Writing New Adventures
I love the flexibility writing offers. We can choose to write in a series or choose a standalone adventure. Whatever it is we choose to write, it’s a new adventure, even in the same universe.
A writer might write something in the same world three times in a row, then choose to follow their instincts in a few novels that have nothing to do with each other. I write in a multiverse, meaning some books will relate to others that may appear standalone on the surface.
That’s part of the fun. Sneaking in these brief hints and references, causing the reader to go back over something and read it again. It can be something as simple as a character bio, or something as complex as an in-universe encyclopedia of the history of the world for the past ages.
You’re the one in control of the art you create. Sharing your vision with the world. You know exactly how and what you want your art to be.
But you must always choose yourself as the navigator of your story, the adventurer on the hero’s journey of authorship. You must tell yourself, “I choose you.”
Forget the notion it’s only the characters on these adventures. You must choose your own path, going along with them for the ride.
The path isn’t always easy, and adventures often have conflict and opposition, but if you’re ready to face the conflict—the storms coming up ahead to get to the beautiful end of your journey—it’s all worth it.
We, as authors, know we’re making the right choice when we put characters in peril. It’s the peril which shapes them into the men and women they are to be by the end of the journey. Sometimes you ask yourself what parts of you are being put on display for the world. And how in the world did you come up with these things?
We know we are on the right track when it feels like we’re on the next adventure with our own characters. We’re cheering them on, or praying they make it through their dark night of the soul so they can metamorphose into the people they become.
We’re on the cusp of something new every time we pen a new tale. Whether that tale is with familiar faces or unknown faces you haven’t even discovered yet because you figured out the journey on your own without pre-planning things out first.
The adventures we go on are flexible and don’t always look the same.
Sometimes we must follow the signs of our fresh adventures to see where we’ll end up.
The journey is just as important as the end goal.
I’m not the one walking around Orchestrylus wearing a checkered half-coat and destroying my enemies with musical prowess (though the black and white aesthetic is nice to see in the show of your imagination)—but I’m right there with the characters, walking and growing with them. Sometimes, bigger growth comes further down the line for a character, but as authors we’re on the adventure to help point them in the right direction.
As always, here is an unedited snippet of an upcoming novel without flavor-text insets and the stylish, final-product flair. The opening sets the scene for the new journey, while revisiting the events of the last novel.
The Last Key of Maestraumus comes out on 02.18.2025.
