Finishing one project to start another

Okay, I'm going to try to ignore the depresso stuff and just get back to the writing stuff for now. I closed out my Facebook profile for awhile because it was getting really annoying to read the updates and to realize that things just aren't working out for me, and to be honest, I just don't want to deal with the drama that site tends to create and foster. So, enough with that.

I finished the edit for Rumors of War, and I've sent it out to an agent as a query in hopes of finding a potential representative. I've also sent out a batch of queries for the other novels as well. I figure nothing's going to happen if I just keep thinking about it rather than doing anything about it.

And that brings me to today's discussion: New projects. One of the things I've always disliked about writing is starting a new project. I don't mean the writing of a new story or novel, but beginning the preparation work for a new idea. Rumors of War was easy because the background for it was completed years ago. The Ameriad was easy because the novel itself was started half a decade ago. But now I find myself needing to start my next project, and I'm not sure what project it is I want to finish. I also realize that my time may be limited, so I have to do something and do it fast.

Unlike a lot of other meticulous authors, I suffer from what is called prolific writing. I write and I can't stop writing. You'd think that would be a good thing, but in reality it sometimes gets in the way of preparation because you want to be writing far more than you want to be preparing for the writing. And sometimes that preparation is so damn necessary. An example is my novel Thompson's Bounty. This is a novel about pirates and the Coast Guard. It also takes place in the 16th century. I wanted to just start writing it, but I knew nothing about sea travel, the Coast Guard or even pirates, unless you counted my many trips through the Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland (before the movies were made). So I had to stop writing and actually do research, including taking a trip on a Coast Guard cutter to understand what a trip like that might be. I even got to watch them do a drug bust, which got incorporated into the story, although not as a majorly important part of the story.

That's where I am now. I have a couple of stories running through my head right now, including a rewrite of one of my earlier novels that has been rewritten about five times (starting as The Armageddon Project, to To Touch the Unicorn to its current state of 72 Hours in August). I also have a novel that has been fighting with me for years now called A Simple Life. It keeps coming back to me like a little kid that wants to go out and play but you never have time or the energy to entertain him. It's my first mainstream novel I want to write, but I'm not sure I'm ready for it yet, and even worse, I'm not sure I have enough time left to finish it.

So, that's where I am with my writing career. I don't talk about it much because it's been elusive for so many years now. I've tried so damn hard to make it happen, but it never does.

Stumble It!