How do you start all over again? This question keeps running in the back of my mind. Coming off two long-running series (okay, taking a sabbatical from said series is probably more fitting…) how do you start that journey from the beginning again?
Start all over again? Are you insane?
I’m not afraid to admit my own fear at this dilemma. I have a space opera series I’ve had plotted and scripted since 2021 sitting on my shelf. Not one word has been drafted, yet I’m dying to dig into it. Why haven’t I simply started?
- Space opera is wildly diverging from my current writing.
- Developing a new language to fit this new world is an undertaking unto itself.
- Ten books? Too much of a commitment right now.
- That’s not what readers want…
- Time constraints.
Can you hear the bullshit in those excuses? They are totally legitimate reasons not to embark on what will be a two-year endeavor to write and edit ten novels. They are. But at their heart is one true hesitation: Fear.
It’s the same fear I’m currently having about my Coventry series. This one is urban fantasy because I wanted readers to have something to jump to once Greystone finishes up. So same vibe, same tropes at play, same action-character beats to work through. Yet, I’m hung up at the starting line for the same reasons as the space opera series.
Why?
Unanswered questions
This is a big dilemma for me. Should the new series be first person? Should it be third person? Will there be multiple POVs at play or will I follow only a single character this time through, and how does THAT choice change the game when writing?
I like challenges. I like to push myself in new ways, but at the start of the journey, what is the best move to make?
The simple answer is: ANY MOVE AT ALL.
I need to write is the even simpler answer. Write fake scenes. Write boring monologues or absurd situations where the characters become who they are meant to be.
How do you start over again? How do you take that first step into a new world with new friends to guide you?
You simply leap into it.
Sounds easy, right?
I know it isn’t. There are always those doubts, those fears, begging to be heard. People will hate this! What are you doing? This is all wrong!
You have to write to discover the flaws.
I’ve already found my own. The smaller moments–my favorite ones, of course–aren’t what people want to read right off the bat. They want big, brash epics, even if constrained to a short story. They want to feel the world is bigger than we know. Readers want villainous villains and puffed-up heroics, emboldened by a world they have never imagined right outside their window.
Taking all that into account is the key to starting over again. Finding direction–or at the very least, knowing you can walk back your first attempt to course-correct over the long term. There is nothing set in stone.
These are words on a page. That is the best part about starting over again. That is the best part of everything we do. Nothing is forever unless we let it be. Everything changes and grows and lives and dies. Every keystroke could be the beginning of an entirely new journey. Allowing fear to dictate our inaction or letting doubts cause us hesitation is akin to a death sentence.
Take the leap.
Building story is the best feeling in the world. The questions that come along with that building can be the absolute worst, but only if you let them take over. Find your answers. Maybe it is through the writing itself. Maybe it is note-taking or exercises to explore the world. The questions are meant to help, not hinder. Let them in and use them to build your world from the ground up.
Write. Explore. Dream. Imagine. Then write some more.
