When do You Say Enough?

For the past several years, my life, thoughts, daydreams, and even conversations have been revolving around my first book series, The Incarn Saga. I would go over and over certain scenes in my head when I was out on a run, taking a shower, long distance driving, or just sitting on a beach. If I was by myself, I would even talk aloud to help stimulate conversations between characters or work out descriptors for action sequences. The creation of all four books was a huge part of my daily, weekly, and yearly experience.

Now, I have the first book published, the second slogging through the numerous rounds of editing and the last two drafted out to completion. The act of novel creation for story, characters and plot is done. Right?

Yet after all these years, it is hard for me to detangle myself from this series’ embrace and look toward the future. I know what I want to write next. I know a lot about these new characters and their relationships between one another. I even know the basis of these books’ plots. Yet it is hard for me to focus on them while my mind is still trained to think about Elysia and the Incarn Saga.

Yes. It will take a couple more years to prepare the final three books for publication. There will be sections to edit and change for the better. But the hard work is done—at least the obsessing over story line and verbiage.

Regardless, I still find myself binge watching Viking documentaries and ordering book after book pertaining to the Nordic peoples that inspired my villains. I am spending countless hours researching for a book series that I have already written. Why?

Maybe it is because I might stumble upon a new idea, character, or cultural characteristic that could still be written in somewhere. Maybe it is a fear that I do not want to miss out on an opportunity to flesh out my fictional enemy. Maybe I am just not ready to let go.

When do you say ‘enough’?

As I start blocking in my loose timeline for what books are to follow, I cannot lie to myself. I will continue to conduct research for the Incarn Saga until all four are published and possibly for some time afterward. For me, that world is still very much alive. Then why not stay in it?