I've been writing quite a lot lately (trying to maintain a chapter-a-day pace for the next few days), and I'm really, really excited about how Heartkeeper: Volume Two is coming together. I'm up to about fifty typed pages (which is about a quarter of the length of Volume One), but it looks like this one is probably going to be about 40% longer than the first. I didn't set out to write a longer novel, but it's a much bigger story. So I guess it's inevitable.
I did want to talk a little about the differences between the two books, though. So if you haven't read Volume One, you may want to avoid the next few paragraphs. Slight spoilers ahead.
The first novel is a character-driven introduction to the world. It was always going to be a relatively small story in that I only wanted to go from point A to point B. That's part of the reason it's set in a vaguely familiar (and stereotypical) fantasy world. I didn't want to go into too much detail about races and such. Rather, I wanted to be able to focus on the different magic systems, the characters, and (later on) politics.
In those ways, I was successful. Looking back, I wish I would have spent a little more time with the gnomes. Developing backstories and cultures is so much fun for me, and the gnomes have a very unique history. That said, I'm probably more critical of my own work than anyone else could ever be, and judging by the readers' responses I've seen, most people were happy with it.
However, with Volume Two, I'm really opening up this world. It's not a small story anymore, and I can't write it like it is. Sure, I still want to focus on the characters (I've always felt like writing introspective characters was a strength of mine), but I also want this world to feel "lived-in." It's a lot more work because I've had to develop each culture's history (to the tune of 200+ pages of notes), but I think the extra effort is starting to show.
Writing a bigger story can be a trap, though. It would be very easy to get bogged down in the details, and lose sight of the main storyline. It's a fine line to walk, providing enough detail that the reader feels like each culture and character is three-dimensional while, at the same time, not going overboard, and flooding their attention with superfluous, minute details that don't really matter. So far, I think I'm walking that line pretty well, but it's a constant struggle to keep it at the forefront of my mind. It can be so easy to get caught up in a scene and overwrite it. Still, I think awareness of that danger is key to not falling prey to it.
Anyway, I hope this creative streak continues.
