I’m planning my next book, as you can see by the note cards. Okay, I’ve already written over 20,000 words of it, but I’m doing some MORE planning.
Last week was exciting, Earthbound was released on Wednesday and is now available for sale on all ebook platforms. My first novel. J And I learned that it only takes 14 sales to jump you from an author rank of 600,000 to 79,000 on Amazon. (I presume that is because there are so many backlist and older books that do not sell much or at all.) Then the trailer came out for my book on Saturday, which is so much fun! (Thanks to JM Robison, Fantasy Author.) And my author rank stayed closer to 80,000 than 600,000, but peaks and valleys are to be expected over time.
However, it’s past time to get back to that second novel. Over the weekend, I focused on two things – sending review requests to more book bloggers and reading back through what I’ve already written on the next book, Firebound.
During NaNoWriMo last year I made a solid start on Firebound, writing about 20,000 words. As I read back over them to get back into the flow of the story, I was pleased with the scenes I’d already written, and even more pleased with the planning on scenes that I’d forgotten I’d done. I have a pretty solid outline.
As I finished reading what I’d printed, I realized I was missing my first chapter. Where did it go? Had I not saved properly? Or did I write it in a different file during Camp NaNoWriMo in the summer of 2019?
Yep, there it was, another 2,500 words, that begin with the line, “I’ve decided to become a nun.” And she isn’t kidding.
Firebound is set about 6 to 8 months after Earthbound and is from the perspective of Ally’s best friend, Jennifer, who was burned in a car accident. (Caused by a demon, of course.) She has mostly recovered but a lot has changed for her.
I’m using the Scene/Sequel method to plan out the story from one scene to the next. It helps me keep a logical flow to the information as I move through the scenes.
Basically, the point-of-view character has a goal which someone opposes. In order to keep conflict moving the story forward, the character is either denied their goal or they achieve it, but with strings attached. In a sequel, the character reacts emotionally, reviews what happened using log and reason, then anticipates what will happen in the future based on several optional paths forward. Finally, the character makes a choice about what they are going to do, or their next goal, which leads to the next scene.
I’m still marketing on the first novel, but I’m jumping back into writing the second novel. I find my mind turning to it at bedtime and while I’m driving. This is the most fun part, the writing.
Melora Johnson's Muse 
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