Thinky Thoughts 87: Things planned and unplanned.
All about writing progress! Since last week I have been working on the sequel to Ghost Town, working title Treasure Haunt. And by working, I mean re-reading Ghost Town to re-familiarize myself with the characters and setting. (It feels incredibly self-indulgent to call doing something that’s so much fun “work,” but hey, I guess I love my job.)
Anyway, as soon as I started reading, I realized how many details I’d forgotten. (Also that it’s actually a damfine story, but that’s a whole different post.) And that led me to realizing how chaotic all my background material had gotten in the couple of years since I last played in this world.
Writing down loads of meticulous background details is not my creative funzone. But. BUT! The last thing I want to do is get halfway into plotting a new story and then have to rewrite it to correct a bunch of in-world continuity errors.
<theatrical shudder>
So. I rolled up my sleeves built and set up a master set of series files and maps. Now as I’m reading I’m also adding and cross-checking critical details like descriptions of characters, locations, and plot elements that my co-author and I collected while writing Ghost Town. I’m also upgrading the various visual elements.
My spreadsheet and Canva skills are getting quite a workout, but I am enjoying the satisfaction of creating order from chaos—and seeing how well it all fits together despite little hiccups here and there. It helps that I just did this for the Rollover series a few weeks ago, learning from that experience that the sooner the series details are all collated into a master file, the better.
I foresee some Zoom meetings with co-author where we go over the maps, building descriptions, character lists, and my rapidly growing list of change/resolve/decide notes.
Among my results: I now have built-from-scratch maps of the setting in different scales with plenty of room for expansion. This is going to make it much easier to keep straight which buildings have which ghosts in them, which businesses were extant in what time period, and also where they all are in relation to one another. (My co-author has an exceptional ability to keep it all straight in his head. I, hm, do not.)
My goal is to start writing book 2 with a coherently-styled, singular set of master files instead of a stack of scribbled sometimes-contradictory notes, lists, outlines, and kludged overlays of online maps. And I am on my way.
Next post I’ll talk about all the things I’m doing that don’t involve sitting at the writing desk losing track of hours at a time in a happy organizing haze.
Time for pics o’ the week!
He snoozes so well when he’s in his harness. There’s a concrete cutter working not 20 feet from him. (Outside. But still loud.)
Pippin loves lounging in his countertop basket. I love the rare occasions when he stays inside it rather than walk on the counter.
Until later!
What’s on your bookshelf?
This is the part where I talk about my books.
Relics From A Traveling Show
The newest of the new! A collection of all my short fictions in one handy volume, available now from your favorite booksite or local shop.
Or! OR! if you like your local library, you could request a purchase. Free for you, sale for me, everyone wins.
Most libraries need the following info for ordering print books:
Title: Relics From A Traveling Show
Author: K. M. Herkes
ISBN: 9781945745201 (paperback)
Every library system does things a little differently, but most want their collections to serve their communities, so most of them are very responsive to patron requests.
If you like novels more than short stories, I recommend my series The Rollover Files for hopepunk tales of about an alternate world where moms with midlife crisis superpowers have been saving the world and making the military nervous since 1943.
I also have a completed, quirky slow-burn science fiction thriller duology with a romance chaser: The Stories Of The Restoration.
All my titles are available from Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Hoopla, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Overdrive and many other fine booksellers.
Support your favorite independent bookseller! Find a local shop via Indiebound
Be a potato.
" Fear is strange soil. Mainly it grows obedience like corn, which grows in rows and makes weeding easy. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance, which flourish underground."
Terry Pratchett (Small Gods)