Dilly Daydream

Hmm....
I've just finished the first (and second) draft of my next novel. It's now with some content checkers and so I'm faced with the lull after all that activity as I wait for them to get back to me. I want to start working on book 2 of the series, but my muse seems to be on strike.  I have a whole bunch of background ideas that will be going into the book, follow ups on things from the first story, extending some of the minor characters, incidental scenes that add to my major characters, stuff like that, but I have no idea of a major plot, not an inkling.

Problem is, the first book is based on a set of stories I first wrote when I was in my teens, which I have overhauled to make them 1/ readable and 2/ less American (I don't have anything against the US, but I am a Brit and I was into a lot of US TV shows as a teen, still am actually, but I've visited the States, I have a lot of US friends and as a writer, I decided that I couldn't do a good enough job in that setting, I don't know my subject well enough). Anyway, the overhaul meant that stories 2, 3 and 4 from that set do not work any more, well, not immediately after the first story, anyway, maybe  a few years down the line perhaps. AND I think I'm being distracted by the old stories.

So, I am going to rely on my first fall back when I have no plot: daydreaming. Trying to ignore the old stories, I am going to sit back in the lovely sunshine we have this bank holiday weekend and I am going to just have a good old think. Run some ideas through my head, play with some concepts and see where it gets me. I find this a lot freer on my brain than sitting in front of keyboard waiting for inspiration.  I might even go out for a drive, because it is amazing how much inspiration I get behind the wheel.

When I've got a few things in my head, then I'll hit the mind map and try and capture them, so I can analyse them more thoroughly and work out how they fit in the scheme of this series.