On Starting a New Project

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by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell

Evan Hunter author photo from The Moment She Was Gone

Today is release day for Romeo’s Truth. (Ebook at deal price; print to follow shortly.) Tomorrow I begin working in earnest on Romeo #11.

I make it my goal to hit the ground running on a new project as soon as a book is released. I’ve written before about being like a movie studio. I want to have a main project and a few in various stages of development, waiting to get a green light.

Starting a new novel is always a high. I know there will be low points, like the “30k wall.” I don’t know why this happens, but I’ve heard other authors experience it, too. When I get to that mark I begin to think of the long road ahead, and also wonder if my foundations are strong enough. I look at my outline and structure. My main concern is having the hero locked into a death struggle. My definition of great fiction is that it is the record of how a character fights with death. Death comes in three forms: physical (as in the thriller); professional or vocational; and psychological/spiritual. The stakes have to be that high to generate optimum reader interest.

There’s always a way to break through the wall, or at least climb over it. Once that’s done, I’m off and running again to the end.

I always celebrate when I finish a book. Do something fun, like take my long-suffering wife out for a nice dinner. Or cook our favorite meal at home, which always involves a ribeye steak and nice bottle of California Cabernet, followed by a movie or one of our favorites shows, like a Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett, or a Poirot with David Suchet.

 Before starting work on the new book, I pause. I’m anxious and ready to go, but there’s also a little knot of hesitation. How do I do this again? Write a whole book? Thriller writer J. T. Ellison once said, “It’s the whole getting started thing for me. I forget how to write a book. The first ten thousand words are like digging fossils from rocks.”

In a TV interview, Dean Koontz expressed a similar feeling, So he goes into a huge room in his huge house, where shelves are packed with all his books, foreign and domestic. He looks a them and says, “I did it before, I can do it again.” That’s Dean freaking Koontz! (Over 140 novels, 500 million sold).

So I have a little ritual. I settle into my chair with a cup of my favorite java. I look at the visual inspirations in my office. There’s a photo of John D. McDonald, pipe in mouth, typing away. There’s an author photo of Evan Hunter, aka Ed McBain, looking at me as if to say, “Don’t give me any excuses. Write!” There’s the black coffee mug with WRITER on it, which  I bought the year I decided I was going to be a writer, even though naysayers had told me I couldn’t learn how. I put that mug where I could look at it every day, which I did for the seven years it took me to sell my first novel.

Then I put on coffeehouse sounds via Coffitivity, wiggle my fingers, and start typing.

How do you feel about starting a new project? High, hopeful, or hesitant? Do you have any writing rituals?

28 thoughts on “On Starting a New Project”

  1. I’m always excited to *start* a new project but I’m not immune to that mid-way slump. And although I haven’t managed to get there yet, I remember your advice from several years ago when you first mentioned having 2-3 projects in various stages of development. I think that’s very wise advice and it’s how I want to be working optimally, although optimal life isn’t happening right now.

    I also wish I would come to a definitive method of either plotting or pantsing. But either way, the writing is worth the trial and error and the sometimes painful moments. I have a lot of artistic interests, but writing is the one that I’ve continually stuck with, even if I’m slow as molasses at it.

    And great timing of the appearing of this post, as just before I clicked on the TKZ link I’d just received the email notification that my pre-order of Romeo’s Truth had dropped. 😎 Thank you for being a great role model with your rock steady production of books!

    • I also wish I would come to a definitive method of either plotting or pantsing.

      The eternal struggle! Since I’ve been through it over long years of experience, I say don’t be afraid to try one or the other, or bits of both, until you find your own sweet spot. Wish I could be more “definitive.” But I will add that “pooh-poohing” either approach on a knee-jerk basis is not the best approach.

      Enjoy the book, BK!

  2. I don’t have a room full of my published books, but I do have an office with walls chock-full of the covers of my published books and magazines. Whenever I’m stuck, I have a little private pep rally similar to what Koontz does — I’ve done it before, and I will do it again.

  3. Romeo dropped into my inbox this morning and I will start it tonight. Unless I can’t white.

    I am 6000 words into my next novel and I agree with everything you said except putting on coffeehouse sounds via Coffitivity. I’m too ADHD for that.. And I’m so glad to hear you’re starting a new Romeo. 😊

    • Yeah, it’s funny how different writers react to “ambient noise.” Some love it, some hate it, some are distracted by it, others get creative energy from it. I’m the latter type. The nice thing about piping it in on my computer is that it eliminates loud intrusions from unruly patrons in a public establishment.

  4. I can’t work on more than one project at a time, so (as in right now), while my editor has the manuscript and I’m waiting for edits, I think about what I might tackle next. Another Mapleton? Blackthorne? Triple-D? Pine Hills? A stand alone? A new series?
    Then there’s the dreaded marketing.
    Right now, and it has nothing to do with the book being ‘almost ready’ because it’s been on the books for a long time, we’re heading out for a vacation.
    Hope to come back recharged.

  5. Congratulations on Romeo 10, Jim. I see Romeo’s Truth on my iPad, and I’m excited to begin reading.

    I’m starting a new project now. After this crazy year of a big household move and releasing two middle grade books, I’m back to the Lady Pilot-in-Command series. “High, hopeful, or hesitant?” All three. I’ve written Chapter One four or five different ways, trying to get the right tone to set the stage.

