Imagination is bigger than the world.

After hours of writing, I look up and I realize I've been sitting in a semi-dark room with a fan blowing as white noise.

But that's not at all the way it felt to me.  In that quiet room, exciting things were happening, I was not in the dark, but in the light, not laying on my back, but fighting monsters.  I wasn't inside, I was outside in the world, doing big things, bigger things than I'll ever do in real life.  Exotic locations, alluring people, earth-shaking events, deep emotions.

Introversion?  Isolation?

It doesn't feel that way.  My characters aren't introverted (unless they are). I'm creating all kinds of characters, outgoing or not, old or young, male or female, boring or exciting, stupid or smart.  It doesn't have anything to do with what's going on outside my door.

I've never done these things, never known these types of people, so how can I be convincing?

Because they come from my imagination and the imagination is bigger than the world.

I don't know how this happens, but I can describe a person or an event that I've never experienced, never will experience, and yet it feels real to me.

Isolation incubates imagination, solitude breeds writing

It's been 18 days since I quit checking my sales, rankings, or reviews.  It feels like a big wall has suddenly sprung up between me and the world.  I still check social media, mostly Facebook, but that doesn't seem to be too distracting.

I'm living two lives right now. The inside and the outside, and they are equally real.  Time expands, and so does life.  Because to me, the imagination of what can be and should have been is as big as the real world.

The Audible editon of Tuskers is out.

The Audible edition of Tuskers is out.   TUSKERS

This wasn't my idea.  The book was purchased by Audible and was narrated by a professonal actor.

I've listened to the first five minutes and it is definitely an interesting experience.  I wrote that!

I don't want to be distracted from the book I'm writing, so I'm holding off listening to the entire book.

It's about 5 hours long.   It costs $14.99, which surprised me -- I guess I thought it would be like an ebook, slightly cheaper.  Linda says this is actually on the low end of what new audio books costs.

How cool is that?  I got an advance, which was very cool, but the way the contract is written I won't see royalties for a long, long time (assuming there are any.)  Since this is a book that Amazon has a financial stake in, I'm hoping they'll spend a little time promoting it.

Also interesting is that it is in the Contemporary Science Fiction section, instead of Horror.  This means that it is being offered to a much wider audience -- but also with much more competition.

My estimate is that about 3 to 5 new books of this genre are offered on Audible each day. (As opposed to hundreds of regular science fictiony books.)

Anyway, for anyone who has been curious about my books, and wants a painless way to check them out, here's your chance.  

I have an oeuvre?

I've been trying to figure out where Manic Pixie Dream Girl Murders: Blood of the Succubus fits into the Duncan McGeary oeuvre.  (I have an oeuvre?)

This is a story about a Succubus.

There's sex scene in the first chapter.  I passed it around a little to see how it went over, and was told that it was "the right amount of explicit" for the scene.  I was even told it was relatively "tame."

But I've followed that up with another half a dozen sex scenes.  In every case, it was in service to the story.  I'm trying to be measured and tasteful.  I really can't see how this story can be written without them.  There will be more sex scenes to come.

And frankly, the sex gives a certain amount of energy to the story.  The sex scenes, in essence, are the action scenes. 

Anyway, I was thinking it might be a shock to people who read Led to the Slaughter.  But maybe I'm overthinking it.

Thing is, it really does fit the story.  It is the story in some ways.  I'm not trying to be explicit -- I'm not going for an "ick" factor.  In fact, I'm probably trying to be as vague as possible in the sex scenes and still get the idea across.

But...there is definitely a lot of sex.

If I can sell this book to a publisher, I'll let them worry about how to describe it.  They probably have more of a sense of how such a book fits in the modern publishing world. 

I can't change the book.  It is what it is.  I mean, it's rolling out of me fully formed and vivid.  I'm in a honeymoon period, where I love what I'm writing, but I think it's the best thing I've written.

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl SEX Murders?

There's an author's voice in The Manic Pixie Dream Girl Murders that is strong and consistent.  A tone that I seem to be tapping into. 

I really like it.

I always have a honeymoon phase when I'm writing a book; otherwise, I probably couldn't complete them.

