I've talked a little about why Heartkeeper: Volume Two is still in development (as opposed to being finished), but I wanted to add a few things to that explanation. Almost immediately after I finished Heartkeeper: Volume One, I started writing the second in the series. However, when I was diagnosed with leukemia, I sort of veered away from writing. Simply put, it was difficult to concentrate on writing when a) I felt horrible and b) I was legitimately scared of what my future held.
It's easy to put on a brave face, and act like nothing is wrong. It really is. "I'm doing okay," I'd say. "I'm fine," or "I'm lucky it's treatable." I can't count how many times I said, "I'm lucky because if you're going to get cancer, this is the type of cancer you want to get because it's so treatable." The fact of the matter is that I never really felt lucky. In fact, I'm a little ashamed to say that I wallowed in self-pity. Why me? I don't drink. I don't do drugs. I try to live a relatively healthy lifestyle. But I'm the one who gets cancer at 30 years old. I think that mindset was harder to get over than the disease itself.
Anyway, that sort of attitude is not conducive to writing. Sure, I wrote in my journal about what I was (and in some ways, still am) dealing with. But as far as concentrating on writing a narrative? It just wasn't going to happen.
Cut to a few months later, when I was on the cusp of the remission declaration (which is defined as being cancer-free for six months), and I sort of turned a mental corner. It was time to stop feeling sorry for myself, and start to actively try to achieve my goals.
There was one problem, though - I just wasn't happy with what I'd already written. There were elements I liked, certainly, and there were specific scenes which were very good, but as a whole, I just didn't care for where the story was going. So I scrapped it, and started over.
When I sat down to rewrite it, though, I had a bit of an epiphany. I needed more organization if the novel was going to be successful (artistically). It's a big story with a lot of details interwoven into the narrative. Volume one was always going to be a small, character-driven story, and so, didn't require a lot of planning. I think I only did a very basic outline, a small, regional map, and a short character list. All-in-all, I only had a dozen or so pages of notes. Everything else was just in my head.
With Volume Two, however, I wanted to have a plan. I wanted to refer to people and places that would appear in subsequent books, and I wanted, above all, consistency. That meant that I had to get down to it, and actually plan.
I started with the outline. Originally, I only intended to give a short five-six word summary of the chapters, but it quickly became a map for the entire book. I included back stories, secondary and tertiary characters, lines of dialogue...everything. By the time I was finished, I'd ended up with 50-60 pages worth of outline. That said, the entire novel was completely planned. All I had to do was write it.
The only problem was that I had created so many new characters (most aren't really that important to the story, and aren't in the story much) that I started to get them confused. So, I decided to build a detailed character list. That ended up being about fifteen pages long.
Finally, I needed to flesh out my map. As with everything else, it sort of grew into what it became. Originally, I was only going to make a basic world map with city, landmark, and terrain names. When I started working on it, however, I decided that I'd use it as a bit of promotional material. Make a pretty map, and generate interest in the book. So, I spent a few days building what I think is a very nice map.
And now, I'm in the midst of writing the first draft. It's really coming along nicely, and I've got that feeling of excitement I tend to get when a story starts to come together. At last count, I was about fifteen percent into it, and the prep work is really paying off. I can only hope that it continues to go so smoothly.
As to plans for the future of this little blog, in addition to giving you guys updates on the progress of the novel, I'm considering doing a series of short stories (published weekly) as a way of fleshing out my world for you all.
That's it for now. Thanks for reading, and I hope that the second novel lives up to your expectations.
