Been a long, long while since I did a writing update, mostly because it’s been a long, long while since I had writing to update about, AH HA HA.
*ahem*.
So, the planio as it stands is something like this, because apparently my poor lil ADHD brain is incapable of writing two books in the same series back to back without DYING OF THE BORE, *but also* because I’ve decided I want all 5 books in the mainline Kaditeos series done before releasing them.
Current WIP: Define Good, the second main-series Kaditeos book.
Which, the Kaditeos series is, like, three series smooshed together into the body of a demon-possessed cat that does whatever it wants with no regard to the fact that cats aren’t supposed to have three heads, right? It was originally just supposed to be a trilogy with a bunch of random spin-offs. But then a point-of-view character (Chiara) got cut from book one (the discussion is somewhere in this hour-long plotting video – scroll to the end of the post, Chiara is the orange post-its!), and she… was not okay with this, and petitioned VERY LOUDLY with one of the minor characters from book 1 and I *relented* and was like, FINE, I will write two NOVELLAS that sit between the books of the main trilogy.
AH HA HA.
AH HA, HA HA HA HA.
YOU GUYS. THIS IS NOT A NOVELLA.
I’m at nearly 33,000 words with the next three chapters roughly outlined and honestly? I’M NOT ACTUALLY SURE THIS IS HALFWAY YET. Which, bearing in mind that those next three chapters should take us to over 40k… Yeah. Yeah this is DEFINITELY not a novella. *sigh*.
So, uh? The Kaditeos series? Yeah it now has 5 books in the main plotline, alternating between Mercury/Deviran and Chiara/Reth. Because that is a Thing My Brain Has Done. (And if you want sneak peeks, follow my Instagram stories.)
Ahem.
So.
The plans.
- Finish Define Good. Something like 45,000 words to go, who even knows.
- Write Stag book, which AH HA HA was going to be the final Storm Foxes book but IT IS ALSO NOT and there will be a third book, Forest book. *all the self-directed eyerolling*
- Write Kaditeos #3, Mercury’s second book.
- Write Moon Shot, a MG sci fi romp I’ve been promising a particular set of students since 2019.
- Write Kaditeos #4, Chiara’s second book.
- Write Forest book and close out Storm Foxes.
- Write Kaditeos #5, Mercury’s third book, and close out the mainline Kaditeos series.
Which, like, wow. That’ll mean I have 3 complete series (one MG, one YA and one NA*, because nothing says ‘sensible niche marketing’ like writing across almost the entire spectrum of age groups AH AH AH NO ONE ACCUSED *ME* OF BEING SENSIBLE) and will be then entirely untethered in terms of what to write next!! *confetti*
* New Adult, but in, like the traditional sense i.e. ‘about people mostly in their early 20s’, not as in what the New Adult label has been coopted to mean i.e. a specific subgenre of erotica. Yes, I’m still mad at them for stealing what could have been a Very Useful Label.
(Trust me, the list of options is long, this is not going to be an ‘oh woe is me, I have nothing to write next’ moment. But it WILL be interesting to see which series ends up jumping to the head of the queue. Probably one aimed at adults to cover off that full range of ages, HILARIOUS. Ha ha.)
And how long will this take, you may be asking?
…Yeah honestly I am too. Who knows. I was completed DEADENED (in a good way) to realise this past week that if I spent JUST ONE HOUR a day, six days a week, fifty weeks a year writing, I could make it through my current list of Books I Want To Write in about fifteen years. For reference, the list is about 75 books long. SEVENTY-FIVE.
On the other hand, I’ve written what, five (?) (…yes, five) full-length (ish**) books since 2016, soooooooooo.
** I mean the Sanctuary series are middle grade so they are much shorter than what I would consider a ‘full-length novel’.
On the other-other hand, that was while parenting small children, teaching full time, and living in chronic burnout that whole time, sooooo???????
I think it’s relatively safe to assume, at this point, that worse-case-scenario means a full-length novel a year. That seems like a safe, sensible, realistic goal to aim for for now.
…I don’t like sensible goals (you may have noticed) though, so BEST CASE SCENARIO BWA HA HA i don’t actually know, and I’m trying to get better about putting too much pressure on myself, so WE SHALL SEE.
But in the meantime, Define Good: Definitely Not A Novella is progressing, and that’s more than it’s been doing for 5 or 6 months, so…. Yay 🙂
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