This is an unusual book for me.  There is quite a bit of sex, with four letter words that I don't think I've used much, if at all, in anything else I've written.  But the book is about a succubus, and it seems to me to be essential that I explore that.  It doesn't seem out of place.  It's not being done out of sensationalism.  In essence, the action sequences in the book -- where ordinarily I might have a gunfight or a swordfight -- are sex sequences that ends badly.

So I'm struggling with the title.  The Manic Pixie Dream Girl Murders doesn't seem to give the right clue.  I thought about using Blood of the Succubus.  I could use the latter as a sub-title, but it seems awkward.

I've thought of The Manic Pixie Dream Girl Sex Murders, or perhaps The Case of the Manic Pixie Dream Girls: The Sex Murders (or perhaps the Succubus Murders.)

I don't want to promise too much sex either. This isn't porn.

Oh, well.  I have time to think about it.

But it all once again shows me that books have their own needs.  This is the book.  That the content may be awkward doesn't matter.  It's what it is. 

A very productive day.

(Written yesterday.)

Got on a roll writing The Manic Pixie Dream Girl Murders today.  I think this is going to be one of my "fast" books that demand to be written.  I'm going way past my 2K a day word average, which is cool as long as I'm not forcing it.

Wrote the first chapter and it came out really well, I think.  (I'd already written the second and third chapter, and yeah, that was weird.)  It had a fairly explicit sex scene in it -- there's a succubus in this book, after all.  But I think it worked.

I'm taking a break to recharge my working computer, and going to get to work doing more tonight.  I love this sense of excitement.  There's just this feeling that there is a book there and all I need to do is peel back the package.

I've got a new character today, as well as a couple of new powers for the bad girl.

I probably need something else to extend it to a full book, but I can write a couple more chapters before I worry about that -- hopefully something will pop up naturally.  I never worry about length anymore.  I write the story as is.  There always seemed to be a couple of ideas I can expand on if I don't quite get there -- but usually that isn't a problem.

Assemble the premise and the cast of characters and the plot takes care of itself.


Later:  A very productive day.  Ended up writing 8K good words.  Nothing I wasn't happy with.  Came up with some more characters, and pretty much a solid lock on the first half of the book plus a rough idea for the second half of the book.

I'm really happy with it.  

More books than time.

Spent all day yesterday at the store just putting games away.  Thankfully, Matt was pricing them in-between dealing with customers and we finished with 15 minutes to spare.

Amazingly it all fit.  I spent all the day before yesterday preparing, and then opened up some more room yesterday by moving things around.

Nine very large boxes, full of games.  And yet, when we were done, they had all faded into the background, just more inventory.

Came home and added them up on the invoice -- and sure enough, it was almost exactly 8K worth of product, added to the 3K I got earlier in the week from a different distributor.  I don't know why I bother to check -- my instincts are so good after this many years that I can just look at something and figure out volume and cost.

I got back The Last Fedora from Lara, and other than a few minor changes, it's a complete book.  I like it.  You know, really like it, though I'm not sure how much impact it will have.  It's kind of different, and that's a good thing, right?

I've also got some ideas about rewriting Tuskers III that I want to try out.  A new theory, or trick, or technique, whatever you want to call it, and I'm excited to try it out. I'm going to experiment a little, and if it works, I'll tell you all about it.

And...I've just started The Manic Pixie Dream Girl Murders book, and I really want to write that.

Taking the day and working at the store was the last thing I wanted to do, but I was necessary.

I think I'm going to try my little experiment with Tuskers III first, see if I can't finish it off once and for all, and send it off to Lara.

Then finish up the minor changes to The Last Fedora and see if a publisher wants it.

Then dive into The MPDG Murders book and write it fast, hopefully.

I'm feeling very enthused and energized about my writing, and it's all internal again, because I'm not paying a lot of attention to the outside world right now. Everything seems to be hitting some nexus, all at the same time.  Faerylander is coming back to me soon, too. 

So many books, so little time.

More games than room.

ARRGGHHH!!

I did it again.  My distributor was having a sale so I thought I'd order everything off the list that we didn't have and thought we could use.

