So I've now reread and fussed with chapters 16-21 of my WIP, plus all the notes I scribbled along the way, and it's become even clearer to me that I've just about completed the second book in a trilogy. Merde. I've suspected this for some time, but stepping away from it for a month and a half really crystalized things.
It will be a standalone when it's done, with it's own independent story arc, but it still contains references to what happens in book one and book three. Difficult to cut them out without ruining the story arc of this book. Some of it's just clumsy first draft writing and I can probably smooth things out there, but other things are necessary.
How do I market it? Do I circle back and write the first one and leave this on the back burner, or do I market this by itself? I don't know. It's a contemporary story, as is book three, but book one takes place in the early nineteenth century. That would seem to make book one less marketable, but what do I know? I've thought that I could even leave the chronologically first book until last, or make that the second book. That might work. I guess the bottom line is that I need to finish what I'm working on now and figure out where I'm going once that's done.
The double merde aspect of this is that Venus is the third novel I've written in a row that's part of a trilogy. Apparently my imagination is incapable of plotting without S-W-E-E-P.
If I'm honest, all five of the novels I've completed, even the allegedly standalone ones, have been part of some grander schemata. Now here's a sixth. Triple merde.
The other thing? My title may have gone south on me, too. It sort of fits, but I'm realizing I'm going to have to gut many of the references earlier in the book. They just don't fit anymore. Quadruple merde.
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