As I write more books, I learn from the previous ones and notice trends. One of them being that I am currently at the part I hate the most during the writing process: the beginning. Granted, this is a unique phenomenon with the numbered saga books in the Barbarians of the Storm series. It’s not much of a problem when writing the anthologies or Side Quest books. Granted, I’ve only done one Side Quest, thus far.
So why does the beginning suck?
Well, to start, it’s because it consists of a handful of chapters or thereabouts, where I have to recap what has already happened, process it for the characters, and then push them forward on their journey. I try to do this as quickly and efficiently as possible, but while also having to make it sink in for the characters and the reader. This is so the new knowledge and plot details from the most recent events are dealt with by the characters, allowing them to continue on to the next part of their story.
With this next book, it seems to be even more of a tedious task, as I don’t just have Book III - Swords Against Bastards to continue on from, I also have the Side Quest book Fenrik 1984 and the anthology A Crown of Furious Color & Other Stories, not to mention the bonus short stories across those three books. This time around, there is a lot of things that have happened that I have to revisit, work in, process, and then steamroll down into a solid foundation for the next phase of the saga.
It’s a lot of work, but it is important to get it right and to not miss any details. With a saga that has grown to include multiple groups of characters with alliances that have recently shifted, it becomes a more arduous task. My notebooks (yes, multiple) just keep getting bigger with the details for each character. Where I once could flip through them in minutes and get what I needed, I’m now spending hours cross-referencing things, which also tells me, I need to make all of this digital. But that’s a monstrous task, at this point. One I don’t have time for.
The thing is, once I get past this process, the floodgates will open and the writing will just explode out of me. The first part of the saga books is just a mountain that needs to be climbed. With each new book, that mountain gets bigger. Still, it’s a necessary process.
In regards to this process with Book IV, I would say that I am about halfway there with it. I would like to be through it within the next week, but also, I am not trying to rush it. I’m trying to ease up on the pressure I put myself under after some difficulties I had in my personal life while at the early stages of my last book. I am still shooting to have this book written and published by the end of the year, however. That’s a goal, but I am not going to be too hard on myself if I can’t make it, as the book needs to be the best book it can possibly be.
I think that in the future, if I ever have the idea to write another series, I might be less ambitious about the scope of it. However, with Barbarians of the Storm, I did want to create a literary universe where I could tell all kinds of stories outside of this main Barbarians of the Storm saga. I have a lot of ideas for things beyond the saga itself, and the characters my readers have come to know, could pop up in other places. I am trying to build an IP, after all. One that I hope other creatives will want to play in someday.