I’m an Indie author. That means I make all the decisions from characters to plot to the endings of my books and when they will be published. I have a whiteboard that I use to keep track of a year’s work/publishing schedule. When I get behind or have to erase and change the dates, it makes me edgy and angry. I like to stay on schedule.
I knew the move I made in March would mess up my schedule. I made concessions for it on my whiteboard. Fast forward to June when I had expected to have a good chunk of the next Cuddle Farm book written and I was slogging in indecision.
From the moment I finished book 1, Merry Merry Merry Murder, I knew what book 2 would be about. I’d run some scenes in my head and had already researched what I needed to know. I started the book, but it wasn’t flowing. Things didn’t feel right.
I took a break and went to a play with my daughter in an opera house built in 1912. I fell in love with the building and the ambiance, and then my height-conscious daughter walked along the balcony railing and was scared. The railing didn’t come to her knees, and the balcony felt as if it were pitching you forward onto the stage.
After that visit, I couldn’t stop thinking about that opera house. A story was forming in my mind and I had to go back. I bought tickets to the next play and dragged my daughter along again. The play was good, I paid more attention to the stage, the exits, and the short railing. When the play finished, we waited for everyone to leave the balcony and I did some experimenting and then we went down and I took pictures of the balcony from the stage. I wanted one for the cover the next Cuddle Farm book.
Yes, I set the book I’d been working on aside, realizing I needed more time (another book) in between book 1 and the book I’d been writing. It has to do with the discord between the main character and her sister. I wanted to show a bit of a change there before, what is now book 3, is written since it deals with the reason for the discord.
Back to my switching books. Because what had started out as book 2 was now book 3, and I had been brewing that story in my head for almost a year, I was switching to a book I hadn’t even thought of until 4 months ago. As I’d glance up at my whiteboard and see the looming date for the release of book 2 in the Cuddle Farm mysteries and I was still trying to pull all the suspects, the motive, and everything else into place so I could start writing it, my tension grew that I was going to miss the publish date and it would throw off all of the release dates through the rest of this year.
When I was complaining to a friend, she asked me, “But will it be a better book for the series if you write it now?”
My answer was yes.
“Then that’s the book you need to write and move the other publish dates out. They aren’t made in stone.”
Oh, but they are chiseled in my head. My greatest flaw is my greatest strength. I don’t like to be late for ANYTHING. It makes me nervous when I think I’m going to be late. I purposely give myself extra time for everything. And I had for book 2 in the Cuddle Farm Mysteries. But I had to wipe off my whiteboard and redesignate publish dates for this book, the next Spotted Pony Casino book, and the next Gabriel Hawke book. I wasn’t happy, and it made my stomach twist as I erased the dates and reset them.
However, this is going to be a good book and will hopefully pull more readers into this series. It also gives me more time to decide the direction I’m going with the next Spotted Pony Casino book. I’ve been back and forth on how to approach it, and hopefully by the time I am ready to start, I’ll have that story ready to rock and roll.
Ladies of Mystery 
I actually enjoy it when a new idea pushes out a planned book. It’s kind of fun to be rethinking what you thought you knew was going to happen.
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Nancy, I love it when I get a book idea, just not when I was already behind schedule and hadn’t had time to brew it in my mind for very long!
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Paty, I love the phrase, your greatest flaw is your greatest strength. And if I have this right, you try to release at least three books a year (and the ones I’ve read are winners, too)! I toyed with the idea of getting a whiteboard after reading this post, but just the thought of it makes me nervous. I guess what works for one writer doesn’t necessarily work for another. But it seems to me that by re-routing your plans a little, it will mean more success for you. By the way, those low theater balconies are really scary. Sometimes I lose my footing trying to crawl over people and imagine a very quick trip to orchestra.
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Yes, I write three to four books a year depending on how hectic my life is. It’s funny how each person has their own way of keeping track of things. I love the whiteboard. I look at it every day when I start writing. When I’m on target with my production it makes me smile. I like where this book is headed.
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I’ve been in theaters like the one you mentioned, and I too feel like I’m going to pitch over the railing onto the people and seats below. You’ve definitely got a great setting for your book. As for your white board, I think I’d find it too intimidating, reminding me every time I looked at it that I’m behind (because I would be) and no way can I catch up. But I loved how you worked through the time and writing challenges.
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Susan, I loved the idea of a murder at the opera house as soon as I felt tipsy in the balcony. Funny how things enter a writer’s head. That’s why were are so many different books and genres out there. If every writer wrote the same way or the same book, life would be boring!
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