I’ve had a number of people approach me about when I’ll be releasing the sequel to TLTLBU.
The truth is…I have no idea. I’m in a PhD program right now, nothing to do with fiction writing, and that really should take precedence.
That said, I’m a firm believer that nothing should be prioritized above personal happiness. (And it’s much easier said than done. I cannot articulate how much I want to qualify the statement even as I type it.)
And for a long time, writing has made me happy. Writing. Not editing.
But these days I don’t stick to writing very long. Even on a day I decide to dedicate to writing, I’ll spend a meager amount of time writing, then to a book, or a walk in the park, or a recipe I’ve been wanting to try, or some yoga.
And that’s okay. I spend a lot of the time I’m doing other things thinking about the book, and that’s an important part of my process, too. The writing part goes faster after I’ve marinated my mind in the characters for a long time.
But I have this gnawing sense of guilt, about everything: too slow producing a paper for my PhD, too slow producing this sequel to a book I published 2 years ago.
Today, I was sorting through my files, and realized I couldn’t find the draft of Remind Us of the Truth that I started after releasing TLTLBU. Instead, I found a draft that I haven’t touched in 7 years: different title, slightly different plot points, but it’s a complete draft, prologue to epilogue.
And I’m presented with a dilemma.
Because I could just edit this draft into a serviceable sequel.
But it feels like cheating. I gave it a quick skim—it’s been so long I don’t even remember what’s in it anymore—and it’s much what I remember. The plot points need refining.
I know the way I edit. “Editing” this draft will mean I will in practice be rewriting the whole thing. But the skeleton of the existing outline will still be there, even if no one else ever sees it.
It’s not the same as the outline I had planned on in more recent years. There are 3 storylines—Gwen, Esther and a new character. Gwen’s storyline in this draft is obsolete, but I did have a storyline for her in the newer outline. The plan of the newer outline was that Esther and the new character’s storylines were musts for this book. Then there were three other storylines that I would write, and decide later how many, if any, of them belong in this book rather than in a later one.
If you’re wondering if this approach is how I came to have a complete draft of book 2 five years prior to publishing book 1…yes, that’s exactly right. I’m much more comfortable playing around at the editing stage if I know for sure that the progression will carry on into the next book.
But now, my time is finite. Editing this draft for the 2 storylines I’m keeping, plus rewriting Gwen’s storyline, and the 2 others from scratch, could work. It would definitely cut the time between now and the beta reader stage.
And yet.
I can’t help but fear that something would be missing from the story if I did it that way. With Esther’s storyline as the backbone of this next novel, I want that to be as polished as I can make it.
And can I do that with this draft as my jumping off point?
I have no idea.
Thank you, if you’re one of the people awaiting the sequel. It means a lot to me that there’s anyone out there other than myself who’s interested in following Esther and Gwen and Deric in their adventures to come.