My deadlines are usually self-imposed, but it still feels crummy to miss one of them. In particular, I am missing the deadline I set to finish editing my second novel before sending the manuscript to my editor.
Oh well. I can’t change it.
Sometimes, no matter how hard you pedal, you don’t make the progress you’d like.
So, why am I such a derelict?
Because the story is fighting me, and I am not presenting my editor with something half-baked.
My second novel has been fighting me nearly its entire lifetime. Who knows why. The title has changed. The format has changed. Characters have changed. Story has changed and expanded.
It has, however, improved tremendously.
I would love to plot out a novel, start to finish, and then write to the detailed outline and feel no stress. I don’t work this way. I am a “pantser” as they are called – and write by the seat of my pants. I layer my stories with an idea here, a character there, another nuanced passage, a redirect of some kind... on and on until, finally, I feel I have properly completed my novel. Then I send it to my editor, and the fun begins again. More on this in a later post.
Writer’s block is NOT the problem.
I do not stare at a blank screen or piece of paper, unable to put words to it. Instead, I am faced with a changing, evolving story, sadly of my own doing, and I must follow along, create, harmonize, and grow the thing. Do you have children? Work in progress is work in progress.
This novel – expected to be released in September 2023 (but no promises) is now called Thunder in Yellowstone; A Novel. Its working title, from the outset, had been Bison Hunter; A Novel. I initially planned on telling the story in the form of a diary or journal. I now include a journal, and its entries are paramount to the story, but I have shifted away from journal format in its entirety.
What has NOT changed is the beginning, the end, and what I hoped to show and accomplish by writing TIY.
It seems, I always know my beginning and end, but have to work in movement from point A to point B. In the case of TIY, I also had to face the fact that the story was failing to excite when it was in its previous journal format. I HAD to pivot. Scary, but essential. Similar to my first novel, Clean Sweep, my main character remained the same, but some of her relationships with others had to change. All of this was for the betterment of creating a fun, intriguing, thought-provoking, and entertaining story. Let me tell you, it has been torture. And pure joy. I love solving the problems of writing a novel and creating a story. I can’t wait to share this one with you. Stay tuned. I believe this year-long arm-wrestling with TIY is winding down!
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