You had a brain-burner, too? CONTACT IMMINENT did that to me. I was able to write an outline for Jani 5 a few months later--my agent thinks it's the most solid outline I'd ever done (hate outlining. *Hate* it.) But I couldn't get started on the book.
Just a thought on this: was it Contact Imminent that caused the freeze, or the outline? In my case, I didn't have to outline for either of my first two publishers. I sold DAW a three book series based on 4 chapters and what was a laughable outline, it was so very vague (and a page long), and in the case of Del Rey, it wasn't until the 4th novel that I didn't just hand them a finished manuscript because I just kept on writing.
So... it wasn't until the Luna sale that I was required to outline. I did the partial, and I did the outline, and my agent didn't even say it sucked (he thought it was fine)... and then, although the Luna novel was just racing along, I had two months of solid ... nothing. Part of the drive to tell any story for me is, well, the drive to tell it, and if the outline is good enough it means I've told it :/.
SC was a brain-burner because it was so very late, and it was the first time I had been so very late with anything; I was paralyzed, I has coming up on a production deadline, I was writing as fast as I could (speed being relative <wry g>). I couldn't even look at that book when it was published; it took me three years before I picked it up again and read it. When I did, I was greatly relieved to find that it didn't suck.
By the time I thought I might try, a family crisis came along. The brain still hasn't adjusted, and I sometimes wonder if I'll ever recover the fire. Part of me is confident that I will, but the actual sitting-down-and-formulating-sentences part is still not happening.
This happened to me! In between SC and Sea of Sorrows was a two year period. First, I was brain dead from the stress, and then a family crisis came up that just destroyed my ability to concentrate for about half a year. And when I could think again, it was tentative, and I ended up having to toss what I'd done because I was trying desperately to wind things up in that volume by cutting everything out, and it wasn't working.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-08-20 08:29 pm (UTC)Just a thought on this: was it Contact Imminent that caused the freeze, or the outline? In my case, I didn't have to outline for either of my first two publishers. I sold DAW a three book series based on 4 chapters and what was a laughable outline, it was so very vague (and a page long), and in the case of Del Rey, it wasn't until the 4th novel that I didn't just hand them a finished manuscript because I just kept on writing.
So... it wasn't until the Luna sale that I was required to outline. I did the partial, and I did the outline, and my agent didn't even say it sucked (he thought it was fine)... and then, although the Luna novel was just racing along, I had two months of solid ... nothing. Part of the drive to tell any story for me is, well, the drive to tell it, and if the outline is good enough it means I've told it :/.
SC was a brain-burner because it was so very late, and it was the first time I had been so very late with anything; I was paralyzed, I has coming up on a production deadline, I was writing as fast as I could (speed being relative <wry g>). I couldn't even look at that book when it was published; it took me three years before I picked it up again and read it. When I did, I was greatly relieved to find that it didn't suck.
By the time I thought I might try, a family crisis came along. The brain still hasn't adjusted, and I sometimes wonder if I'll ever recover the fire. Part of me is confident that I will, but the actual sitting-down-and-formulating-sentences part is still not happening.
This happened to me! In between SC and Sea of Sorrows was a two year period. First, I was brain dead from the stress, and then a family crisis came up that just destroyed my ability to concentrate for about half a year. And when I could think again, it was tentative, and I ended up having to toss what I'd done because I was trying desperately to wind things up in that volume by cutting everything out, and it wasn't working.