Inspiration and Climaxes. Not the sexy kind. OR IS IT THE SEXY KIND!? (But really, it's not. Maybe.)
I’m at a crucial part in the writing of The Continuity.
I first started writing the thing in 2005. I’d had the idea in my head for maybe four or five years before that, but 2005 was when I wrote the first draft of the first version. The thing about knowing everything that happens in a multi-book series is that all the big climaxes and payoffs and the stuff that’s REALLY fun to write tends to happen in the later books. All the tragedy and the deaths and the heroics and reveals and all that good stuff.
I remember sitting in the Wilbur computer lab at Molloy in 2005, writing the first huge moment of the series. The climatic fight between Desiree and Winter, where it’s revealed what Desiree is and what role she’s going to play. It was the last chapter of the first book, and the words were just pouring out of me. There was a really clingy girl then, who kept trying to interrupt, who would watch me type with these huge, round, super creepy eyes, asking me what was happening in the narrative, trying to pry me from the writing. Every writing session I had at Molloy, it was like she put some GPS in me to find me so she couldn’t miss the opportunity to try to bother the shit out of me. But this time, I was to engrossed to even let the lemur-eyed interrupter bother me. I was about to finish the first book I’d ever written that I was proud of, that I was invested in, and this moment, this epic battle had been set-up so much by everything I’d writer prior to it that I couldn’t help but be excited. Physically so, to the point that my heart was racing.
And now. In the following years, I wrote two more books in that series before scrapping all of my work and starting over. My style has changed. I’ve changed. The Continuity is shorter. It’s still epic and long and everything it was, but now it’s condensed. Now it’s more, in every sense but physical length.
And now, five years later, I’m back at the same spot. Desiree is about to meet Winter and shit is going to go down. Things are different. It’s in the first third of the book instead of the final chapter. The fight is going to be more straightforward, without the “This is who you are, Desiree” sort of exposition that bogged the first one down, exciting as that was to write. More is at stake now. The characters are more real. I can feel them. I’m excited this time too, but it’s strange because I feel like this has happened before and the writing is all just deja-vu. An extended session of deja-vu.
But it’s fascinating for me as a writer. Instead of saving all the big blow-out stuff for the latter books in the series, now there are bunch in the first book too. Instead of writing all the build-up for these big events chapter-to-chapter, each chapter itself is coming out as something special. I’ve realized that what I wrote before was a decent book with an awesome climax. I want to write an awesome book that engages the brain and heart with every chapter, not just the “big moments.”
And to tie this all together, this time there is no super creepy, interrupty, staring girl to slow me down. In fact, when I woke up this morning and Erica told me that she started the day with umph and purpose, I decided to do the same. So I sat down and wrote. Having someone to inspire you is pretty awesome.
And now, back to the… erm… typing… board?
Gonna go write.
I first started writing the thing in 2005. I’d had the idea in my head for maybe four or five years before that, but 2005 was when I wrote the first draft of the first version. The thing about knowing everything that happens in a multi-book series is that all the big climaxes and payoffs and the stuff that’s REALLY fun to write tends to happen in the later books. All the tragedy and the deaths and the heroics and reveals and all that good stuff.
I remember sitting in the Wilbur computer lab at Molloy in 2005, writing the first huge moment of the series. The climatic fight between Desiree and Winter, where it’s revealed what Desiree is and what role she’s going to play. It was the last chapter of the first book, and the words were just pouring out of me. There was a really clingy girl then, who kept trying to interrupt, who would watch me type with these huge, round, super creepy eyes, asking me what was happening in the narrative, trying to pry me from the writing. Every writing session I had at Molloy, it was like she put some GPS in me to find me so she couldn’t miss the opportunity to try to bother the shit out of me. But this time, I was to engrossed to even let the lemur-eyed interrupter bother me. I was about to finish the first book I’d ever written that I was proud of, that I was invested in, and this moment, this epic battle had been set-up so much by everything I’d writer prior to it that I couldn’t help but be excited. Physically so, to the point that my heart was racing.
And now. In the following years, I wrote two more books in that series before scrapping all of my work and starting over. My style has changed. I’ve changed. The Continuity is shorter. It’s still epic and long and everything it was, but now it’s condensed. Now it’s more, in every sense but physical length.
And now, five years later, I’m back at the same spot. Desiree is about to meet Winter and shit is going to go down. Things are different. It’s in the first third of the book instead of the final chapter. The fight is going to be more straightforward, without the “This is who you are, Desiree” sort of exposition that bogged the first one down, exciting as that was to write. More is at stake now. The characters are more real. I can feel them. I’m excited this time too, but it’s strange because I feel like this has happened before and the writing is all just deja-vu. An extended session of deja-vu.
But it’s fascinating for me as a writer. Instead of saving all the big blow-out stuff for the latter books in the series, now there are bunch in the first book too. Instead of writing all the build-up for these big events chapter-to-chapter, each chapter itself is coming out as something special. I’ve realized that what I wrote before was a decent book with an awesome climax. I want to write an awesome book that engages the brain and heart with every chapter, not just the “big moments.”
And to tie this all together, this time there is no super creepy, interrupty, staring girl to slow me down. In fact, when I woke up this morning and Erica told me that she started the day with umph and purpose, I decided to do the same. So I sat down and wrote. Having someone to inspire you is pretty awesome.
And now, back to the… erm… typing… board?
Gonna go write.