Ended up with about 8,000.00 (Retail...) worth of boardgames, roleplaying, card games, and miniatures. 

I started calculating how much space I had in my store and realized I probably can't even display them all!  Stupid, stupid.

Not to mention budget busting.

But I can't resist a good sale.

I spent all day yesterday trying to clear away some room.  This kind of periodic over-ordering has at least one beneficial side-effect: It forces me to move or remove tired product.  It forces me to be creative in how I display things.  It forces me to change the look of the store, which is probably something that should happen once in a while anyway.

It also means I have to work one of my days off.  Just as I was getting some real inspiration on my writing.

Oh, well. The damage is done.  And...it will look kind of cool, and there won't be anyone who can say I've neglected the game part of the store.  

I'm sure books are nothing like that....

I'm halfway through a non-fiction book, Positively 4th Street, by David Hajdu, which is an account of the early folk rock movement.  I was listening to a Joni Mitchell retrospective album (Dreamland) and thought that some of her later songs sounded sort of bitter.  I'd heard something about that so I Googled, "Joni Mitchell/bitter," which opened the floodgates.

She has accused Bob Dylan of being a fake, and not all that talented.  Well, the being "fake" is certainly true, though I don't agree with the latter assertion.

When I saw this book at Linda's store, I snagged it.

It's interesting to me how cutthroat the supposed "non-commercial" folk movement was -- these guys were relentless in their pursuit of bookings and songs and record-deals, the more ruthless the better.

This includes Joan Baez, who doesn't come off as the ethereal angel of her image.  She used Bob Dylan as much as Bob Dylan used her, it seems.

I just get the idea of a bunch of scheming, conniving, back-stabbing, song-stealing, envious, elbows to the head crunching, get off the stage it's my turn, hey, can I be in your recording session (so I can corner the producer?), talented performers ignored and shoved to the side, damn with faint praise, bullshit spinning, make up my past and embellish the present, look at me I'm hot shit, and on and on.

I'm sure books are nothing like that....

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl Murders.

I've started a new book -- The Manic Pixie Dream Girl Murders.  (If you don't know what a MPDG is, you should look it up.  :)

I'm thinking that will probably be the sub-title, not the main title, eventually.  It's not really a comedy, or satire, and I think that's kind of what the title promises.

A funny thing has happened.  I've made a discovery.  Any story that I can come up can be turned into a horror story.  Because everything can be covered by a horror archetype.  Any genre form can be used.

Horror is wide open, as far as I'm concerned.  I'm really liking it.

I had the idea for a murderous MPDG first, then realized it fell right into the idea of a Succubus.  So there it is, a story I can really dig into.

The Last Fedora happened in a similar way.  I had the idea for the main character and how he interacts first, then realized that he was a Golem. 

I wrote a quick 2340 words on the new book, without even trying, so apparently the story wants to be written.  They're the second and third chapters, actually.  I saved up the first chapter, which I pretty much have in my head.  Will write that today.

Oh, I love it when I get an idea that wants to be written!

It will be a challenge.  In a MPDG story the dialogue needs to be clever without being too cute, and I've never felt dialogue is one of my strong points.

I think it is going to need some gentle tweaking.

Tuskers III is done, first draft.

I finally put all the pieces in place.  I'll give it a quick readthru and doodle with it while I'm waiting for Lara to finish The Last Fedora.

I think the basic story is good -- I'm not completely satisfied with the writing, but I think I need some distance there, and letting Lara edit will give me the distance I need, plus, as always, I can hope she'll comes up with magical solutions.

So, by sheer coincidence, I now have three books that are more or less finished at the same time! That is, that if I had to put them out in say, a month, I could.

Faerylander is with Bren, and the original deadline for her edit is the end of the month.  She may have (probably) suggestions that require some work. 

The Last Fedora edit by Lara is supposed to be done within a week or so -- and this one I'm actually ready to send off, with a few adjustments.

And Tuskers III, which needs to be edited by Lara, and could also probably use a fresh look in a month or two.

So I'm actually at a point where I could start a new book, if it's one of the quick ones, with flow.

