So Valérian is more than halfway done, but at the same time, it isn't. And it's making me tear my hair out. I didn't anticipate the story to be this complex, and I think it's because the titular character is actually a side character, which leaves Roland (the book's MC) learning about Valérian's movements in a far-off place at the same time as the readers.
The book, as I mentioned before, was partly inspired by du Maurier's Rebecca in approach. The difference is that the Rebecca character in my story is still alive, and he's physically separated from his younger brother. But! That's where all the gothic elements also get worked in.
The result is that the book takes longer than usual to sort itself out, and when my usual target chapter count for my long novellas is 26 chapters, the maximum I can give myself is 28. That said, at this rate, I might be looking at 30 chapters, which will bring the total word count to over 50K words. That also defeats my purpose of sticking to the long novella format, which is to sharpen my skills in telling a complete and relatively complex story in a shorter format (also, in terms of pricing, anything over 50K will be given a $2.99 price tag).
But if the story refuses to stay within my strict parameters, I know I shouldn't fight it. Of course, the revision stage will tell me if reducing the length is possible, and I've hacked longer books down significantly to fit the publisher's length requirements (Icarus in Flight and Arabesque). I suppose, at the end of the day, it's easier for me to cut things out than to add material, so we'll see how things work out.
At any rate, Valérian is still on track for a Nov. 1 release.
Now for the side project...
I started working on something last year, and I ended up trunking it after 25K words because it wasn't going anywhere. In late May of this year, though, I decided to resurrect the idea and write a completely new version of it, and it's been a good process for me. In fact, the book's about 2/3 done. Unlike my usual releases, this one doesn't have a target length even if I'd love for it to be no longer than 50K words. If it goes beyond that, it's okay. This book is experimental for me.
And what I mean by that is it's not only a side project, but it's a story that's completely off the beaten track that I decided to tackle because I needed to take myself out of my comfort zone and attempt something I've been curious about but never tried before.
Now whether or not the book will find an audience is another matter entirely, and I'm not worried about that. Since it's a side project, there's no guarantee that I'll write more books in the same vein. However, if I do, I'll have to work it in my main calendar, which will mean a wider spread of release dates for my Grotesqueries collection. What's now a three-book calendar will have to be a two-book one, and the side project will find its spot somewhere in there.
I'll also be publishing these books (or this current WIP if that's all I'll manage) under a new pen name because of just how far off the beaten track the genre is for me. I'll be posting about it when the time comes, though, so at least visitors to my site will know what's up, and it'll be up to them to decide if they really want to take a chance on that.
Some trivia, by the way...
A House of Profane Gods was a title I initially gave what I'd first planned for the second book in this side project thing. But when I trunked the first unfinished draft of my WIP, I decided to give the title to my upcoming Grotesqueries book instead. So now I'll have to come up with a new title for that side project if things end up working to my satisfaction.
So complicated, this writing business.
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