So, this past weekend I finally managed to finish my story The Soldier. It's been a long time in coming. As I mentioned in a previous blog post I actually started writing this thing over four years ago before pulling it out and dusting it off this past summer. I'm actually pretty proud of it. Flying in the face of everything that anyone who knows anything about writing says, I didn't do a whole lot of story planning.
Now normally this wouldn't be too much of an issue. I could write something, then go back and change it as necessary if I didn't like how something was turning out or found myself written into an inescapable corner. However, I published the first five sections of the story before the rest of it was completely done. I had the overarching idea of where it was going, mind you, but I was a little fuzzy on all of the details. And that's tricky, because there's nothing I hate more than a story where the details don't match up and the author has to come up with some sort of crazy Deus ex Machina to fix it. I'd intended the flashback to the cave to be only a couple, maybe three parts. But it sort of just kept growing into what you've (hopefully) read. In the end I managed to squeeze everything in that I wanted to...answer some questions and leave a few more out there
I've got some ideas about where I'm going to be going with the big narrative from here. I think they're pretty good ideas myself, and hopefully you'll agree. I've already got some titles picked out and even have the bare bones of a couple of the stories. But I'm going to have to move a little more cautiously from here on out. Things are shaping up nicely in my mind but I want to make sure I get everything laid out right before I publish. Because those details are going to be harder and harder to iron out the farther I get into this grand narrative.
In any case, the next story I have planned is going to be The Journal of Tomas Wicker. Those of you who have read The Wicker House are already familiar with the titular character. This story is going to go a little bit further into his backstory and possibly change of few people's perceptions about what actually happened that night in 1925. It's possible this one will be another multi-part story, and I'll hopefully have the first one up sooner rather than later, assuming I can get all of those pesky details worked out. It's going to be a heckuva ride...hope to see you there!