I always wonder if the idea will be there when I need it.  I do have one idea, which I'll just call, The Manic Pixie Girl Murders, but I won't know how much is there until I start writing it.  I'm going to allow myself to break off from writing a new book if it doesn't flow.  What I like is that it is different, and I think that's what I should shoot for.  Tuskers was a change of direction.  The Last Fedora was a change of direction.  The Manic Pixie Girl Murders would definitely be a change of direction.

Tuskers flowed.  The Last Fedora flowed.

That's the kind of book I want to write, instead of getting bogged down in rewrites.  I think I'm addicted to the "New."

What I don't know yet is whether I'll have a "Flow" book when I want it.

Like...right now.

But, even as I write this, some ideas have started to come to me.  Heh.

Napoleon in Rags.

In rewriting the Napoleon chapters, I've made him a much stronger character.  There's a character-arc for him that wasn't there before, from before he has a name until...well, the ending of the book.  The problem has always been integrating these chapters with the rest of the book, but making the character stronger doesn't make that any harder.  In fact, it justifies having those chapters in there.

I've had some fun inserting a bunch of real Napoleon quotes -- some of which are used all the time without anyone knowing who said them.

I also, rightly or wrongly, went ahead and directly addressed the premise that Tuskers could be a danger to humanity.

As I mentioned before, I could have just left it vague, showed the results.  Instead, I explain how it happens, which weirdly enough might make it even harder to believe.  But once committed to explaining, I needed to make it as reasonable as I could.

I was up to the Tuskers III F version last night. (Which means I've had full versions of III A - E already.)  I was really tangled up and blue, trying to fit the "best" elements of each version.  So much so that version E had three completely newly written chapters.  But then I went back and tried to insert the best parts of A - D, and messed it up.

So I drank a little wine...and smushed them together as best I could, making snap decisions as a went along.  Under the "Do something even if it's wrong" method.  (I did keep the earlier versions...just in case.)

Today I'm going to look at the results, which may be a drunken mess but which I'm hoping will be a blueprint version to work from. 

I'm hoping I've got the right versions in the right places.  There may be a little chapter moving -- which is always a hard thing to do -- but I think I need to commit to a version and just work on making it better.

I have two small scenes I need to write to complete the story. I have a major plot change I have to address.

I should have all the story-elements in place by the end of today, and then I can concentrate on the writing. (Which was supposed to be this week, but which I decided to delay in order to work on the Napoleon chapters.) 

I like the story.  I feel like it's complete in itself...and carries on from the previous books...and also sets-up for the next book.

Which is what it is supposed to do.

$15 Minimum wage.

I won't lie. It would hurt.  I might even have to moderate hours, or work more myself.  I also admit that I have ambivalent feelings and am willing to listen to reasonable arguments.

But I think it would be a good thing.  (I can tell you that every other small business owner in town is now cursing me.)

If it is done in stages, I think it might work.

I don't want to be all NIMBY about it, but it might be better if it was applied to larger businesses -- say, any business with more than 5 employees.  But I can see how that might have unintended consequences.

I also wonder if there couldn't be a six month probation period -- but again, I can see how that would have unintended consequences.  (Firing employees every six months...)

I haven't read the article in the Bulletin yet, because I wanted this to be my own response.  But one suggestion would to have some tax breaks for smaller businesses -- under the theory that the state would collect more taxes from the employees.

I've been trying to give my own employees periodic raises -- so that, if they are still with me in a year or so, they will be either at, or close to the 15.00 an hour.  These are good, experienced employees -- and business is currently good, so I can do it.

I have to say -- I like the idea of me rewarding my employees, rather than it being mandated.

There were many times in my business when I couldn't have come close to paying those wages -- but those were also the times when I worked most of the hours myself anyway.

There are some in-between times when I held onto employees or was adding employees, where such a wage increase would be problematic.

I can tell you one thing -- I would expect more from my employees.  No just babysitting the cash-register. Frankly, employees would have to up their game.  No more hanging onto marginal employees.

And it would need to be strictly enforced.  No more competing businesses where the employees are "volunteering." As long as everyone has the same standards, it would all shake itself out.

