The concept of 'writing better' continues to flood my brain as I trudge towards the end of my series 'The Weight Of It All'.
I've known how the series would end ever since I started. With that said, the myriad of things I need to write in order to actually finish is non-trivial. Without giving anything away, I need to come up with new abilities that work 'in-world', new scenarios, new dungeons, new monsters, and so on. I'm introducing new characters and killing others. All of this needs to be done in a meaningful way, while still finishing the story I wanted to tell.
It can be a bit daunting!
When I set out to write the story, I could have never anticipated the scope of work I was signing up for. The world I created in my head continued to snowball with each book as I added more complexity to the world and to the characters.
And don't get me wrong. I know I have a lot (!) to learn about #writingbetter. I am a first-time author whose only writing before this has been purely technical or business-driven. I'm not trying to toot my own horn by saying the story is complex.
Instead, I'm trying to say that the amount of work required to finish a series has proven more difficult than any other book in the series so far.
I hope that as I continue to write and put my ideas down that I feel good enough about the direction of the story and what I've decided to do. I hope I can live up to my own expectations on how the story should be read and enjoyed by the hundreds of people that have given it a chance. And I hope I can give those readers a satisfying enough ending that they can take away and ponder on for at least a couple of days.
I want the ending to be epic in scope, but realistic to the powers I've set out in the story. The story was never a power fantasy in and of itself, but I enjoy power fantasies just as much as the next person and want to write a story where Terrence reaches the heights I've known about since I thought of his story and the character.
Anyways, I'm rambling at this point. To the couple of people who read this, thank you for taking an interest in my books and anything I've written so far.
While I'm not writing The Weight Of It All, I've been theorizing about my next series quite a bit. My current series has been a big wake-up call. I have a lot more to learn and a lot more writing to do before I believe I'll be a REALLY good writer. I know I can do better, and I'm trying constantly to improve my phrasing, characterization, descriptions, and prose. It's a learning process, and I hope that comes through in the final book and any others I write in the future.
I will say, though, that my next series will likely be pretty damn dark. I have the story fleshed out in a preliminary outline so that I can start whenever I finish the first draft of Goddess. I think it will be a really really cool read, so I hope I'm able to get it out there next year.
Well, I kept rambling, sorry. Thanks again and have a great month.
J.J.