The question on this month’s webring is how we all choose what to work on next once we’ve finished our current book, and I’m betting there’ll be some very different answers. Some authors plan their work long in advance, with not just one book but a whole series in the pipeline. It must be a very organised and efficient way of working, but I can never manage it. Instead, my brain works on Pure Inspiration (TM).
Like most writers I always have a bunch of plots and characters jangling round in my head. Even while I’m finishing one book, other ideas will be jostling for attention – and usually it’s a case of the squeakiest wheel getting the grease. Whichever characters shout the loudest are the ones whose story I want to tell.
It can lead to some interesting choices, but even then it doesn’t always go to plan. When I finished Feathered Friend I was determined to work on a modern, time-slip, m/m version of Daphne du Maurier’s Frenchman’s Creek. However, after a few days of wrestling with recalcitrant timelines I realised the main character in my current WIP, washed-up rock star Jed Lemmon, had taken over my consciousness. He was so insistent that I had to set Ebb Tide aside to work on another time, and start writing Rock and a Hard Place instead.
Several weeks later I’m getting close to finishing that, and will have to decide what to work on afterwards. Go back to that Frenchman’s Creek book? Another ghost story? Something totally different? At the moment I haven’t got a clue, but I’m never short of ideas and it’s always exciting finding out. And what I do know is, that rather than me choosing my next project, my next project tends to choose itself.
Want to know how the rest of the webring gang choose their next book? Then follow the links below to scurry along and read their thoughts.
A L Lester :: Holly Day :: Amy Spector :: Ofelia Grand :: Ellie Thomas :: Addison Albright :: Nell Iris :: K L Noone :: Lillian Francis
Pic credit: Ryan Snaadt on Unsplash.com
FIONA GLASS 
I envy you all the ideas! I’m very unwriterly in that respect. Or rather, the ideas are nebulous and incomplete. I used to be able to just start writing and see where it goes, but lately, I like to work it out more in my head first.
That makes sense, though. I’ve lost count of the number of books I’ve started because, hey! idea! and then got hopelessly stuck on part way through…
Ah yes, the life of a pantser!
Quite… I sometimes wish I could be more organised but then where would the fun be in that?