Over time, the 15.00 would become part of the system.  There might be some fallout at first, but in the end, when everything is said and done, those that work might be better employees, and the businesses better businesses.

I don't know.

It will be hard for very small Mom and Pops.  But if Walmart and McDonald's are forced to pay those wages, it might end up coming back into the coffers of the small businesses.  Theoretically.  (It's a bit like trickle down, but probably more valid.)

Here's the thing.  I'm not totally sure about this.  I could be wrong.  And if I'm wrong, it could have disastrous consequences.  It would have to be done wisely.  My feeling is that any business starting at today's wages, given a two or three year warning, would either be viable at the end of that period or not viable.  Any business that tries to start would know what they need to do to make it.

It's very possible it would be a situation of two steps back and three steps forward.  The short-term results might look scary, but I think in the long run, it would be beneficial.  Especially if the rest of the country follows suit.

It will be interesting to see the results in Seattle and San Francisco. 

I have a feeling it wouldn't be as harmful as it might appear on the surface.  But I could be wrong.

Usually, I'd say when it doubt, leave it alone.  But the wage stagflation and wealth distribution in this country is so fucked up, I think some bold steps need to be taken.

Finally, I am saying this because my business is mature.  I've gotten over the start-up mistakes and the stupid mistakes and the bubbles and become established.

I might have had a very different response 15 years ago, and I think everyone should listen very carefully to those small businesses who are where I was at 15 years ago.  I don't want to be that guy -- I've made it, so now I'm imposing these standards on people who are still struggling to make it.

So...I am open to opposing opinions.

On equal footing (or hoofing.)

I wrote the first new Napoleon chapter.

I didn't refer to any of the previously written material, though it obviously contains some of the same events.  I was much more direct, and much more conscious of trying to create a strong character.

I think this is a much better approach.  Harder to pull off, but if I can do it, will make the book.

For one thing, I'm pretty much sticking it right out there in front:  This is the premise -- this is why I think the premise works.  The reader can decide right up front whether or not they buy the premise.

Sometimes I think events are better off not explained. That is, the explanation only makes it less believable.

So I can postulate a wild pig apocalypse (Aporkcalypse) and just ask the reader to believe it.  That worked OK for the first book, when it was an isolated valley with humans who didn't know what was coming.  (Though I was surprised by how many people seemed to think the idea unbelievable.)

It was even OK with the second book, where the Tuskers are in hiding.

But by the third book, I needed to establish why Tuskers were a danger to all humanity -- and risk that the reader doesn't buy the premise.  I started that in the second book.

So the basic idea is:  The Tuskers are super smart and are quickly learning all the human tricks, and they are breeding exponentially and infiltrating every part of the continent.  They have built The Machine, which is capable of creating such a strong EMP that it destroys everything connected to the electrical grid.  Human civilization falls apart.

Meanwhile, a zombie plague has unintentionally been loosed upon both humans and Tuskers. Also, Tuskers can control other species, adding to their numbers.

So Tuskers and humans are both struggling to survive, and are on equal footing (or hoofing.)

I don't know.  I don't see why this is any more wild or less believable than a thousand other Apocalyptic stories...

So I'm all in.  My job is to introduce all this information in an interesting way, slowly convince the reader that it could actually happen.

Looking forward to a rewrite.

Looking forward to a rewrite is very unusual for me.  I don't much like rewrites.

But in this case, I think I have a chance to make the book much stronger without risking the existing material. 

Basically, I have two story lines -- the human POV characters and the Tuskers POV characters.  I interweave the two plots, but they are connected more thematically than sequentially for most of the book until they come up against each other in the final clash.

When I say Tuskers POV, I mean a character named Napoleon.

I really want to start over with him.  I have more of a character journey for him in mind now; a specific point of view.  I'd like to write him as a very distinct character. 

If I can do this, it will make the book much better.

I may get started and find myself over my head, but I'm eager to try.  I'm going to spend a fair amount of time just thinking about it, which is unusual for me -- but in this case, I have most of the book done so that overwhelming prospect is out of the way, allowing me to really bear down on this one aspect.

