Bitten by the Writing Bug (Again)
I haven't logged onto this site since November, so it's time for an update. I had mentioned in my last post that I wanted to branch out into poetry. Then I looked at some of the markets for poetry, and frankly, I just don't know enough about poetry in general to assess where the best market would be for my work. So, poetry is back on the shelf. Now, for some good news:
My potato story, "The Taterific Tale of Coral Beach," is out in Attack! of the B-Movie Monsters: Night of the Gigantis. You can find that one on Amazon. And "Doppeldreamer" is expected to be available March 29, 2014 in Dangerous Dreams. So my name (or, Lachlan David's name) is out there again. These publications resulted from coals I had in the fire a long time ago, but for right now, that's it. I have no more work submitted and nothing that I'm working on. The writing bug hasn't bitten me in, maybe, a year now. My studies had slowed down to a crawl, as well.
But my motivation may be coming back! I have finally finished the third course in my studies and am ready to start the next one. And even more importantly (yes, even more important than my MBA, which I doubt I actually use), I have a [wonderfully] horrible itch to write. I even scheduled time to do it between my studies to make sure I can get both done. I have a story idea, but the plot isn't developed yet. I'm working on that now and am optimistic I can work it out. I'm excited about this one! It's going to be big, if I plan to do it right, which meaning lots of research time. And, well, it may be more than one book. Yes, a series of novels.
Okay, for anyone who has been following this over the years, let me address this now. Yes, another novel on top of the five, maybe six, I have already. Go ahead and moan. I'll wait...
I realize I have several unfinished projects, and I used to consider that a bad thing. In fact, it was the reason I didn't participate in NaNoWriMo last Novemeber. But then I remember something I once read about Stephen King. It was years ago that I read it, so I have no idea who wrote it. It was just something that stuck with me. It was essentially someone's opinion of his work. They said something to the effect of (extreme paraphrasing, here), Stephen King came out with one (or maybe a few) brilliant novels when he first became popular. Then his fans couldn't get enough of him, and his agent wanted him to start turning out novels like a story mill. After that, his writing suffered. But the person conceded it was probably too much to ask for a person to write so many good stories in such short amounts of time. At some point, King was grabbing any old work he could find (short stories, unfinished novels, rejected works, etc.) and making novels out of them to fulfill contractual obligations. This was the reason this person believed his work went downhill.
I bring that up not to say that I agree or disagree with this person's assessment of King's work. It just made me think of something: What if I did become successful, even mildly? What if I had an agent who loved what I wrote and wanted three more novels in five years? (I'm pulling numbers out of the air.) Knowing how crazy slow I write, I had better have something to fall back on if that happens, or I won't make it. So yes, I have all these unfinished novels that may or may not ever see the inside of a book cover. But I think of it being like keeping canned food and water in the basement. You may never need it and end up throwing it out one day. But if you ever do need it, you'll be glad you have it. I'm not going to feel bad about my unfinished novels anymore. Number seven (eight? nine??), here we go!