It's time for What's Up Wednesday, a weekly meme run by Erin L Funk and Jaime Morrow. Here's what I've been up to this past week!What I'm reading
I also read Magic Breaks by Ilona Andrews. I'm insanely picky when it comes to urban fantasy, but I really like this series!
What I'm writing
Shiny Book 3! I will share the actual titles soon, I promise - I have an announcement planned for after my next book release, so keep watching the blog!
What works for me
I like to draft series books back-to-back. I drafted Darkworld books 3, 4 and 5 between March and September last year, and then revised them back-to-back, too. I have a terrible memory and I write complicated books, so I was able to minimise inconsistencies that way! And yes, I'm doing the same thing for this series - I have "working outlines" for each book (which change and adapt as I write and the characters stubbornly resist my plans :P), but the main story events are already set. And yes, I know the ending (!!!). I also like to foreshadow things, so throwaway details in the first books become important later on (though I'll never be as awesome a foreshadower as J. K. Rowling! *writer envy alert*).
What else I've been up to
I went to watch Interstellar with my boyfriend, and I really enjoyed it! Other than that, preparing for the release of Fear's Touch: A Darkworld Novella, which hit the virtual shelves on Monday! (It's now available on Amazon!) And I've also been preparing for the release of Walking Shadow (Darkworld #2) on the 1st December!
And Darkness Watching won the BBF Reader's Choice Award for paranormal fiction, which was a lovely surprise! YAY READERS! ^_^
And Darkness Watching won the BBF Reader's Choice Award for paranormal fiction, which was a lovely surprise! YAY READERS! ^_^
I'm taking the same approach as you to my trilogy. I think it was Janice Hardy at Fiction University that recommended writing books in a series all in a row to keep things consistent. After working on this trilogy, I don't think I'd ever do it any other way! There are way too many things to smooth out between the three books. I hope work is going well on book 3, and I'm eager to hear your titles!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Interstellar too. I can't wait until it comes out on bluray so I can watch it again! There needs to be more good sci-fi like that!
That definitely sounds like something from Janice Hardy's blog (I've bookmarked so many of her pages!). It really does help, and I'm too worried about inconsistencies to write the first book and then leave it!
DeleteI was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it! It really put me in a sci-fi mood. :)
I really need to go see Interstellar. Might have to wait until I have some time off work though...
ReplyDeleteHooray for knowing the ending ;)
Foreshadowing is a lot of fun. I love tucking it in when I'm editing.
Have a great week ^_^
Heh, I can't write without knowing where I'm going, but I usually have to build in the foreshadowing later. You, too! :)
DeleteCongrats on the award, that's brilliant! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you! :)
DeleteCongrats on the award! That's awesome! :D When I read what you said about writing trilogy books back-to-back, I immediately thought of Erin because that's what she's doing as well. Makes good sense for the simple reason that you avoid inconsistencies. As for foreshadowing like crazy, I share your envy of J. K. Rowling's crazy skills in that department. Every time I read her books, I'm blown away by the bread crumbs she drops right from the beginning. Best of luck working on Shiny Book 3! :D
ReplyDeleteThank you! :D It does make sense, though I can understand it'd be difficult if I was publishing only one book a year through traditional publishing. J. K. Rowling is sooo good at it!
DeleteCongratulations on your award, Emma! That's fantastic news! I'm itching to see Interstellar, but I've got a seven y/o and a sad lack of baby-sitter. Might have to wait for the DVD to become available. Have an awesome week, and best of luck with your drafting!
ReplyDeleteThank you! ^_^ Hope you get to see it!
DeleteCongrats on winning that award! That is awesome. And congrats on your book release too. I can't believe how cassually you threw that out there. You've got a lot of great things going on right now. Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteThank you! :D
DeleteI can't even imagine how I would go about drafting the outlines of a whole series of books before I start writing. And yet the idea is incredibly compelling, especially as I look at writing the last two books in this next series. If you have any good advice, i hope you share it in future WUWs, because I'm paying attention! Congratulations on that award.
ReplyDeleteThank you for offering to help with my book cover release/book tour. I'll be touch with more details soon! I'd love to return the favor, if there's anything I can do to help out. Please let me know.
I might have to write a post on that topic! (I'd be too worried to start a series without knowing where it's going, but I'm a very outline-oriented writer, which might be why! :)) Sure thing!
DeleteThat's the trouble with working on more than one book at a time. Your brain wants to focus on all of them and it can be hard to buckle down and concentrate on just one of them.
ReplyDeleteTrue! Luckily, they're all in the same series, so they interlink in different ways. :)
DeleteCongrats on the award!!! That is so cool :) Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteThanks! :) You, too!
DeleteCongrats on your Reader's Choice win!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd holy cow, that's a lot of writing. I wrote the first draft of a sequel right after the first novel once because I had the story and characters in my head and couldn't let them go. Since then though I've only written stand-alones so I haven't had the same issue.
Thanks! :) Sometimes it's hard to let characters go (though I mostly write series!)
DeleteOh wow! Well done on the BBF award, Emma!! So cool!!! :D
ReplyDeleteI don't think I could ever draft three novels in six months. That just sounds insane--but if it works for you, who am I to complain to a Readers' Choice Award winner? ;)
Have a wonderful week!
Thanks! :) They were quite short drafts and needed a lot of fleshing out later, but I just really needed to get the story down!
DeleteWitch Eyes is LGBT, isn't it? Been meaning to read that one for a long time now!
ReplyDeleteMaaaannn, back to back drafting like that is really impressive! That's such a good way of doing a series, I'm really impressed.
It is. :) And it's very well-written!
DeleteThanks! It's mostly due to my appalling memory, and it usually involves a lot of revision later on.
Ooh, thanks for the movie recommendation - I love scifi films and Christopher Nolan is awesome :)
ReplyDeleteNo problem! :)
DeleteGreat tips on drafting and revising all the books in a series together! The one I'm working on now is a standalone but I hope to get back to the first book I ever started writing and that was meant to be a trilogy. But I - like you - have a terrible memory. I think it would work much better to sort of do them all at once together! Great tip. Have a wonderful week, Emma!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the Award! That is fantastic! And it's got to make you feel like it's all worth it.
ReplyDeleteWe've been planning on going to see Interstellar but keep getting waylaid by Holiday parties. (It has begun) Glad to hear you liked it though. A positive movie vote is always nice.
Hope you have a great week!