    • I hear ya, Kay. Sometimes all three. We’re like blenders.

      I love writing opening chapters. I love hooking readers. I wrote the opening of Romeo 11 weeks ago, and loved it. That led me to develop the “shadow story” (IOW, what’s really going on?) and a possible ending. Now I’m ready to write from signpost to signpost.

  6. Starting a new novel is a blend of nervous excitement and hopeful for me, along with a sense of entering new territory (#captainobvious). As the pages begin to pile up things will shift. That 30K wall awaits, as does the dreaded “I don’t think I can finish this” which strikes at some point in the middle of each novel.

    Rituals are something I’d like to develop, but mostly it’s sitting down with a cup of strong black tea and putting on a favorite movie score or album, and starting.

    Happy Book Birthday to Romeo 10, Jim!

    • Glad you mentioned movie scores, Dale. I also like to do that. I have a “mood” list of tunes for when I’m writing different types of scenes. (For suspense, I love the Bernard Herrmann Hitchcock scores!)

  7. Congrats on another Romeo, Jim! Mike is an interesting character to spend time with and I’m glad you’re continuing the series.

    My overall goal is to make each book in my Tawny Lindholm thriller series better than the last. Nine books in, my big anxiety is how can I do that again??? Where can the continuing characters go for a fresh direction that’s not formulaic? What greater challenges can I put them through?

    In every book, I always keep your three types of death firmly in mind and combine one or more of them. Do you have suggestions for variations or different approaches to combine them? Can you point me to specific examples in Romeo?

    Thanks for your weekly dose of wisdom! It’s like a vitamin shot without the needle.

    • Good question, Deb. And there’s really no formula for the mix because there are so many ways to do it. But since we write thrillers, I think physical death is always primary. Then add as desired something to overcome to make the hero more human, more of what he needs to be. This is what makes Lethal Weapon such a brilliant movie. It’s got physical death hanging all over it, but the power comes from the reclamation of Martin Riggs, from suicidal loner to a full member of the human family once again.

      When I started the Romeo series I intentionally chose four psychological aspects, flaws that Mike would have to overcome. And I work those into the first four books. From then on it’s been a developing process as I go along. And in this 10th book, a major change to Mike’s situation will require ever more interior work! Fun times ahead.

  8. Congratulations on another Romeo, Jim!

    My process is to sit down and start writing. You turned me on to the pleasures of ambient coffee shop noise, but I use a coffee shop noise generator I found on Google. (There’s an ambient office noise generator, too, but in that one, the word, John, jumps out in the loop and startles me every time. Can’t use it.)

    There’s a trick for me in starting anew: It’s knowing that the beginning I start with will not be the beginning I end with. In fact, I am now about 10,000 words into the second Irene Rivers book and when I shared the first chapter with my critique group, everyone agreed that while it was a fine chapter, it was not a good FIRST chapter. And you know what? They were right. So, now the original Chapter One will likely be Chapter Three, if it survives at all.

    The key ingredient is the act of writing.

    As for my surroundings, I just remodeled my office. More on that on my next turn at bat.

    • Thanks, John!

      That’s hilarious about the generator sticking your name in there every now and then. Totally distracting. I want the ambient noise, not snippets of conversation I can understand (which is why public coffeehouses are problematic these days, especially when someone is on the phone using their outside voice).

      Since you’re a discovery writer, I well understand how your openings can change. For “pantsers” those first chapters are often putting in stuff that is best left for later.

      In critiquing manuscripts, I’ve often encountered first chapters with too much stuff the writer thinks the reader needs to understand right away…and they don’t. So I’ve guven them the Chapter 2 Switcheroo trick, which means making chapter 2 the first chapter. It’s amazing how often this works wonders.

  9. Happy book day, Jim. When I turned my second Florida Beach book, I took a break by reading mysteries and eating junk food. Then I go out to dinner with Don and reconnect with friends I avoided while I was writing. In about a month, I go back to work.

  10. Congrats, Jim! Downloaded this morning. 👏

    I’m not only starting a new project… it’s also a different genre. So I’m a bit nervous.

    The idea for it came to me when I was outside with the dog. I kicked a rock. I got a sudden vision of a girl’s name on that rock. After that, it was off to the races…🤓

    And I’m a bit scared about this. 😵‍💫

    • Ooh, the genre switch. Yeah, that can be nervous time. OTOH, the way you got this idea sounds to me very Bradbury-esque. He would say to you, open the trapdoor on top of your skull and see what’s in there trying to get out. Often it’s the best stuff!

  11. Just snagged my copy of Romeo’s Truth. Looking forward to it. When I finish a book, I start the next one. It’s as if I’m afraid words will stop flowing from the spigot if I wait too long. Chocolate and non-dairy ice cream are among the go-to treats for the occasion. I love writing the first chapter too. No ambient noise for me, however. Except for the chimes outside the window that remind me to look out once and awhile and appreciate the view of a stand of live oak trees below a blue sky.

    • You reminded me, Kelly, of the prolific Anthony Trollope, who wrote all those books while working as a civil servant. He had a daily quota for the morning, and if he finished a book and hadn’t reached his quota, he’d take a sheet of paper and start the next one!

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