~First of all, for those who may not know, there's a short story contest in honor of C. S. Lewis going on at the Pen and the Parchment. I encourage you to check it out.
~Secondly, I'm coming up on a difficult question on my novel; Where to next? Once I finish this novel, that'll end my trilogy that has been almost three years in the making.
But that's not the question of "What am I going to write?", but rather, "Which of these am I going to write?"
What is the 'these' I'm referring to? Right now, next in line for my writing attention, are two ideas. Both take place in the same world as my trilogy, but one is a prequel, and one is a sequel. Whichever one I pick, I'll do the other eventually, though. The problem is, both of them are some of my best ideas yet, better then the trilogy that I'm finishing up.
The sequel is the beginning of a series, and the prequel is just a novel, with nothing else planned afterward.
Here's what's making the choice difficult; If I do the sequel, it will take some time to finish a series. After all, the trilogy I'm working on has taken almost three years. If I do the prequel, I should be able to finish it fairly quickly (at least by my standards) and move onto the sequel.
In a comment on Wayne Thomas Batson's blog not too long ago, I said, 'All of the books in my trilogy were to prepare the way for the next book, which I consider my greatest work and my ultimate goal.' Wouldn't a prequel for the trilogy add yet more background? I keep asking myself. And I'm not sure.
So that's the lay of the land. What do you think?
~Third and lastly, I'm paying rather close attention to the poll on the sidebar. It's getting quite interesting. Thirteen people have voted as of now for the question, "Which of these is your MOST favorite fantasy author?" I find that question hard to answer as well. :)
Here's how the scores are;
'How in the world do you expect me to PICK?!?!?' is leading with 38% of the votes.
'C. S. Lewis' is next in line with 23%.
'Bryan Davis' and 'Wayne Thomas Batson' are tied for third as of now with 15% each.
'J. R. R. Tolkien' is trailing behind with 7%,
And lastly, 'Christopher Hopper' and 'Brian Jacques' are bringing up the rear with no votes.
I'll be looking forward to see what happens next! And I'm not telling how I voted myself until the poll is over.
I hope I didn't bore you too much with my lengthy post. :)
Haha! Not a lengthy post at all Jake! Well...you'll definitely have to pray first about where you're going with your books next. If I were in the same situation, I would definitely give it some prayer, but if I had to answer off the top of my head, I'd probably go for the novel (err...the non-series book :P ) since it would give me a break and a chance to get something out into the publishing world quickly. It would give me that sense of relief and success lol.
ReplyDeleteSqueaks.
Thanks for the advice, Squeaks. I appreciate it!
ReplyDeleteYou know, I'd tell you to go with the prequel first. Normally, I'd want to READ the sequel first, but I also want you to be a better writer and hook more people. For me, what happens next is more important than back story, so I suggest that you write the prequel first, and by the time you finish THAT, you will be even MORE qualified to write the third book. See where I'm goin' with this?
ReplyDeleteP.S. I seriously agree with you on a whole bunch O' stuff. Check out my blog, I think you'll enjoy it! :D