Re-reading the Singed Series
Most would assume there would be no need for me to re-read the series since I just published Bitter Secrets 6 months ago. You’d think everything would be right at the forefront of my mind. But, since I’ve published, I’ve dabbled in close to a dozen stories, including delving into the Crime Lord Series, so a refresher is definitely necessary.
Re-reading your work is always interesting… and stressful. I don’t enjoy it because there’s always stuff I want to change, take out, or add back in. 6 months ago, I was proud and content. Today, if I had my way, I’d do a major overhaul, which tells me just in that short amount of time, I’ve changed. I’ve always considered books to be snapshots of who I am at that moment, and that’s held true for Bitter Secrets.
I’ve spent the past two weeks re-reading Bitter Heat and Bitter Secrets and creating an encyclopedia of notes, so I can keep everything straight in my mind—locations, characters, dialogue on important topics such as blackmail… This process takes forever, but I know it’ll be invaluable to find the information I need with just a few clicks.
Also, it forces me to dissect the story into separate storylines that all have their own arc, such as:
The same goes with the relationships between all the characters, which will evolve throughout the series:
Although annoying and tedious, I know this will help when writing the other books because all I need to do is pull up the files on those characters' interactions instead of finding them in each book. Also, there’s always tiny references that we authors tend to forget, that a reader points out later that absolutely mortify us. This may still happen to me in the future, but I hope the probability will be less likely with these extensive notes.
Bitter Confessions
It took me longer than I expected to re-read the first two books. I decided to switch from the Crime Lord Series back to Singed, but my mind and creativity were already entrenched in Crime Lord, so pivoting took some time. I’m not one who can work on multiple projects at once. I have a one track mind and obsess about one thing and one thing only. I think most authors also like variety, so switching to a different project is always more attractive than something you just finished.
Nevertheless, I pushed through and took insane notes and… I can now write book 3! Yoo-hoo! I wrote a bit of Bitter Confessions some time ago. The rough draft is at 76k words, but it’s mostly unfinished scenes and ideas that aren’t connected yet. I never committed to a storyline/direction, since Bitter Secrets hadn’t been finalized. Now that it has, I have pages of possible routes I can take the story. I think I’ll spend a week tossing around ideas. I call this sketching. Just as an artist starts in light pencil for a drawing, I sketch an outline of what the story could be. And if I get stuck during the process, I can always refer to my extensive list of ideas and select something that fits better. I never follow my outlines to the tee (they’re constantly evolving), but they can definitely streamline the writing process when you get lost.
I believe book 3 will be the longest in the series. Bitter Heat was the intro to the characters, Bitter Secrets cemented the world and revealed the complexities in their relationships with one another. Book 3 & 4 is where I get to go off the rails and have fun! I’ve had scenes in my mind for years that I can finally execute. I’m fucking giddy! Knowing that I can finally connect the dots and finish all these fragmented scenes made it hard for me to go to sleep last night. My fingers ached for a pen and paper at 1am, even though I had to get up in a few hours.
Book 3 ends on a cliffy, which makes me wonder if I’m going to write books 3 & 4 back to back. Both books have deadlines, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to do that. But, I may need a break from Roth and Jasmine by the end of Bitter Confessions, so we’ll see when I get to that point.
I’m giving myself about 3 months to do a rough draft on book 3. I’ll be documenting my progress on here, like I have in the past. I’m super excited to be at this point where I have no other tasks but to write—my favorite thing! My only detriment is my arms ache when I work too much so I force myself to stop and exercise or do something else for a couple of hours.
Roth and Jasmine are one of my favorite couples ever. I deliberately forced myself to slow down, to let the scenes and relationships play out and not force anything and now… I get to use all that buildup to write the last 2 books in the series, which I consider a downhill battle. There will still be challenges, but the stage is set, the actors are in place… All you have to do is let them carry out the final acts. It’s going to be glorious! I think when you’re writing a series you’re so used to holding back secrets, motivations, plot twists… But knowing I finally get to show my cards makes me feel euphoric. Years of planning and work finally get to play out on the page. I’m beyond excited!
And on that note… I’m going back to work. I just wanted to update you all on where I’m at. I hope you’re having a great weekend. Wish me luck!