Finishing and publishing a novel and having a few copies sold should have that internal voice saying, “Hey, it’s time for a break.” But that voice is only one of many and has to compete with the others that say “What about a sequel?” The time-for-a-break voice is pushed aside by another voice that also asks about a sequel. How about a sequel to The Jabberwocky Murders? With that hook the persistent questions start to flow: Who will be the villain? Where will the action be? Another midtown case or cases?
And thus the forces coalesce to get the creative juices flowing. As with science and the climb from the early men to the giants we have come to honor the novel creating process builds on real world experiences, novels read or written, and other intangible aspects of the creative process.
The first few words to appear may only be like distant clouds on the horizon indicating that a storm is brewing. Those words may only be that and nothing more or they may lead to the sturm und drang of uncharted territory with characters and plot points. All that preliminary material is more than idle typing because, though preliminary, it could be reshaped into a scene, a character or a plot point as the story progresses.
The hard part comes when the preliminary focus makes the transition to the vista offered by experience, that at the end there will be another finishing and publishing that will lead to another cacophony of voices demanding progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment