One of the reasons I love National Novel Writing Month is because I get to start with a blank slate. I love typing those first words on an empty page. I love the potential of a story. I love the thrill of discovery. But once those words are on the page they need to be edited and rewritten until they are polished and ready for the world.
I was glancing at my goal list for 2014 and I noticed that all of my current projects are in the editing stage right now. With the exception of my blogs I am not writing many words each day. I am enjoying the research and enduring the editing needed to polish my current projects but I miss the thrill of writing a new story. So it is time to start again.
I thought long and hard about what project to start and as usual it quickly grew into a series. I have a first draft mystery from the 2009 Nanowrimo (I wrote 100,000 words that November) but I have not looked at it since then. I was considering mystery niches to write in and two came to mind. While one person could fill these niches I wanted to explore them separately. I then thought back to what I call my “wandering mystery” and realized I had a connection. Instead of writing one mystery series I will write three.
Three series about three sisters. One has had great tragedy in her life and prefers to wander by herself. One is an overbearing busybody who wants to mother everyone, but especially her loner sister. If it wasn’t for her running habit she’d drive everyone insane. And the third sister will be a fossil preparer. (Dinosaurs!) She is a widow and content to let everyone be who they want to be. She minds her own business until she is forced to get involved.
I know a lot about the wandering sister, a little about the mothering sister, and nothing about the content sister. But now that they exist in my mind I think about them a lot. Book one is obviously in the editing stage but I am eager to write book two and see who these women are. This is not a short term idea and has to be balanced with my editing and short story projects but with luck it will be something I can send to the big boys (I mean NY agents.) I can’t wait to find out.
“Murder mysteries are puzzles that are fun to resolve.” Kathy Reichs (creator of Bones)