My current WIP is the second novel in a series that I created to write my NaNoWriMo 2011 project. It’s set in modern day, but in a hidden, fantasy world shadowed by our own. One of the characters that I’ve been playing with is mentioned a few times in the first novel, comes up a handful of times in the second, and will be the star of the third–though the third novel is going to be a prequel to the first two, tying in a couple of characters involved and giving greater detail to the main conflict that’s running rampant through the series. This is where things start to get a little tricky.
Though my story takes place in modern day, my prequel is set to run in the roarin’ twenties. Flappers and Prohibition will make a huge impact on the work. I suppose that with a little tweaking and some character changes, I could probably set this part of the story in a different era, but when I was brainstorming this particular character and her role in the main plot, this is the first thing that popped into my mind. And I love the idea of spending a couple hundred pages exploring her role, her backstory, her time period.
The only problem is that I know almost nothing about the era. I’m going to have a lot of research to do to make it feel authentic and true–as much as a modern day fantasy story with witches, werewolves and vampires can feel. I’m not even sure where to start. I know I have a bit of time, as I’m only 5% finished with my current WIP, but I can’t help looking into the future and becoming intimidated by what heavy work load looms ahead of me.
Perhaps I’m just looking for an excuse to clench up. Perhaps I’m looking for a reason that my current creative voices seem to have run dry. Perhaps it’s a lot easier to just read and not write. At this time in my life, that’s a whole lot easier.
I’m hoping that sooner or later things will calm down a little and I’ll have a moment to breathe and take a look at my project from a bit of a distance. Then again, I also hope that things will slow down enough for me to be able to continue work without having to take said distance.
Enough rambling. Back to writing.
