What I’m Writing and Why I Can’t Write Just One Thing At A Time
Okay, it’s really not going to destroy me. Honestly I can’t do just one thing. I just can’t. Call it ADHD, or in my childhood we called it being “hyper”, but I can’t just do one thing. There are too many stories calling my name in my head, and well, what’s a guy to do? Gotta just tell them all. Fuck it.
So, here’s a bit of a breakdown of what I’m trying to do in writing this year and what I think I’m going to accomplish. (And just FYI, writing this all down for me is good because it helps me focus and formulate thoughts. The more I talk about or write about what I’m writing, the better ideas seem to flow. So, ultimately, this is a best practice for me, if you will.)
Sesame Swallow:
I did a one-off silly novel for National Novel Writing Month about 8 years ago, called Sesame Swallow Private Investigator. I thought, well, if whoever can write 50 Shades of Gray, I can throw together a novel and try and shove sex in every scene. I’d written some erotic short stories before, but never a whole novel. To be honest, this book was really a mystery novel about a young woman in Baltimore with her first real P.I. case and no idea how to go about it. Her dilemma in her job reflected my dilemma in trying to write a novel from the perspective of a woman and throw in a bunch of sex. Both of us floundered around, and she solved her case while I self-published my second novel. Neither of us did a good job, but along the way, I decided she and I both needed some work, and thus was born a character that I think it terrific and will be the star of ten novels, aka Sesame Swallow, Season One.
I’ve rewritten Sesame’s first eponymous novel for the third time now. I’ve almost finished the third rewrite — only two new chapters to go. Why did I rewrite it? Because my character had to be a real person, not what I’d written her as. Because now, after having written Book 2 and Book 3 (well, 90% of the last book), planned out Book 4 and 5, too, I have learned so many things about my Main Character and who she is and what shapes the rest of her story, that I had to go back and make some major changes to the first book.
So that’s where I am. I’m finishing Book 1 this month, then going right into finishing Book 3, and then I need to look back at what changes are needed in Book 2. Sometime over the summer I will write Book 4 and by the end of the year, I want to have finished Book 5. Here’s what that looks like:
Sesame Swallow, Private Investigator
Sesame Swallow and Case of the Missing Heart
Sesame Swallow and the Ghost in the Attic
Sesame Swallow and the Secret of the Missing Fucks (yes, you read that right)
Sesame Swallow and the Curse of the Voodoo Queen
Think grown up Nancy Drew meets Californication. Sesame is 26, lives in Baltimore, has some sidekick girlfriends who help her solve the cases, and she has a blast doing it. She’s courageous, loves whiskey, and is on her own personal sexual journey of self-discovery. All of the novels are told in first person, which is my favorite way to write.
You can find Sesame on several social media sites, including Twitter, Tumblr, WattPad and Pinterest. I’m focusing heavily on her social media presence now to help me explore and hear her voice and create her as a 3D character. Once I have these first five novels in a good place, by next year, it’ll be time to start the real publishing and publicity engines.
So what else is there?
How about serial fiction? I have three serialized fiction projects going on right now, and there’s a fourth coming. And still, it feels like that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
The first is thankfully complete, but needs some editing. It’s called “Dorothy: Locked & Loaded” and there are 138 episodes that I’m reposting as part of a 10 year anniversary. I wrote this with five other authors over the period of two years, and I myself wrote five different characters. I thought it would be nice to republish it. We had over 100k views at one point on Blogspot, so it must have been worth the read. Dorothy: Locked and Loaded is the story of Dorothy Gale’s granddaughter going back to Oz, and it’s not your grandmother’s Oz. A lot has happened since the Wizard left on his balloon and the Dorothy clicked her heels together. And not all of it good. We wrote this entire series with absolutely no plan — just five writers taking a character and running with it. Ultimately I did have to give them all some direction to maneuver everyone to a finale, and I think it ended very smartly.
The second serialize fiction project is about a third of the way done — it’s called “Just Right” and there are currently 40 episodes, but there will likely need to be another 15–20 to wrap up the story. This twisted fairy tale set in the modern day Big Apple was started by some of the same writer friends. We took a similar approach, with each of us just taking one of four characters this time, but I provided a plot outline for each episode this time. I didn’t want it to be as sprawling at Dorothy. Sadly, we never finished it, so I decided recently to finish it myself. I thought it would be nice to see it through, and I didn’t think I wanted to get back into writing with partners.
The third serialize fiction project is called “In Place of Honour”, which has only 5–6 episodes so far, and I don’t know how long that one will go. This is a futuristic fantasy/scifi adventure about the return of a long lost order of knights. Think science meets magic, big winged monsters and robotic steeds. I have some ideas for where I want this story to go, but I really like the open road of mostly not knowing. For now, our main character has taken on a quest to rescue a princess held captive by a warlord on the other side of the Wastes. But things are all that they seem. That’s honestly as much as I know.
But, suddenly, a conversation with two friends from the first two serialized fiction projects above has added another project to the fray. Based on a fake Nancy Drew sort of book cover, we’re already planning to write a 3-part serialized story of three women who meet in a coffee shop to talk about a man that cheated on all of them. They plan his murder, each in their own way, but they never go through with it. Or do they? Because the guy is found murdered. The story will be called “The Night We Buried Our Last Fucks”, and it will most likely be told on Medium with the addition of some Twitter accounts and lots of fake social media posts. Regardless of all the work I already have on the writing front (and I also have a full-time job), I’m excited to do this over the summer.
Ideas — they’re everywhere, and I can’t resist them.
It’s so much fun to tell all these stories and do it in a creative way. I haven’t even mentioned the two other complete novels I have that are awaiting revisions and my original foray into noveling that needs a rewrite and a sequel. Plus there’s a novella I want to write that goes with one of the Sesame Swallow novels because she finds this mysterious book and ultimately solves the mystery it didn’t. I’m going to be busy for a while, but I’m having a really good time.
So, in the meantime, if you’re looking for me, I’m here on Medium. I’m also on Twitter here @SJ_Stone_Author, on Tumblr here @SJ_Stone-Author, and on Facebook here @SJStoneAuthor.