Six free days.

I've arranged for six straight free days to whip Sometimes a Dragon into shape.  Linda is out of town, all dental and otherwise appointments are done, I'm letting my guys take care of the Spring Break crowd at the store.  Close the curtains, lower the lights, and think and write and write and think.

So the danger is I'll dawdle too much.

At the same time, I'm afraid of putting too much pressure on myself.

The trick is to apply myself, but lightly.  I'm going to let the mornings go, drink coffee, browse the internet, read the paper, fix a lunch, etc.  Then I'll get dressed and sit down around 1:00 everyday and give myself over to it.

But without pushing too hard.  That is, keep my head into the book but not scare myself off.


I'm now seeing that I had a six month spurt of creativity that was probably unusual.  More or less three books were written, at least the first draft.  Rewrites were done on two other books.  Then I got caught up in the actual process of putting them online, and that kind of derailed me.

Then again, I'm not sure I could have kept up that pace forever.

So the plan now is to get a readable copy done of Sometimes a Dragon over the next six days, then set it aside.

Then start a new book.

For the first time, I'm not adverse to sequels.  Death of an Immortal has an obvious avenue for a sequel.  The Lore books are meant to be a trilogy.  Nearly Human was originally meant to be a series.  I think I'll probably eventually pursue all three, but also let myself write something else if that comes to me first.

Death of an Immortal came out of the blue, and more or less wrote itself, and I just went with it.  Same with Freedy Filkins.  So that isn't something I should ignore. If somethings tugs on my sleeve, I should follow it.

I'm thinking I probably needed a break from the creative flow -- give myself a chance to recharge.

I also don't want to dive into a new book without a little thought.  Sometimes a Dragon has taught me -- again -- as did Nearly Human -- that having a plan keeps me from writing myself into the proverbial corner, so the next step for Lore is to actually plan the world a little more, even do a little research.  Have an idea of where I'm going before I start.

Which is a switch in strategy dictated by experience.  I'm not as worried now that I'll do an outline and then not write the book.  But ... we'll see.