Writing middle grade fiction

About a month ago I received a pretty well documented review on onlinebookclub.org and in the thread between us she mentioned that she was having a hard time reading other books because she kept wanting to go back to Inkworld; Inkworld being the magical world created by a magical pen.

I thought that was the highest praise because I wanted to write it in such a way that every one who reads Trankarri wants to go back to Inkworld the same way I went to Narnia and Middle-Earth again and again and again.

I suppose that is also one of the biggest challenges I face right now – Inkworld that is.

It is very hard to spend six years writing and creating a book like Trankarri and the animated book trailer and the website and then all the marketing that goes with along with that only to see mediocre sales at best because the middle grade market is really the school library market. It is hard because I want to go back to Inkworld and finish up the second in the series; Secrets of the Masterpiece but find it difficult because of all the ordinary work I have to do to support my family.

I was hoping by now that Book One would have taken off and I could spend the next year writing and finishing the second and third installment but as fate would have it that time simply has not yet come.

So now I’m faced with the challenge of going back to Inkworld to finish the second and third installment but it takes a lot of energy because once I’m there and am creating the scenes and characters I don’t want to leave and come back to the reality of paying bills and keeping a schedule of work and landscape designs and so on. I kind of want to be free to finish up what is really in my heart.

I am slowly coming around though because I am tired of waiting for something big to happen. Maybe it is time to makes something big happen. Maybe book two will be the swift kick in the ass that readers need. Perhaps it is the kick in the ass that I need to get on with finishing what I have started.

I really do love writing but have taken a sabbatical so I can focus on much needed work around the house.

Does any other writer feel this same way or am I alone in all this?

 

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