Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

contemporary novel

A Stab at a Self-interview: Question 4 ~ next possible genre

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If your next book was not science fiction or fantasy what genre would it be in?

I’m a bit split on which it would be. I write quite a bit of poetry. I have the beginnings of a series of selections all based on pieces of heirloom china I have received from various family over the years. I also have about 18,000 words done on a contemporary women’s fiction about three best friends enjoying their retirement years. One of the ladies is fashioned after my mother, a very vibrant, dramatic woman who could walk into a room full of people and make them turn at once to see who brought the exuberance into the place. She passed away this past September and I really miss her.

I’m expecting that after I finish with the Standing Stone series and the fifth book in Students of Jump that I will probably get back working on the contemporary piece Joanie and Friends. It’s a standalone work. I would then move on to working on the collaboration series my husband and I are planning.

I am pretty much booked up on ideas for writing. Don’t have to worry about writer’s block for at least the next three years, assuming I am going to keep up my new pace of three books a year.

General plan (subject to change because life is not predictable)
Book 2 in Standing Stone (out June 2017)
Book 3 in Standing Stone (predicted out in September 2017)
Book 5 in Students of Jump (predicted out in Jan. 2018)
Book .5 in Standing Stone
Joanie and Friends
Maybe that china poetry collection would fit here
Book 1 in the Mantle Series

Of course, this ignores the fact that I have four books outlined for the Students of Jump series and another book or two wandering around the back of my mind for the Standing Stone series. Sometimes ideas leapfrog. For instance, The Sharded Boy was supposed to be a short story, but it blossomed into a book and then a series.

#genre
#writing
#series

When the story won’t speak, pick up another tale

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Stand on stone words

Just a few weeks ago, I decided I needed to shift to another writing project. My contemporary novel, Joanie and Friends, had hit a wall. I was writing, but it was failing to feel original and authentic, like I was just dragging the words out of my characters.

So I remembered an outlined set of rules for a story about magic. It had been bubbling up in my mind frequently, and I would run through my ideas but not put a word down and remind myself I already had Joanie’s story to tell.

But I remembered that I often write on several pieces in different stages: rough draft, cleanup draft, final draft, and final edit, bouncing back and forth feeling very invigorated by the multi-action writing.

My box set of time travel books 1 -3 of the Students of Jump was published along with the fourth in the series late last year. I had run through all my work and had thought delightedly that Joanie would more than fill my time and would benefit with being the only work on my mind. With three narrative voices, it seemed very practical. But I hit that wall at 18K words. I cringed every time I sat down to write. Who would I pick on this time to continue the story?

But back to multi-writing. I reread my notes on that fantasy short story and felt compelled to write. Some 40K words and 5 weeks later, and I have the first half of a novel drafted (not a short story anymore) and a good sense of conflicts and characters figured out. I haven’t felt any impetus to return to my previous WIP and can only suppose that it just wasn’t ready. Standing Stone, the working title of my current roll, seems to have a steady stream of words each night. My average weekly rate is 7K.

When Joanie or Mathilda or Colleen speak up, I’ll stop and listen and write if they have something strong to say, but for now this bit of writing magic is flowing nicely. Maybe knowing there is something else I can turn to is part of what is making this roll so well; the demand that there be words to type isn’t strangling me. Rather each morning more of the story comes to mind, and by the time I am home from work, the next scene is ready for drafting.

So my choice to shift from my contemporary novel and answer the call of a seemingly simple short story about magic was a good one. I’m looking forward to writing every night.

So have you had to pull back from what you thought was a ready-to-go novel and found yourself immersed in an unexpected backup?