I really want Napoleon to come alive.

When re-writing becomes re-doing.

Started the rewrite of Tuskers III and realized I just don't like the first three chapters of one of the story arcs -- Napoleon's.

I tried rearranging and fixing, and it was just a quagmire.

So what I'm going to do is simply rewrite them, plus bring in a fourth chapter.

Easy, right?

heh.

But really, other than those chapters, the rest of the book works and I don't want these three chapters to drag down the other 24 chapters, you know?  So better just to rethink it.

I knew they were a problem as I was writing, but carried on and finished, which I think was the right thing to do.  I'm much more clear about what these chapters need to accomplish now. 

Writing fresh material is easier sometimes than trying to fix old material.

Re-writing is too open ended.

I think I've figured out why I don't like rewriting.

It's open-ended.  It never stops.  There is always something to fix.

When I write a first draft, the book is done.  It's right there in front of me.

A re-write?  When is that finished?

I've decided that I need to treat the rewrite the same way I do the first draft.  Set a goal of how many words to work on per day, go through them one by one, and have them finished in a finite amount of time.

No matter how much I try to convince myself it's fun, it isn't.  It's work.

But it is undeniably necessary.

So I just need to buckle down and do it.  A good stiff rewrite.  Get it done.

Finished Tuskers III

Finished Tuskers III.  Such a satisfying feeling.

I finished a couple of days early.  Got on a bit of a roll the last couple of days, finished strong.

I had to change things around a lot while writing this book because I wanted the ending to be strong.  So it's very gratifying that it actually worked.  Hopefully, all this preparation will make the series climax all that much stronger too. 

I had some doubts while I was doing it.  It would have been easier just to go with what I had before.  But I knew that the ending wouldn't be as consequential as it needed to be.  Okay, but not great.  I'm not saying the ending will now be great, but I've given it a chance to be.

I'm stretching myself here -- taking some risk.  Maybe everyone will get tired of the story long before it finishes, which could be embarrassing.

But the story will exist.  It's the story in my head, and in the end, that's the most important thing to me as a writer. 

I liked the ending so much, especially since it was what I set out to do, that I think I should just go ahead and work on Tuskers IV next.  I hadn't planned on doing that, but now I'm curious to see where the story goes.

That's a good sign.

I can now also see how the book could be five books.  Because of the ending.  All the writing is preparation for the ending, which shouldn't be rushed.

A little delayed gratification.

Somehow these pigs have gotten into my head.  Especially considering I barely went into their POV in the first book, and had great trepidation about doing it in the second book.  By the third book, they've become even more important, and by the fourth book...who knows?

Plus, if I do end up at five books, you'd have to say this is my magnum opus so far.  I never expected my humble little pig story, that I wrote for fun, to take over like this.

Finishing Forgives All Two.

If I had any advice for beginning writers it would be to finish.

An unfinished book is an albatross around your neck, a stinking reminder of things left undone.  No matter how bad or good a book is, finish it! 

There is such a sense of satisfaction in finishing that it motivates you to continue writing.  You've climbed that mountain.  Doesn't matter how fast or how polished you were doing it. You're on the peak and no one can take that away from you.

You've learned you can do it.  Which means you can do it again.

It made you stronger, you learned some techniques which you can use the next time.  And when you finish the next book, that is even more true.  Finishing means you can look back on the process and analyze what you did right and what you did wrong. It wasn't wasted, no matter if you have witnesses to your achievement.  You know you did it, and that's enough.

Even if you don't think the book is good, finishing means you have something to work on.  You can try to make it better, or you can move on to the next book.  I have several books in what I call "storage":  that is, finished, but not ready for prime-time.  Someday, I'll get back to them, and fix them, and they'll be truly done.  But I had to finish them first.

Finishing the book makes you a writer.  Not finishing means you want to be a writer.  Finishing means you're serious.  Finishing is validation for all the work. 

I can't imagine putting all the work into a book, and getting halfway or two thirds of the way and not finishing.  All that work!  For nothing!

