Admittedly I’ve been struggling for the past month or more. I know I need to do more world-building for my next novel than I’ve done before, and much of it has been somewhat fun. But I think I hit the wall. It’s not something I enjoy, evidently, and so I’ve been finding other things to do when I’m supposed to be working on my prep work.
Like a short story. I’m submitting to an anthology, and if I don’t pick up my pace I’m going to miss the deadline. At first it was fun to write, but then I seem to have hit some sort of doldrums and had a hard time finishing the first draft, let alone revising it. But I’m determined. I’m going to get this submitted, even if it’s less polished than I would like. I can’t allow myself to flake out like this or it could become a habit.
Once that’s done, however, then it’s back to the novel. I’ve set myself a goal: wherever I am by the first of the year, that’s where I’ll start, ready or not. I’ve got to get back into writing regularly before I lose all momentum.
So, what more do I need to do? Well, I’ve got a map I’ve been working on that needs to be detailed out some more. This next novel will have something of an epic scope in that it could conceivably take place over a wide area, and so it would be helpful to have an idea how each potential location might be different from the others.
Probably the most important step, however, is to create my cast of characters. I’ve been deliberately avoiding it, as I usually start with character and end up with rather flat characters who don’t entirely grow out of their environment–because I haven’t developed the environment yet (funny how that works!). So this time, with the exception of plot and general outlining, I’m leaving characters for last to see if that works any better. I think it will, as my prep work has been suggesting characters I’d not considered before.
And of course there is plot and outlining. I’ve learned from past mistakes that I need to avoid getting too detailed with my outlining, but as this is supposed to be a three-book story I do need to have a general idea where things are headed over-all on at least a high level, then work on outlining the first book in enough detail to capture the main plot and subplots, the character arcs, and so on.
After all that I probably need to go back over everything I’ve got and see if I’ve hinted at certain areas that need more development before I start writing. But if I don’t get that far, well, too bad. I need to get going on this novel!