I am not a planner

I am not a planner. Now, when I say a planner I mean to the extent that I have every single detail mapped out on a project. I know a lot of authors who do plan, and sure, plans change as you dive into a world and start writing a story, but a lot of writers have guidelines . . . I am a very bad improviser.

Usually, I will get an idea in the form of a scene. One of the characters will come to me; they are vivid, and bold, and they give me a segment to wet my appetite. I know the general details on them, but that’s it. I pretty much dive right on in and figure it out as I go.

So far this silly approach of mine has worked, but with my latest WIP I find I am somewhat torn. I’m going in to the realms of fantasy, and I am creating a whole new world. I’m sure a lot of writers may have already taken this adventure in one particular genre or another, but this is new to me; fantasy, and creating an entire universe from scratch is very new to me.

I’m excited – of course I am – because this world is one that I have had hidden in my slush pile folder for the last seven years, but I will admit I am a little overwhelmed; there feels like there is too much to know and create in such a short amount of time.

My plan was to solely concentrate on my Blood Series this year. I have finished reading through She-Wolf – which is with my editor – and Cranberry Blood, and I was originally going to dive right in to planning the next book, but then I saw the most fabulous submission call, and I just couldn’t ignore it.

Decadent Publishing have a new series called “Beyond Fairytales,” where the author is assigned a Grimm tale and has to re-vamp it in their chosen genre.

Now, I could have ignored it, but I was too intrigued. I also could have made things very easy for myself and picked a genre I had already played in before, but when I got my assigned tale I just knew I had to go fantasy with it. I usually don’t apply for things that have a time limit, for many reasons which I won’t go in to, and because if I don’t make it I will kick myself. But still, I found myself signing up any way. So, needless to say this project is a huge challenge for me.

Jumping back to feeling excited . . . I am. I have snips. I have already met four of the characters they are an interesting bunch. I have a very rough sketch of how the world is and the inhabitants you will find there. I know magic is going to play a huge part, and I have been lucky enough to get a tale where I could really do anything with it . . .

Now I’m stuck. Not in a way where I am clueless, because despite the fact that I don’t plan I have had to do the above. I have had to figure some details out; write some guidelines. After I drew my map of the world – yes, I actually drew a map. It’s rough, but it’s a start – I found myself sitting there and thinking, “well, I can’t do any more than this until I get inside this world and see where I am lead.”

So, it is now time for me to get my panster-ness on and see what these characters want to show me. I have no idea what’s going to happen. I will openly admit that since Fantasy is new to me that I have no idea if I can pull it off successfully, but I am going to damn well try, and naturally, I will keep you updated with my progress. J

For those of you who have read the Blood Series and are waiting for the next book, I will definitely be working on that next, and I plan to have She-Wolf and Cranberry Blood re-released by this summer, 2014.

Wish me luck!