Actually, I can imagine it, because I used to do that, and yes, it was extremely dispiriting, demotivating.  Nothing like spending days and days on something with no result. Yeah, you pretty much don't want to do that again.  Your life was held at abeyance while you wrote, but you have nothing to show for it.

So, finish the book all you writers.

Finishing forgives all.

I'm very near the end of the first draft of Tuskers III.  Should have it done by Wednesday.

I'm right on schedule, though it felt at times like I wasn't making any progress.  None of this book was easy.  I spent many hours just sitting or lying there, trying to come up with the first sentence of a scene. It felt like I was wasting a huge amount of time.

But finishing forgives all.  Finishing means it was worth it.  Finishing means it wasn't wasted.

I think it's a worthy addition to the storyline.  It's probably the least conclusive of the first three books in that it is a set up for the final climax of the next book(s).  A matter of getting the characters in deeper and deeper trouble.

In other words, a third act in a four or five act play.

I've decided I will finish the story in four books, instead of five -- if I can.  If, in writing the fourth book, I find that the story needs to be continued, then I'll do that.

The hardest part of writing a long story like this is to come up with a satisfying conclusion.  The reason I'm writing this as a four or five part story is because anything less would feel rushed and wouldn't have a final payoff worthy of the story.

I realized the thematic arc of this story required that I spin two plotlines per book, instead of trying three plotlines, so that it will be less confusing to the reader.  So, in a sense, I'm simplifying by adding, if that makes any sense.  Two plotlines each for two books, instead of three plotlines for one book.

Book III is going to require a good stiff rewrite, but I can do that.  For example, I wrote a chapter yesterday that was very unsatisfying.  I went back, added in what I thought was missing, and when I was done, the chapter felt firm, it felt good.  I just need to do that to the entire book.

"Progress through constant addition..."

Reading a puff piece on Game of Thrones this morning and this sentence leaped out at me.  It describes George R.R. Martin's process as "progress through constant addition."  I think this is kind of a brilliant insight.  Obvious, once you think about it.

Anyway, I recognize it, because I believe "progress through constant addition" is what happens when you write a series of books with one over-arching storyline.  It keeps the actions fresh and interesting.  It makes the plot complex and demanding.  It introduces new characters to root for or against...

And frankly, it is easier to write new stuff than to try to wrestle older plotlines and characters into interesting situations. 

It also contains the constant danger of writing yourself into a corner.  Personally, I think Martin let his plot get out of control.  Feast of Crows just wasn't as satisfying as the first three books.  (I haven't read Dance with Dragons.) 

I found that with each of my own books, I like to have a fresh slate of characters.  In the end, they interact with the characters of previous books.  It's a really tough thing to pull off.  So tough that I've decided to avoid it from now on.

I can write single books.  I can write single books within a series.  But I don't want to write a single story over a series of books again in the near future. 

Part of it is process.  I can pretty much wing a single book -- the plot usually comes to me, and yet I can also veer off where inspiration takes me -- and contain the whole story in my head.  I love doing that.

Writing a single story over more than one book -- usually, for me, a trilogy -- takes much more planning.  By mid-way through the second book, I really pretty much need to know where the third book is going.  Since I prefer to discover my plots while doing them, this can be a problem.

I mean, I've learned to do what's necessary.  The first two Tuskers books came easily, but by the time I introduced a whole new cast of characters in the third book, I realized that the plot had gotten too big to wrap up in the third book without getting too complicated.

It may sound strange to say, but adding a fourth book actually simplifies the process.  Progress through addition, if you will.  I couldn't both introduce three different groups in one book and wrap it up at the same time.  Too confusing.

Separating the process into having two plotlines per book, establishing them all, means that in the fourth book I can take already established characters and finally bring them together.

I have a sort of thematic structure in mind.  I have two groups who are at polar opposites; basically, the humans versus the Tuskers.  But originally, in the third book, I introduced a third group, in the middle, a group of Tuskers and humans together.  They're basically the good guys.

So I changed it: in the third book I took out the third group, and instead wrote about the extreme polarization of the Tuskers versus the humans. 

It requires a fourth book to establish the third group,  and then bring all these groups together for the final confrontation.

It's fine.  It's just a lot more work.