Big Plans

So, as I've already mentioned, I've turned in my first round of edits to my editor as well as have submitted my cover art form to my publisher. While waiting to hear back about those, I've been trying to tackle another story or two for the expanded idea of the Naughty Nursery Rhyme line. My initial goal was to write a story based on either Little Red Riding Hood or Beauty and the Beast since I knew I wanted to write stories based on both fairytales. Unfortunately, I found myself coming up against a block. I had real life frustrations interrupting my time, making it hard to concentrate and just... write.

As a result, I took some advice and took a step back. The new plan being that I tackle a small amount at a time. If that meant outlining the characters or a bit of the plot, so be it. The writing would come more easily once those little details were worked out making me more efficient with my time when I actually had some.

Oh my did this ever work!

Now I find myself tackling what looks like it'll be a six book series! Never did I expect such a thing to occur when I started this outlining process. But, for whatever reasons that be, it is indeed what happened. At first I went with the story that seemed a bit more prominent in my thoughts and that happened to be Beauty and the Beast. So, I started to outline the characters for that. Just some rough ideas since I wanted to keep artistic freedom alive and well for when the actual story writing is to occur. Anyhow, in doing that, the story itself bloomed. And not just for one story, but for five additional stories. This was partially due to the setting I envisioned for my first fairytale-based book. I've no doubt about that. Anyhow, in the end, each book in the series will focus on a very particular fairytale. However, all the books together will be a singular story revolving around various character arcs. Never did I expect this to happen, but now I find myself facing it full on and loving it.

At present, I've worked out a rough idea of all the characters involved. Who they are, how they affect each other and the story (both in the individual stories as well as the series overall), what pairings will occur, etc. I've even started writing out some basic plot summaries for the books so that I can keep track of the core essence of what I'd like to see occur in each book (and thus my take on each fairytale) as the series progresses. Right now, I have a decent idea on how the first three books will go and interweave and build upon each other. And, I have to say, I'm pretty happy with how that's going. Yet again, I'm still leaving room for artistic freedom and I fully expect changes to occur here and there. But tackling this project as I have has allowed my creative juices to flow and come up with a base for the series as well as a means to tweak along accordingly, should I have to, so that I can keep any inconsistencies down to nil and make the entire thing flow as it should.

Yes, I'm very excited and happy and eager to actually start writing the stories themselves. I can already tell that this is going to be a fun project, though daunting. However, by taking all of these steps, I think it's helping to make this whole plan more manageable and less scary. A good thing indeed. That said, back to working on my series! :)