So, the first book of The Nexus is out in the world, doing its thing. It’s only book one at this point but, other than final editing and polishing, all nine books of The Nexus: Season One are done. This means I’ve recently moved on to writing the next thing.
And it’s… hard.
I’ve spent a year in Arcanum, more in-the-zone than I think I’ve ever been with a project. It’s my favorite thing I’ve ever written. I wrote nine books in just under thirteen months. And sure, they’re novellas, but even so, all nine books combined add up to a quarter of a million words. If I could just plow straight on into Season Two, I’m ready to go. But I have a whole other fictional world to tend, and it’s just not time for that yet.
The thing is, the project I’ve returned to, a Barrow City series called Widdershins, was my favorite thing before the Nexus came along. I’m only just now writing a version of it that I’ll be proud to publish, but this group of characters and their stories have been with me for ages. They’re the oldest thing in my BC world, and this is actually the series where I first had the idea of doing a season/episode format with linked novellas. Returning to this series should feel like coming home. It seems like it should be easy. But it’s not.
I think part of the problem is that I’d written the first two and ¾ episodes before wandering off to other projects, so right now what I’m doing is more of a very forced second draft. Maybe once I get to actual new stories it’ll feel less like trying to put toothpaste back into a tube. I think I expected these first three episodes to fly because they were already mostly written, but it’s actually been more like they’re fighting back. (Or, I should say “it” not “they,” because I’m still on freaking episode one!)
But I’m hopeful, and I’m confident I’ll get back in the groove. I’m not positive this will ever flow quite as easily as The Nexus did, but I’ll be one of my favorites again, very soon. I have to get through it, and I have to do it justice, so I can finally share it with all of you!
And, on that note, I need to get back to it!
Thanks for visiting!
