Writing update – July 2015

Because I couldn’t think of anything else to write about today I went back a year and looked at what I was posting this time last July. It turns out I had just finished The Merchant Prince (my fifth novel) and was planning to take some time to revise The Queen’s Colors, the novel I finished before that.

My first thought was discouragement. It’s a year later and all I’ve got to show for it is about 30k words on the next novel I had planned. But I did do a fairly extensive revision of Queen’s Colors, and I’ve since identified another major fix I need to work on. I did a lot of world-building for The Forerunner, my current project, and wrote close to 20k words that I largely threw away when I started over. I also began a side-project, my yet-to-be-named “young adult paranormal romance.” That one quickly went off the rails because I was trying to “pants” it, which I’ve pretty much determined I can’t do anymore. My first two novels were written as I went, which is the reason why the first one stank on ice and why the second is an odd exception. I think that one only succeeded because it was fan-fic, so much of the world-building was done for me and because the plot was rather cliché.

So far to date The Queen’s Colors remains my favorite and, I believe, my best work. The Merchant Prince really needs some significant rework, but it shows promise. As for The Forerunner, I’m trying to out-stubborn it. I’ve felt for some time I’m not up to the challenge of this one yet, but I’m determined to make a go of it anyway. It’s had some magical moments, but for the most part it’s near-drudgery. As in “why am I still trying to be a writer?” drudgery. There are some other things going on in my life that have lent quite heavily to that, but I have to admit to questioning my commitment to being a writer. It’s more habit that’s keeping me going than anything else sometimes.

But to give myself a little credit, the level of complexity has changed for this novel. Yes, Merchant Prince followed three major characters’ points of views, but it was largely one main character with two other characters all involved in different perspectives of the same plot line. Forerunner has two completely separate plot lines with a major character in each, and before long there will be a third minor plot with a major character completely separate from the other two. I’m still setting up things that will run for three novels (at least), as well as building the plot for this novel. It’s challenging, and it’s work. Usually by now in each novel I’ve hit my stride and it begins writing itself. That’s not happening yet with this one. One of the plotlines is starting to show signs of taking off, but that’s not the one I’m on at the moment.

Summertime is always a hard time to write, I think. There are just too many distractions; vacations, kids’ activities, lack of good sleep (allergies are wrecking havoc this year), heat, etc. My motivation is low right now, and likely to take some even more serious hits soon. The next month is going to be a struggle, and my main goal is just to not give up.

How’s that for a motivational post? 😉