WIP It!

After a 3-week reprieve from my Work In Progress, I’m back. I must say, it’s refreshing to see it again. Even though it needs a lot of work—I’ll repeat that: A LOT OF WORK—I’m enjoying seeing my characters again. There’s so much I had forgotten and much more that I can’t believe is on the pages—that’s a good thing.

During my time away from my WIP, I polished up On Fallen Wings, sent out a couple queries, researched, and took some time to think about where I want this story to go. In my head, I have four books, based on the current story and characters, outlined, making this a series. On paper, I have three books outlined.

I’ve noticed quite a few writers who create stories, titles, and even trilogy names before finishing, or even starting, their books. I’m jealous of that. While I’m good at planning, I’m horrible at names—I’m worse at naming books. It took so long for me to finally come up with On Fallen Wings that I’m struggling with a sequel title to match the tone. I’ve also thought of adding a series name to the titles, but the one I’ve chosen creates a huge dilemma—it gives too much away.

I’ve also thought a lot about the genre of my books. I originally wrote them as YA, with fantasy elements; however, the YA market seems to lean more toward current stories about high school kids experiencing paranormal or fantastic events—hence the name of the genre. While my characters are high school aged, they aren’t current. They don’t live in New York City, or attend the local High School, or didn’t just move to a new town; they live, breathe, and die in a place very far from what we know. My story is fantasy. It’s not high fantasy, it’s not epic, just fantasy. It’s about Faeries.

So, while my mind struggles with names and genres, I continue editing my WIP. Still unnamed, still needing work, and still needing a home, it keeps me occupied and engaged. I love this journey and, while I strain to solve some elemental problems about publishing, I’m still working hard, hoping to give you all a fantastic adventure to read soon.

In the meantime, I thought I would share a little link to an 80s band that didn’t do so much. They are the inspiration to the title of this post. Please enjoy the You Tube video by DEVO.