There and Back Again

It's been 4 years since I wore a post here. Until today when I decided to post a book review to my blog. Without getting too personal, I am fighting a very serious health issue. But I did not stop working on my novel altogether. In fact, I identified a change of plan. 

I convinced myself that I was stuck in the middle and I could not figure out where to go from there. But in going over the story and creating its outline -- which I should have done to begin with -- I realized that the issue has not been that there was no middle to my story. The issue is that I had already written it. Ahh, at long last clarity brings everything into focus. 

Now, I'm at the point where I can write the end of the story. Since I am way short of 90K words, I am going to market this as a novella. When I finish the story and go back to revise this mucky mess of a draft, I will add in more details for settings and character building.  

Happy Writing!

🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸

Exploring Writing Resources #2

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately because I want to see what others are doing to help propel themselves through tough spots in their projects. I am at a crossroads and I have completed the beginning and the end of my first novel -- not on purpose, that's just how it happened -- and I need a compelling middle.

I came across this site called BookBaby and I identified with it because my husband released his new CD (Cosmic Stowaway) through CD Baby. While searching through the site, I came across their BookBaby Blog. Wow! Talk about a resource! You should check it out, really! No matter where you are in the process, they have amassed tons of articles on any number of topics -- some you didn't even know you wanted to read!

Now, I know many writers keep a journal. I have kept personal journals in the past but I would just abandon them after a few months. While I was searching through their blog, I came across an article about keeping a "short fiction journal."  I have a WIP journal, but I think a fiction journal is a snippets journal, right? Little ideas and scenes that may or may not go into a story or create a plot that can be turned into a novel. Many "TV" writers use slips of paper and sticky notes for these things. The thing is that while the fiction journal can include those things, it can be used for so much more than I ever thought. For example, you can use it to flesh out characters to be used in future stories or creating new plot lines or just writing down scenes, snippets, and dialogue.

Now, I'm sure this is nothing new to many of you writers out there, but it was a great help to me! You have to remember, I'm a technical writer by trade. We work with specs and programming tools and other resources to create technical manuals, help text for software programs, etc. We don't keep journals for future projects because it's, well, unnecessary.

Finding an article that actually explains using a short fiction journal in a bit more detail than most blog posts I've read in the past is simply gold to me. I had to share this on my blog because I've now read a few more of this author's posts and she is very good at providing concrete examples. Her name, if you're interested, is Dawn Field. So, if you go to BookBaby Blog, look her stuff up. You might just mine a little gold for yourself.

Merry Christmas!!

Exploring Writing Resources #1

I had to miss this year's NaNoWriMo, but I am beginning to work on my novel again after a very long break. I am reading a lot of blog posts and articles about writing a novel because it is much more difficult than one would think.

You can have a couple of great characters and a great plot, but so much more work goes into fleshing out those main characters, the supporting characters, and a story line, that you can become discouraged very easily. I often realize that I need to return to the beginnings and write character sketches so my characters don't (unintentionally) switch gears midstream.

While I intend to finish my novel in 2020,  I thought it I could take a page out of the NaNoWriMo book. I was reading a blog post By Rae Ell of Barely here Books entitled "How to Write a Killer First Chapter: (AKA What Your First Chapter REALLY Needs)" and ended up buying her book. I just did this today, so I haven't read the 54-page book yet; though I'm hopeful that my small investment will yield some good tips to help me write and finish this novel. I'll let you know how it goes.

New Blog, New Motivation

(I have retired my WordPress Blog -- Journey Through the Word Forest -- and started this new blog: Writing the Journey.)

After my husband finished his long-awaited (and AWESOME, by the way) CD, I started thinking about my project and how much I truly want to finish it. I have let so many things get in the way over the past several years — yes, I said several years.

The idea for my novel germinated back in 1997. The main idea of the book has been overhauled a few times and I started writing the novel about 10 year ago. My problem is that I let other things take precedence...work, home, volunteering, etc., so my calculations of time actually spent working on my novel add up to about 9 months. Seriously.

My talent for procrastination is incredible. I can make up any excuse to avoid doing something...even those things I really want to do, like writing. While work, home, and volunteering are all valid reasons, they do not take up the whole of my day. I feel like, if my husband can finish his CD, then I can finish my novel, right? Of course, I can. I just need to stop procrastinating. Hmmm. How does one do that exactly? This is the 64 million dollar question.

I decided my first step is to take advantage of the fact that we are moving to another state soon to step back from a few things, specifically my work with the Foundation. More recently, I decided to resign my many posts there at the end of the year if we don’t move by then (we must sell our home before we can buy another to move). I want to finish my novel, do some traveling with my husband, and just get out more. Right now, I have become so entrenched in the Foundation I always have something to do for them, not really good for me anymore.

Step 1 will also help me reduce my stress levels, which are astronomical with a huge move on the horizon. Writing is relaxing for me, so that will also help relieve stress. My second step is to allow myself to drift and actually think about my novel, where it should go from where I left off, creating and organizing a timeline, and just allow the ideas ruminate. Creativity happens when you allow it to ruminate.

It’s never been about writer’s block, just lack of attention. I have made promises to myself before, so how do I know this time will be different? I am a procrastinator, after all. Well, I Don’t know that this time will be different. However, I DO know that if I don’t try, I will never finish my novel. So, I’m resolving to try again.