WIP Blog: Starting a New Blog Day and a New Novel.
I am adding a new day to my weekly blog. The Saturday blog will remain as it is, with general updates, interviews with other authors, notes about research and so on, but I am now adding a Wednesday WIP.
A Wednesday WIP?
Each week on Wednesday, I’ll blog about my current work in progress, my WIP. This will give you a weekly, blow-by-blow account of what I am writing and how. Don’t worry, there will be no plot spoilers, and the posts may be brief, but you will be able to follow the writing process with me.
So, where to start?
Keepers of the Past
I’ll start by telling you I have just been through the print version of ‘Keepers of the Past’, the second Larkspur Mystery. The lovely people at Other Worlds Ink are seeing to the book layout as I write, and the novel is due to be released this weekend. Check back on Saturday for more news. As I have just finished the second part of the mystery series, it’s time to start on the next, and I began last Sunday, sitting at my desk with a new notebook made and given to me by a friend.
I usually use a standard notebook in which I scribble ideas as I write. As I read back sections of a draft, I add notes such as ‘CHECK griped’ because I notice I’ve spelt a word incorrectly (it should be gripped) and, when I have all separate chapters together in one document at the end of a draft, I can then run a find command and double-check every instance of the misspelt word. I have a list of my most common typos, form instead of from, etc., and I add to this list when I notice a new one, and run the find command for all of them.
I also make notes of details that I later transfer to my ‘bible’, in this case, the Clearwater/Larkspur bible where I have noted everything from characters’ ages to eye colour, supporting cast per story, who was working at Larkspur in what year, dates of birth and all that jazz.
As I am starting Larkspur Three, and as the new, customised notebook was gifted recently, I thought now was a good time to start using it. It already contains some WIP notes.
Larkspur Three
This novel will grow out of ‘Keepers of the Past.’ That story ends with a couple of unanswered questions, and they will form the backbone of Larkspur Three, as yet untitled. I am considering ‘Agents of the Truth’, but it’s not sitting comfortably. I was thinking of the first three novels as being a trilogy within the longer series, and as we’ve had guardians and keepers, poor and past, I wanted a similar title, preferably with the last word beginning with the letter P, and the first having something to do with protecting.
The title will come to me as I write the story.
Starting the WIP
Work on L3 began a couple of days ago, and I already have a few pages of notes. Some I’ve titled ‘Random Ideas’, and I add to them as they occur. Other pages include a timeline of events from the past, for reference and accuracy, a list of pressures to apply to the main characters, and one double-page spread is a rough, four-act timeline. I’ve included a photo, but you won’t be able to enlarge it because I don’t want you to see the plot.
I know how the story will start, I know what will happen at the climax, and I know who my lead characters are (James Wright and Dalston Blaze leading on one storyline, Archer leading on the other, and when I say leading, I mean they are the point of view characters). I already have ideas for challenges and events for the middle section, and a note of what I need to research.
In this case, popular costumes of late Victorian masquerade balls, sects, rituals, and the etiquette of a royal event. That should keep me busy.
So, the first notes of this WIP were made on November 1st, and chapter one, a newspaper report, has been drafted. As soon as ‘Keepers of the Past’ is done and up on Amazon, I will start the story proper and chapter two.
Check in next week for a Wednesday WIP update, but don’t forget the regular Saturday blog.
