“Avena Sativa”… it means – greetings in a non-human language? Character name for a mouthy half-human, half-elf archer? Capitol city in a mystical land?
Nah… it’s actually the Latin name for ‘oat extract’. I read it on my shampoo bottle and thought ‘wow, that sounds cool’!
So, why am I talking about the soothing ingredients in my herbal shampoo (also with goats milk and Manuka honey)? Well, it’s a demonstration of how rapacious and capricious my muse is. It takes one little spark and she’s off and running. Before I turned off the hot water, I had characters, backstories and plots all developed around ‘Avena Sativa’. All quite exciting. My muse was delighted.
Then I remembered… I already have one WIP in editing phase and a second in draft. Not to mention a new idea brewing for a spec-fic short story anthology.
So now, let me segue into my point; I’m a slooooow writer, frequently distracted by ‘shiny’ things… or oat extract. This means I find it hard to make a decision, and harder to stick with a project. I’m currently debating whether to…
a) spend a few weeks finalising the editing of my WIP, Guns of Perdition, and then publishing it – thus finally having a book ‘out there’, or;
b) whether to hold off publishing and sink some months into writing books II and III of the series – thus then being able to release the series closer together. Or;
c) do I shelve the whole series for a bit and bash out the short story anthology I’ve been toying with (complete with brand new, shiny short story about oat extract) – thus satisfying the muse’s immediate need and still having a debut book ‘out there’?
I’m now so torn with indecision I’m stuck and I can’t work on anything!
Avena Sativa, friends.
Jessica Bakkers 
Tough decision! If it were me, I’d go with option A because it’s the hardest . . . you know, that whole Mark Twain eat the frog first thing. Besides, it’ll let us read a book of yours sooner.:-)
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Hahaha, oh, you’re sweet. And you make an interesting point about the frog 🐸
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They all sound good to me but you have to do what makes you happy. I was going to publish a short story anthology late summer or early fall but have recently decided to hold it until next spring. You could always go with options A and B and take breaks to write short stories in between. Kind of like a reward for working on the tougher projects.
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I’m leaning towards A and B… I’m just worried about releasing a book then having two years till the next one comes out! Although, maybe by releasing it’ll spur me on to get writing…. I think you’re right about writing the short stories though – they’re fun to do in between the Big Projects. Thanks Mae 🙂
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Good advice, Mae. That is what I have been doing. Writing a short story is a great reprieve from a long novel.
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Do it all. Of course, I work too damned hard on this stuff personally. There might be more to life. I have two books ready for editing now, and have started another MS that’s reaching 20K words. Sometimes I need to find a way not to be like me.
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Haha, I wrote out (this morning) all the books I want to write (so far, that I know about). I’m up to 13. Gulp. How am I going to get the time to do all that?
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How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. I’m finding out that I can actually work on two projects at once and it gives me a chance to be productive when I run into logjams. I jump to the other project and keep moving. So far, I’ve tried to keep them dramatically different, so they don’t have overlapping possibilities.
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Wow. I don’t think I could manage it. I can’t play two computer games at once without getting lost!
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Definitely get GoP published! Theoretically, seeing it in print will inspire you to finish the series.
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Hopefully! I’m just a bit worried about having it out and not having Books II and III ready for years later (as I said, I’m a slooooow writer) 🙂
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I would get my editing done, Jessica. Strike while the iron is hot so to speak. I don’t think it matters if there is gaps between your book releases. You can work on marketing the first one while you write the second one. It is very motivating and satisfying when you actually get your book published.
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Thanks Robbie. This is the way I’m leaning too. Hopefully seeing the first book published will keep me motivated to write 2 and 3… well, that’s the plan 😬
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