I’m sure all of you faithful readers have read the last blog post: https://storieschangehearts.com/how-did-god-fit-into-the-tales-of-larkin/. And I’m also sure that you have all been waiting eagerly to find out what I did with all of the background information I thought of for the first book, since I used almost none of it in writing the first book.
It’s not that all of that background information was unimportant. Rather, I felt that it was important and interesting enough that I wanted to use it as a basis for a second book. My book Tales of Larkin: Larkin’s Journal is the story of the history of the Larkin people. In that story I put most of those unused ideas I came up with as I was preparing to write the first book.
After the first book was published, I had several people say something like, “I can’t wait until you write your next book. I want to see what happens to the characters in the first book.” Those comments upset me, because I wanted to write about Larkin’s Journal and explain the history of the Larkin people. But I reluctantly began writing on a sequel to book one.
I struggled to come up with a plot, and the story just didn’t flow very well as I began to write. Finally I explained my frustration to my wife Valerie. Her response was, “Well then, just write what you want to. They didn’t produce the Star Wars movies in order.” I thought that was profound.
So with my wife’s encouragement, I set aside the sequel and began the prequel. I was amazed at how easy that story was to write. The tale just flowed out of my fingers as I typed it because I had spent a lot of time thinking about it years before. Some people create their story as they write it. When I write, I’m describing in words the movie that I’m seeing in my mind. To do that requires thinking about it a lot beforehand.
Thanks again for reading, and I hope this gives you some insights into what it’s like to write the Larkin stories. I would love to hear your comments as well as any suggestions you might have for future blog posts. Please take this opportunity to subscribe to my blog. It’s free and as simple as clicking on your choice of one of the two buttons at the top right of this page.
Blessings to all,
Alan Harris
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