I finally got past the writer’s block I’d been experiencing for weeks. I’ve now written the first couple of chapters. I had a large stack of 3×5 cards, but I struggled to get started.
What I did to break the block is to write one character’s story arc. One of the supporting characters in my Frank and Sylvia Mysteries is Ruby Sue. She has a crisis of faith in the fourth book. I wrote all the sections of the book regarding that crisis of faith. That pulled the finger out of the dike, and now I am moving forward.
I have an initial draft of 18,000 words. My other three books are in the 85,000-word range.
Mrs. Crabtree, their teacher, is attacked. Frank and Sylvia, along with Nick and Ruby Sue, set out to find her attacker. The story will have some interesting twists along the way.
In the meantime, I am continuing to tinker with the first and second books. The first has been professionally edited and picked up by a small traditional publisher. I plan to send the second book to the editor in December.