The Completion of a Series

When I opened my laptop on a warm spring day in 2012 and wrote the first few words of an unknown and untitled story, I didn’t understand the journey I was about to embark on. The process that followed was something that taught me patience, perseverance and ultimately gave me a goal to work toward that I hadn’t felt as passionately about in many, many years. In fact, I don’t think I had been as resolute about anything before in my life. I had found my calling.

Though I had always written in one form or another throughout my life, I had never had a project that gave me such purpose. I was a refuge during difficult times, and something that was just for me. I could think about it, obsess about it all day long and nobody would care. I would wake up in the morning and it would be among my first thoughts, and amongst my last as I fell asleep. The story was my sanctuary.

The characters were a part of me, they were something akin to friends, and though their fates rested at my fingertips they took on their own lives and became their own fully functioning personalities. It was this independence of character that grew in my mind which helped shape the story. For though I had it ‘mostly’ mapped out in my mind, it was the relationships between the characters that ultimately bound all the elements of the story together. All these things pulled together like magnets attracting one another and after a long and continued effort, ‘See Me’ was born.

After the completion of See Me I took a rather extended break. Two years in fact. I got on with life, I worked in a job that I loved and spent a lot of quality time with my family and friends. It really was a golden period. But after a while my thoughts returned to Shelly and what her story would be next. I began to form ideas and theories in my mind once again. After a while, the story I held in my head became so loud that I once again opened my laptop and began work on what would become ‘I See You’. Such was the intensity of this chapter of the trilogy that I smashed it out in around six months. I was like something possessed. ‘See Me’ had taken so long to write (3 years!) and writing ‘I See You’ had felt like a walk in the park. After such a tremendous effort I had high expectations that this was now my new level or ability of writing and I’d be able to pump out novels like this on a regular basis. How wrong I was!

The third and final book in the Second Sight Trilogy came with a lot of effort for me. Not only did I know ‘See Us’ was going to be the last in the series, but it was also the darkest, the most complex and set within the extreme confines of a single setting. I think in the end it took me approximately 18 months from start to finish, with a few tears and stressful moments along the way. When I finished, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief. It was done. The last eight years of my life, from 2012 to 2020 had been an magnificent journey with these characters, they had been such a huge part of my life, we had moved forward and grown together and it felt like entirely the right time for me to say goodbye and move on.

Its bittersweet, ending a series this this. I will miss Shelly and my other characters immensely, but I guess they aren’t truly gone. I can always pick up the books and revisit them, should I wish. And saying goodbye doesn’t mean I have to leave them behind. They will always be close by in my mind. But now I can move on, I have a plethora of projects lined up and I already have my sights set on something that excites me greatly.

I hope the Second Sight Trilogy brings you all the same amount of excitement and joy that it has brought me in writing it. All the books are available t Amazon through the links on my website – www.shanlscott.com in both paperback and kindle. Take care and I will write again soon.

Shan xx