, Beyond the Iron Gate, and the prospect of writing it, daunting. It would involve inventing a whole new world, teeming with hundreds of different societies, and a quest that would take our characters through at least half a dozen of them, with even more suggested one way or another. As a fantasy I think it would have to run 150K words, a story length I could easily do ten years ago, but today... I far from sure I have the patience to invent and write a story that long. Or, honestly, care to. I've been writing novellas recently, and have come to enjoy that length. Their relative simplicity may've spoiled me.

A post or two ago, I said that every story presents a challenge, which is part of the fun of writing it. And this story would be a challenge. But I also need to be excited by the challenge, and in this case, I'm not. 

And then we come to story idea two, one which I have only hinted at. In this case, the challenge has been to come up with a satisfactory plot. While I have the first several chapters in mind, the premise is undercooked, so the opening chapters, it just peters out. I haven't been able to figure out where it goes and what my characters can do that would be fun and interesting. Though I've been trying every day, nothing brilliant as resulted. 

I'm beginning to think that I'm going to have to come up with an entirely new story idea.

Still, it isn't time to panic.

My plan has always been to have my next story fixed in mind by the beginning of October, ready to put down in words. The first draft takes me three to four months and three or so more to get it out the door. Ideally if I started writing my next novel in October, I could release it by late spring/early summer 2027. Which is well ahead of my goal of a novel a year. So, if it takes longer, oh well. There is no hard deadline to meet. As I said at the top, I like to write. My sense of urgency is really a desire to just have something to sit down and write every day. We'll just have to see if I can come up with something to do so. All I can say is, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. I'm gong to have to come up with a new story. Somehow. Hopefully soon.