Saturday, June 20, 2009

writing the second book in a trilogy - I'm on a learning curve

So, I've written the first 11,000 words of Bloodlines and I was reasonably happy with how it was going (though it was slow) only to hear back from my agent challenging me as to my starting point.

I checked with the babes and they're with him.

Dani said: Mrs Roxborogh, you’ve got to put Banquo’s Son to bed, turn your back and start a new novel because this is a new story.

Imogen said: think of it like you did with Shakespeare’s Macbeth: some of the same characters but this has to have its own story.

Laura said: just as you fed in bits of Macbeth into Banquo’s Son, you can do this with Bloodlines – but, look forward not back.

Aren’t they clever? Aren’t I lucky?
They are absoultley right.

Years ago, I wrote a 'sequel' to my first novel but you didn't need that to read the first book to appreciate the next one. The story and the character telling the story was strong enough to not depend on anything that went before.

I get what all are saying: Fleance has moved onto another period in his life. What happens in this book is a 'story' of it's own. I should not treat it as an extension to the first book.

All good. I have the two books mapped out but I understand that, for each, there are separate stories to be told.

I look forward to reshaping what I've already done and going forward.

On another note: Book launches for Banquo's Son are booked for Dunedin (Thursday, Sept 24th) and Auckland (Saturday,10th of October)

More soon

2 comments:

Kato said...

Ha take that Auckland! the smaller (and colder) city gets the first look at the book ( was going to put "LOL IT'S RHYME TIME!" here but it was too cheesy and i didn't want people geting cracker crumbs all over their keyboards.)

Fiona Mackie said...

So want to catch up with you when you're in Auckland (if possible), and am impatiently waiting to devour Banquo's son! I've added it to my wish list on my Library Thing account (fabfic-terrificteens), and am pre-ordering copies today!