SWC Day 21: The Development of a Series

Well I'm back on track with my Summer Writing Challenge - at least for today. My goal was 55,176 (including the extra 900 word add-on from yesterday) and I got to 55,178. SUCCESS! And as usual, my time writing is surprising me in unexpected ways.

You see the interesting thing is that ANDREW, the book I'm working on, has become much more about his mother than I expected. Yes, the book is still Andrew's story, but an important part of it is how his mother deals with the issues arising in the book. I can't say much more without giving away major plot points.

However, I've said it before and I'll say it again - THE ROLLINS PACK is about women and family. Despite it being told from the perspective of teenage boys, it is fundamentally about the interplay of gender roles and expectations/interactions of men and women. Secondly it is about problems that affect families, as well as how families deal with them (though always through the lens of women and men).

I'm interested to see how Andrew's relationship with his love interest will develop, or not, in the remainder of the book. There is of course, no mention of her in JAMES as I didn't know she existed until now. The question will be how she disappears and if she comes back in subsequent novels (namely Frederick's and Charles' books). However, those books and their plots will have to wait until much later. There are other things on the docket requiring earlier attention that will postpone these two manuscripts' development. That said, I am hopeful I can bring them out by this time next year. We'll see. NaNoWriMO is only a couple months after kiddo is set to arrive, so I'm not sure how much writing I'll be able to accomplish at that point.

Regardless, I have a number of plot ideas floating around in my head including women centric topics waiting to be addressed (Yeah, they're probably going to be heavy, so prepare yourself.) as well as pack dynamics waiting to be expounded in the Rollins' universe. To be frank - I'm excited to write about them (Can we say Omega anyone??).

In the mean time, I'm thinking about 15k more words and ANDREW will be more or less finished. There are only a few more months between where I am in ANDREW's plot and where JAMES' novel picks up. Because of the importance of the events in ANDREW, I will likely use up those months to bring the family to the state of cautious equilibrium which is hinted at in JAMES. I can't wait to see how this is tied up!