Interstitial

Photo by Okko P .  licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.

I am taking a bit of a break from writing, and settling into a routine of work, socializing, and playing a really addictive video game (Minecraft multi-player).  I am still "working" on the next Hemlock novel though.  I have been getting a lot of ideas for the story and dutifully writing them all down.  At some point soon I will probably work up a formal outline of the plot and character arcs and try to pull all of my ideas together into  something cohesive.  But this next step probably won't happen until the fall.  I'm just in one of those interstitial phases where I need to re-charge my writing batteries.

I'm not sure if other writers take extended breaks like this.  But I know I'm just not ready to begin writing the new novel yet.  I tend to need a break between big projects.  And I'm loathe to get too distracted by side writing projects because I *am* working on the next Hemlock novel in the sense that I am in the process of  imagining it.  I've blogged about how I come up with story ideas before, so I won't go into detail about that other than saying that it feels more like a process of discovery than a process of invention.  And the discovery process just takes some time...

So I don't have a lot to report about writing other than to say that I am very excited about finally writing Hemlock III despite not being in much of a hurry to actually begin writing it.  It's going to deliver in terms of wrapping up Hemlock's story.  But (and this was a revelation to me last week) it may not be the end of Hemlock's story.  There could be additional books beyond III.  But III is going to represent a major, major resolution to the conflicts in the series.  Anything that comes beyond Book III will have to be something of a "reboot" of the "universe".  But it will be possible.  And only a week before I was convinced it wouldn't be! So I did get some new ideas, obviously.

I hope you are having a good summer wherever you are!