Let's Begin Again

*This post is written for the monthly theme: Carving Your Way In.*

After finishing The Day It Rained in August 2014 I have not done much writing. I also started my first year of university in September so I just haven't found much time for it. The degree I'm doing is English Literature with Creative Writing, so I have done some writing for the 25% Creative Writing part of the degree. However, I haven't found much time to do any personal writing. In November I attempted to start a fantasy novel for NaNoWriMo but decided it wasn't ready and needed more planning, so I flopped at that.

Now, it is really time to get back into writing. I'm editing The Day It Rained and planning the second book, The Day The Sky Bled, in preparation for writing it in Camp NaNoWriMo. So I thought I would say a few things about how I go about starting a new novel. And also, in light of what I'm working on at the moment, how I go about starting a second novel in a series.  

Often when I have a new idea, the ideas come randomly. Sometimes I think of a character first and sometimes I think of the plot first. Either way I think it is important that once those initial ideas have been jotted down, to bring all the necessary elements together: the plot, the characters, the style. I might not always know exactly how it is going to end, but I like to have a basic plan of where the plot is going before I start writing. I also have a habit of making a book cover for it before I even start planning. I like to have an image to associate it with. Plus it is a good way to procrastinate while still contributing to the book in some way. 

In terms of starting the novel I am going to begin writing soon, a sequel, which I have never done before, my process has been rather different. The series is a trilogy, and when I started planning the second book I realised I needed to plan the third book first, to know how they were going to get there. A bit like a huge beginning, middle and end. It was also good to know what would happen in the third book, because then I knew which characters were needed and which ones I could kill off in book two. 

Another thing about starting a book is that you have to think about that all important first word, first sentence, first chapter. Although this isn't quite as important for the second book in the series, as the reader has already read the first one and knows what to expect from your writing and the story. Even so I have planned to start The Day The Sky Bled with an action scene, just to make sure I have their attention. 

Writing this book will be a very interesting experience for me, as I have never written a 'book two' before. I've never completed the first book in a series to be able to write the second book. But after ten years I've finally made it to the 'writing the sequel' stage. I'm hoping that writing this during Camp NaNoWriMo will motivate me to complete it. I wrote The Day It Rained for Camp NaNoWriMo 2014 and it only took me two months to write it. Here's hoping for another successful book writing!

M.T.