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I’ve spent two years
writing my current WIP. It’s been a slow process because I worked with a
critique group in which the four of us reviewed our work twenty pages at a
time. My work is about 300 pages, divided by twenty pages equals twelve weeks,
times four writers equals 48 weeks, plus vacations and holidays. Then, the time
compounded by two members dropping out and being replaced by two new members so
we started back at the beginning—it’s been two long years.
Before the summer started, I read my work in its entirety,
made notes on revisions and then stopped. It wasn’t the summer disruption, but
writing short stories that took me away from my WIP. For my efforts, one has
already been published, “An Acidic Solution” in the anthology, He Had It Coming, and I
received notice from publisher Linda Fisher of Mozark Press that my short story
“No Hair Day” will be published in the next Shaker
of Margaritas: Bad Hair Day anthology due out by Thanksgiving. I have no
regrets about taking time off from my WIP because of those successes, although
one of my shorts was rejected, but I have two more that I’m in the process of
completing for submission, so maybe I’ll get lucky with the next ones too.
But, it’s been four months since I’ve worked on my WIP, and
I’ve decided to turn one of my shorts into a novel, which at the moment—I’m
plotting. The new novel excites me. The only part I haven’t worked out yet is
how it ends. It is this enthusiasm that draws me to write short stories. I
usually spend about a month on one short; one week writing, a week revising, a
week submitting to my critique group, the last week perfecting the story. Then,
I’m ready for a new enthusiasm.
In my earlier years, I read psychology books. One sentence I
read confounded me. In effect, it said that feelings are fleeting. At the time,
I wanted to balk at the notion because it connoted superficiality, and I
admired substance. My friends were few, but ones I’d kept for years. My
feelings for them and family weren’t fleeting. But now, I find myself waxing
apathetic about my WIP. I’m wondering if my fleeting feelings about my work and
escaping into shorts indicates superficiality, which I equate to unprofessional
conduct.
I’ve written three
manuscripts in full and submitted one to agents. I know I have the wherewithal
to finish what I start. And yet, I want to put my WIP on the hold shelf and
start the new novel, which is a traditional mystery and which may have a wider
market than my WIP, a supernatural mystery. I’m kicking myself. If the current
WIP hadn’t taken so dang long to write would I feel this lack of enthusiasm for
it? I’m wondering if I don’t write the new novel, will my enthusiasm for it
wan, which I don’t want to happen. Am I that superficial and unprofessional?
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| www.visuality-group.co.uk/flake |
And, after I finish the two shorts I’m working on now, I
have one more to write before the holidays. How much can I get done and which
one should I work on first? In a way, it’s a happy dilemma, and yet whatever I
do, I want to follow through and be a professional. Writing is a profession,
but there are aspects of it that resemble wanderlust, echo of mystic callings
and sensor to a muse.
I sound like a flake. Do you allow your feelings to
determine your work?
Congrats on the short story publication credits.
ReplyDeleteWith so many potential projects, I suggest working on the ones that call to you. You'll put hour heart into them and it will show.
That's not to say that you won't have to do hard work, but if you believe in the project, that effort will be more joyful than work.
~ Jim
That's what I'm doing, Jim. My WIP I can always return to at a later date. Whether I'll do so or not, time will determine. I feel as if I've wasted two years of my time. Yes, I've learned a lot, but I'm that much further away from getting a novel published. This time, I'm writing the rough draft by myself so it doesn't take so darn long!
ReplyDeleteI totally understand feeling like you're flaky for flitting from project to project, EB (pardon the alliteration). I agree with Jim, though. Do the ones that call to you, because maybe the other ones need to percolate a little longer.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you're not having google/blogger issues like the rest of the WWK bloggers. It maybe that my WIP must percolate more, but I'm wondering if I want a supernatural as my first book? I think after I get the first traditional mystery published, then I'd feel more secure having a supernatural published. I'm sort of using Sue Jaffarian as an example, an author I love who first did traditional, then supernatural and then paranormal (but I like reading all three).
ReplyDeleteIf you're excited about the new story, that's where I'd suggest you go. Sometimes you can work on a story so long that it's like beating a dead horse. I'm not saying the book you've spent so much time and energy on should be shelved, but putting it aside while you work on something that has your full interest may be what you need to look at it later with a fresh eye. There's always a little disappointment when you don't finish something you've started, and I think that's why you feel let down. I always look at things in a broader sense. Think of what you learned writing that first book? Think of how you'll apply that to the next book. But most of all, you should make a decision not to be sidelined with other ventures. Stay with it. Remember my offer.
ReplyDeleteThis is my third script. I finished the other two. The first one of course is on my hard drive and will never see the light of day. The second one I marketed and got some bites, but no takers, which was why this manuscript was so important. The length of time it's taken, though, has taken its toll. I'd like to finish it--at some point. But now I've got all these ideas flowing and I'm taking Kris Neri's plotting course, which has really helped organize my thoughts, so I'm getting it all on paper, organizing all the plot points, etc. I'm ON. At least if I could put blogging on the shelf for a few weeks!
ReplyDeleteEB, you've finished the first draft on your WIP, so there's no problem with writing the first draft of the novel that's calling you. Revision is often best done after a nice long break from the original book, anyway.
ReplyDeleteThat sense of finishing what you start to consider yourself a professional is really about the first draft. We all have dozens of tantalizing new ideas come up when we're struggling with the muddled middle. That's the time to just write them down on the side and keep on trucking until you finish that draft. If you're writing a new project's first draft while the old one's resting and you're gaining distance on it, you're being professional still--as long as you finish that second project's first draft!
What would I do without you, Linda. Thank you sooo much for saying that. I'll get back to it, but I have to move forward with the new project. The straight jacket has been removed.
ReplyDelete