It’s so hard to start a new project, especially after finishing two books. That’s the place I’m at right now. My young adult sapphic novel, Does Love Always Win?, has been published for three and a half months, and my young adult superhero book, Superficial, comes out in a year. So now what? What kind of book do I want to write next?
How do I start something new? For my current idea, it randomly popped into my head while I was waking up. I saw the entire first scene in my head, even down to how the main character is dressed. But I kept telling myself, I already have started three other projects, I can’t afford to start a new one.
I couldn’t get this first scene out of my head. It stuck with me for a couple of days so I finally gave in and wrote it down. Then I kept writing, and now I find myself 5,000 words in, which is more than any of the other projects I had started. It seems like this project is here to stay.
Now comes the challenging part. What next? What direction do I want it to go? I’m a pantser by nature (aka write by the seat of my pants rather than plotting) but that also has gotten me into trouble in the past by going through some unnecessary drafts. Do I start plotting this book or will that ruin my creative steam?
Something else on my mind is that I don’t want it to be too similar to either of my other books. I want something completely new and fresh, but how do I do that? Do I change genres? I did that for Superficial, I had never written a superhero, action-adventure story before, and it was a lot of fun, but super hard. Do I want to put myself through that again, or do I stick with my tried-and-true young adult romance?
I have this nagging thought in the back of my head of what I want to try. It might be really difficult but maybe it’s the turn my books need. It could keep my writing fresh and different.
We will see what actually happens with this idea, but for now, I’m just happy I finally found a project worth spending my limited time on.
Diane Billas 