Wednesday, February 5, 2014

02/05/2013 Writing Wednesday!

Hello everyone and welcome back! I hope you are able to keep warm today. I am doing my best, but I am 100% convinced I will never be warm again. According to what I've seen, with the wind being what it is, it feels like it's about 10 degrees Fahrenheit out there...or will...or something. Either way, it's terrible and I don't like it. That is just way too cold and I need it to be warmer. If you're in my area of the world and will be heading out to the ridiculous celebration downtown, please bundle up because you are going to need it. Also, please hope and wish for me because I will be working while there is a mass exodus from my work of people heading out to join you. 

I've been doing a lot of thinking about what to talk about today, and while my main focus has been on staying warm and harassing the cat, I have managed to cobble something together. I have been doing a lot of thinking about what I'm going to do once I am actually done with my work. I know that taking a super long break is going to be in there somewhere, but other than that, I mean there has to be something else to do, right? I mean, how do you come up right more ideas after a series like that?

I look to authors like J.K. Rowling and Stephen King for references like this. I use them as references/jokes a lot, and while there may be some debate about whether or not they are good/the best/terrible authors no one can deny that they don't know what they're doing. Sure they do things a bit differently. J.K. Rowling wrote her license to print money that was the Harry Potter series and then started working on stand-alone projects, which did apparently have some bumps along the way, but she did end up getting them done. (I do have my own opinions about how her last stand-alone book that came out showed just how many problems there are with the industry, but that is for another time.) With Mr. King you have him basically telling the industry that he can do whatever he wants and it's going to work. His actual series is the Gunslinger books, and while he basically writes them whenever he feels like adding to the series (to the well-tested patience of his fan-base) he does pretty much nothing else but stand-alone books and/or short story collections. These two have done so well for themselves that if I could sit down and ask them questions until they politely asked me to leave I would.

Now I know you're also about to say that both of the authors mentioned said they had finished their series and then went back on their word and have both announced new books for their series coming out at some point in the not-too-distant future. Very good, and that's perfectly fine too. I am actually super interested in the new stuff for the Harry Potter world, but that's because from what I've heard it's going to be about filling out some of the lore and stuff on the monsters and that's pretty awesome. With the Gunslinger...I could say I was surprised, but I wasn't. The thing is that there is never anything wrong with deciding there is more that needs to be told about your world. The point I'm trying to make is that you can write a series, do some other side projects, then come back and do something else that maybe taking time away from the world inspired you to do. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Maybe you wanted to go into the bloodline of one particular character, go and do that it might be super fun!

I haven't really decided what I'm going to do once my actual series is done. I am tempted to play around with some sci-fi stuff, but I am also looking at doing stuff set during a specific event mentioned in later books. I suppose we'll have to wait and see, at the very least I'll need something to do during NaNoWriMo, right? Maybe you don't want to do anything once your masterwork is done. That's completely understandable too, and you shouldn't feel obligated to do so. If you're tired or there is something that is stopping you from doing anything else, then don't worry about it. Do what's best for you and what will end up making you happy.

Thanks everyone for stopping by today. I'll hopefully be back on Friday! We have the launch party for the new Magic set so I am super excited for that. The pre-release was lots of fun last Saturday too! Try to stay warm, that is also the most important, so grab a blanket or three, some sweaters, and a cat or five (your neighbor won't miss theirs right?) and do whatever you need to do! Have a great rest of the week!

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