Stuck

The plan is not working. I got stuck with Beatrice. Things were happening too quickly. I needed more tension, more material. And Aster, a character I thought would show up in book 3 was bright in my mind, like sunshine blinding me.

I thought,
Maybe it's not two more books. Maybe it's just one. Maybe Aster is in this one.

So I started writing parallel plots with Beatrice and Aster. But things still happened too fast. The path feels too straight. I need to make a list of the top ten worst things that can happen to these characters and then do that. Maybe.

I thought,
I know what I need! More parallel plot lines.

So I added Peter, who is a Jasper Industries drone. But he's boring and, once again, things happened too quickly. I need a little teeny bit of establishing stakes and story conflict setup. And yet, I try so hard to start at the beginning. It's a balancing act.

I thought,
I know! I need to fill out a Basic Beat Sheet. That will focus me.

So I tried to do that but I realized with three parallel plot lines I essentially needed to fill out the worksheet three times. Then I mentally cried for a while.

I'm still not entirely sure where this is going. And even my super rough pantser outline is falling apart. Characters that I thought would become a couple aren't very compatible. And my new NaNoWriMo idea keeps butting in.

I'm a little lost. Usually it's easier than this to find my way out. This time, I can't even seem to find my way in.

I May Have Lost My Mind

Okay, so I didn't really mean to start writing the Baker's sequel. It just happened.

I'm still working on Miraculous Conception. I did mean to take a little break from Miraculous. I need a little space from the manuscript so I can see it with new eyes before I get into rewrites. I also need a little space from it so that I haven't memorized and fallen in love with every word on the page so I can hear what my betas have to say without dying inside. 

I meant to take a break on this book but I didn't mean to write another one. But, like they do, the words just showed up. And I just wrote them down. I thought, "Okay, I have the opening scene. But that's all I'm going to write." And then more words showed up and I wrote those down, too. Now I just can't stop.

I thought I might save the sequel for NaNoWriMo but I've completely lost my mind and instead I'm thinking that I'll write a first draft of book 2 during these two months I gave the betas to work on Miraculous. And then for NaNoWriMo I can hammer out book 3.

Is this the worst idea I've ever had or 
THE BEST IDEA IN THE HISTORY OF IDEAS!?!?!

Part of my mania is fueled by the fact that for the 3 days The Baker's Memory was free on Kindle there were 834 downloads. Normally the scale of my royalty reports is one to five. It took me a moment to realize that the scale was in hundreds. Hundreds.

834 downloads in 3 days. 

That's a lot of new readers. A lot of new readers who need a sequel.

The Baker's Memory Sequel

Pretty much the moment the first person finished reading The Baker's Memory they asked me if there would be a sequel. I said, "Well, I think I shut the door on that one." Or I'd tell people that I always imagined it as a stand alone book. Or, if you were really lucky I went into a rant about how I hate series. If you read one book, you're really committing to reading 7 books. I really hate series that you read while they're being written because you have to wait. Sometimes the time between books is excruciating and sometimes you're not even interested in them anymore but you're committed because you read one so you keep reading them. And, if the series is long enough, you end up with those bridge books that just set up the next book and you feel cheated.

But then Husband finished the book and said, "You have to write a sequel."

I said, "No. I shut the door on that option. Plus, I hate series."

He said, "You have to write a sequel and here's how you can do it."

Interestingly, he had a different interpretation of some key events as well as a different timeline in his head. And you know what? In his interpretation and with his timeline a sequel is completely possible.

So I said, "Fine, but it's still not a series. It'll just be two books."

I started working on a story about Beatrice, the woman from the epilogue. But the more I thought about Bea, the more it became clear to me that there had to be at least three books. There was too much for just two books. I was already seeing things beyond Bea. In fact, I was already thinking about Elle in book three who is covered in botanical tattoos and then I spent way too long on Pinterest looking at black and white botanical tattoos, which totally counts as writing.

What I'm trying to say is this:

There will be at least two more books in the Baker's series.