The Strange Thing About Sequels + Photo Prompt!

So over the past few weeks, despite telling myself that I should be editing the book that I actually finished last year, I’ve ended up doing nothing of the sort. Instead, I’ve written out the entire plan for the sequel to a different book- one which I haven’t even started yet. It seems like if I want to get something done, I should repeatedly remind myself to do the opposite, because it feels like that’s how my mind works!

But I’ve been really getting into this new idea- feeling the mood of the scenes and enjoying the accompanying music playlist. By now, it’s no surprise to me that I can’t keep focused on one idea at a time, I’ve flitted around and changed my mind about what I’m supposed to be doing from the very day I started writing at all.

What’s strange about this time though, is that the idea I’ve gravitated towards is the sequel to a book I haven’t even written! I mean, I have the bare basics set in stone, the main protagonists, the beginning, the ending, and a handful of plot points, but it’s still just a skeleton of a book. It doesn’t even have a title yet!

Somehow, I’ve managed to take that, leaving off exactly at that ending, and form an entire 6000 word scene-by-scene structure for a sequel? It still doesn’t have a title, but I’ve got all the events in order, named all the characters and plotted out the arc for every one. I’ve even written all the ‘super epic’ lines that they’ll say in the heat of the climactic battle! (which probably sound cooler in my head than they will in the book, but anyway!)

Almost all of my book ideas are standalone ones, which will never ever have sequels, so I haven’t had this experience of working backwards before, but it’s kind of fun. At the moment, I’m looking at where the characters have ended up in this sequel and then trying to start from the beginning to see how they got there. I’ve made some progress with the start, and I’m sure as both the original and sequel get finished out of order, there’ll be things that both of them can add to the other.

So that’s been my week! It’s been a fun (and accidental) experiment to write part 2 before part 1, and I actually think it could be a nice challenge to have a go at!

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Photo Prompt!

Apart from writing a story backwards, I’ve been keeping up with my walking. The weather has been having serious mood swings lately, sunny one minute, and pouring the next. (Or even both at the same time!) While it’s inconvenient if you want to walk or dry your washing, it does make for some fun photos!

Thank you very much for reading!