Putting on the Sequel Panties
by Bethany Maines
As my writing goal for this year, I am determined to get my
third book in the Carrie Mae series fully outlined and at least one draft
done. Carrie Mae (for those who
haven’t picked up Bulletproof Mascara or Compact with the Devil) is the at home
make-up sales company that is a front for an international, all-female,
espionage organization. And my
heroine Nikki Lanier is one of their top agents. My original plan for the series involves 5 books, but life
(marriage, new business, new baby, changing book deals) has managed to delay my
production speed. I made this goal in January and as of Sunday had made zero
progress toward that goal. Every
time I went to open up my notes I got pissy and decided to do something
else. It got so bad, that I
actually did the dishes one day instead of working on my outline. If you knew
me at all that’s like saying I decided to have root canal instead of going on
vacation.
opened my notes. I can’t imagine
going through someone else’s writing notes and attempting to make sense out of
them. Going through my own notes is like trying to track an elusive animal
through the underbrush. I followed
the traces of my own thoughts and began to realize that I was further along than
I remembered. My outline was more
complete and my research was fairly cohesive. But just as I remembered what I’d been planning to write, I
also remembered why I stopped.
smuggling on the Canadian border and Washington State just legalized plot. Thanks a lot Washington. Thanks for deciding that if the medical
research indicates that pot isn’t all that dangerous maybe we should stop
spending money on prosecuting people and also try to make money off of it. Or in other words, thanks for making my
writing life more difficult.
through the plot I came into a strategy conflict with my writer’s group. They thought the novel was a too much
of a leap ahead in my story arcs and wanted at least one short story before the
book to fill the gap. I wasn’t convinced they were right and, even worse, I
wasn’t convinced they were wrong.
The more we discussed the matter, the less certain I became. And of course the more uncertain I was,
the more grumpy I became about the whole project. So then I put it aside to “think” about it. Which is writer code “I give up.”
advice from my writer’s group. I
will put on my big girl panties and make some decisions. Because if I can’t dictate what my
fictional characters are going to do with their lives then I’m not much of a
writer now am I?
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