I forced myself to step away from the keyboard the last few weeks. I've been writing some articles for a sci-fi website, taking online classes to learn about web development and coding, and focused a lot on running. It's been nice to be free of the urgency I often feel to finish a book. Exercise truly is the best way to clear the mind and keep the gears moving. It is a great time for thinking up more stories as well. Endorphins are pretty great.
When I sat back down to routine for work on the first book in The Order of Devotion Trilogy, I hit a wall. This wall came to me because I realized I depended almost entirely on the notes and outlines I made. Outlines have always helped me establish the pace of a chapter, as well as setting up the following one. I'm a huge fan of the scribbled legal pads and note books that help me design the flow of a story. It's a loose design, and I know it's malleable, so that's helpful to know I can grab those ideas out of my head that super cede the outline.
The problem with the first book in this trilogy, which is tentatively titled Worse Things Than Death, is the words were not coming to me. My mind was a vacuum and when I wasn't writing I could not stop thinking about what Marshal Noel and Violetta Iolanda are up to.
There is a story cooking and I think this series needs to be finished before I can write anything else. I intend for this fourth book to be the last. The two characters have become real to me and I cannot ignore my thoughts turning to them and what needs to happen next.
I intend to begin writing the fourth book in the next week. I'm taking a week to write up a rough outline and then I'm going to hit the ground running.
From the last three novels I should have this done and published within the next year. I'm excited to spend the rest of the summer and the remainder of 2015 with Marshal and Violetta. The Order of Devotion Trilogy will be next, but I need to finish what I started first.
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