My next project

For the last few months, I’ve been thinking about what to do for my next novel. Last time I counted up all the novel ideas I hadn’t either ruled out, written, or permanently lost crucial notes for, I came up with 16. I think I’ve added some to the list. I know I added one yesterday.

With American politics, I’ve found myself vacillating between two or three of my oldest. If I had written them when I had the ideas, they would seem prescient. Now, they’re just timely.

I guess I don’t really want to write timely stories though. A few years ago, I wrote a novelette and published it serial style. It was a heart-wrenching thing to write. I haven’t gotten around to editing it for actual publication yet because technology failures dampened my enthusiasm for a project. I had already spent way longer than I’d planned on it at the time.

Yesterday, the characters popped into my mind and I realized the small piece of time the story took place in wasn’t really the only story I had to tell about them.

I know where I want to go with their story a few novels down the line but I’m still stuck on the central aspect of the first novel. If I figure it out before I finish the practice stuff I’m doing now, it will probably be my next novel.

And that’ll (hopefully) give me the oomph I need to finally re-draft the novelette and publish it.