How Do I Know What I Think Until I See What I Say?

One of the writers in my writing group, Cinda Chima, has written three related books (check Cinda's stuff out here ) and while we were reading the third book for her, she had some questions about how much information to include about what had happened in the prior two books. Her books weren't sequels, like Electric Boogaloo is, but the question is still a tricky one, because you have to assume that a large portion of the readership for the second or third book are going to have read the first one. Since her books were related, but were not direct sequels (meaning each book focused on a different main character, but the books took place in the same world as each other, and some of the characters overlapped - a main character in one book, for example, becoming a supporting player in another), Cinda wanted to make sure that she included enough information for the new readers without boring the returning ones. It's a tricky balance - how much back story to include. This is t...

As I mentioned earlier, I'm currently working on two new projects while submitting The Book. The first is the sequel to The Book (we'll call it The Book II: Electric Boogaloo). The second, in case The Book doesn't sell (in which case there's not a helluva lot of use for a sequel, right?), is a Totally New Project. There are a number of cool things about doing two projects at one time - first, I'm in the same first draft stage on both of them, so it's just about getting the words down on paper. I write super fast at this stage - about 1000 words an hour for a couple hours at a time - and the only plotting I worry about is "what comes next?" Transitional material, connective tissue, plot developments that, you know, actually make sense? All happens later. Right now, it's just about what comes next. TNP is a "normal" young adult book, so no supernatural stuff in there, and it's also the first thing I've written in first person ...