2.13 Writing Book 2- Journal from the adventuring writer

The journey of writing book 2

 

Okay so today’s blog post is going to be self-indulgent because I like indulgence. I’ve got two hours being the group is coming over for D&D and I haven’t touched my novel since Saturday last week. This is sort of normal when I’m not on a deadline because sometimes scenes need to settle- othertimes I’ve just been busy. If I were being a good girl, I’d be up to 40k by now. I’m just now hitting the halfway mark of 30k, and because I haven’t immersed into the world in a few days, I’m re-reading the last few pages.

Book 2 of the Clockwork Myth series is nominally titled ‘A Study in Shadow’ although I am presently thinking about renaming it to ‘A Theft in Shadow’ or ‘A Thief of Shadows’ since this is a caper/heist novel. I’m still on the fence about the title so suggestions are welcome! That is the brilliance of being able to bounce ideas off others.

Originally this was supposed to be the third book in the series but after discussing things with Andrea, we elected to move it to the second so that the cross-overs and tie-ins would be stronger between all three books.

With The Nightmare Detective in processes behind the curtains, I’ve been delving into the characters and world a lot in this next story. The Nightmare Detective was a Sleeping Beauty retelling. A Study in Shadow is a Hansel and Gretel retelling.

We’re in Scotland and we’re planning a heist. But not just any old bank-job, no, presently we’re aiming for an airship—a dirigible heist, as it were. When I first thought about the ‘series’ I knew that I wanted to study each aspect of magic in each book. Oneiorology in the first book, Tenebrology in the second and Animancy in the third. 

Oneiorology was a great deal of fun; although I may have a few issues when it comes to doing book readings as I cannot, for the life of me, pronounce the word without tumbling over the vowels. The Nightmare detective is the first proper murder-mystery I’ve ever written. Most of the works before that have been more ‘action-adventure’ for me. Romping around with explosions is fun and exciting, but creating a mystery about someone dying in their dreams was on a whole other level for me. It might, I’d wager, be a bit ambitious. I hope that experienced sleuths are able to enjoy it.

Compared to that, planning a heist of an airship has been an exercising in insanity for a good law-abiding-citizen such as myself. Did you know you can’t just get floorplans of prisons or police stations off the internet? I’ve learned a lot about the types of rigid and non-rigid flying machines of the eras. I’ve also learned a lot about the monsters in the world I’ve created. Each book has a few of the critters from mythology- and that faint tinkle of ‘other’ things that lurk deeper in the spaces of magic the characters are dealing with.

I’m getting a bit vague, so let me talk a little about the chapter I’m working on at the moment. Fia, the protagonist of this book, has just experienced a rather rough day. She’s been shot at, clawed, ravaged and generally tossed through the wringer. Now, our darling Professor is about to perk her up a bit, get the lady back on her feet, so to speak. 

Following the old fairytale, I’m leading little Fia and John into the dark forest tonight for the third time. They won’t be running home to safety after this, not until they face what lies in front of them.

It’s the start of act two, and that means throwing pressure and stakes to 100% for the rest of the novel. Things are about to get worse, a lot worse, and just when they think they’ve found an out…. The cage comes down!

I love thinking about the fairytale aspects and twisting and turning them about in these novels. I’m following a story, but I’ve layered on a great many distractions and external differences so that you, the reader, will find it fresh and new.

I love retellings- little red riding hood is a favourite for romances, as well as Cinderella- I don’t know that I’ll ever get tired of these.

Writing prompt: What is your favourite fairytale, how can you refresh it to make it strange and new again?