What to write next? That is
the question.
I am
in the fortunate position of not having to write to keep my head above water. I
write because I want to write. I can choose my hours, and how long I spend
tapping away. Others, I know, do not have this luxury.
Some
authors seem to be able to produce lots of words in a week and lots of titles
in a year. I’m relatively new to being an author. I have one novel published, Sporting Chance which took me years to
write, a novella, Rainbow Connection,
which sadly hasn’t been as popular, but has received some nice reviews, and a
short story, Stay which is due for general release
next month. The follow up to Sporting Chance, called Comfort Zone, has been contracted and will be out next year.
Comfort Zone has Aron’s story. The title came from a friend, as did the idea
for the issue Aron has to deal with when he goes out of his comfort zone for
love.
I’ve
just written another short story. It’s had lots of names, but I settled on Not Every Time. This story was written
in five days, and came from an idea about what happens if you save a life. Raz
saves Jack from certain death, but Raz has a secret. I’m hoping my publisher
will like it.
A friend
recently asked me where my ideas come from. I have three or four stories with
starts written, and I need to decide what to do next. I’ve also three stories
completed, two of which need editing. Ideas come from all over the place,
stories in newspapers, things from my past, conversations overheard or read
online, television shows, photographs—all sorts of places. So far, I’ve written
contemporary romance stories, but I have an idea for a time-travelling story
set partly in sixteenth century Scotland at the time of the murder of Lord
Darnley. The idea came from a photograph of a bare-chested man in a kilt
combined with teaching Mary, Queen of Scots using this image.
An idea grew from there. Maybe one day I’ll
have the courage to step out of my comfort zone and write it.
So, do I choose to write the fourth in my Home series set in Scotland with the
closeted church minister, Sam Carmichael and the grieving widower, Tosh
Mackintosh, or a standalone story set in Norfolk about cat loving librarian,
Will Owen and carpenter and am dram fan, Jonah Jackson. I seem to have written
about a few cats recently, and this one is likely to have more smiles than the
first. While I decide, I’ve Home Goal in
front of me to edit with Zac and Seth’s story. There’s a cat in that one too – a ginger
Tom called Ron, who weasels his way into Seth’s affections. I'm sure you can see what I did there.
How do you choose what to
read and/or write next?
You can sign up below to get my blog posts in future and hear about my new
stories.
And to celebrate Stay being available for early download, and it being my birthday next week, I'm going to have a giveaway so you can win an EPub or PDF version of STAY when I get my copies. Please
comment below if you’d like to win a copy, and I’ll use random.org to pick a
winner a week from today.
Stay can be bought here
