PIVOT, TWIRL, LUNG, AND LEAP

PIVOT, TWIRL, LUNG, AND LEAP by Mary Keliikoa

That headline almost sounds like a fancy dance move, doesn’t it?

As a child I’d wanted to be a dancer, so that’s likely why I gravitate to the terms. But in this case, they’re used to describe my writing journey over the past thirty years. What I left out were a couple of additional words that describe it slightly better: Evolve and adapt.

I started writing when I was in my late twenties. Having just rounded the sun now for the 60th time, that feels like eons ago—and it’s wild to think I’ve been writing for over half my life. It’s wilder to look back and see how many things have changed.

Of course, not all of those years were spent at the keyboard. In my mid-thirties, I stopped writing to open a company with my husband. I tried to maintain a writing schedule at first, but we had retail stores that were open seven days a week, ten hours a day, and that became all-consuming. Despite my best efforts, the writing had to eventually take a backseat. 

Sure, I yearned to get back to that novel I wrote in 1999 and see if it had potential, but the mental bandwidth to dive in and work on it didn’t occur for fifteen years, and shortly after I turned 50. It was that novel, however, DERAILED, that went on to be my debut in 2020 at the age of 55. 

Now nearly a decade later since I returned to my writing, my seventh book has just published, with an eighth coming next year.

The process has been hard some days, gratifying others, head-pounding-ly frustrating on more than one occasion, and all out exhilarating when I’m lucky. It’s also been eye-opening because the other change has taken some time to adapt to: It’s not just about writing anymore.

Back in the day, as I like to call it, there were no social media handles. Google had yet to come into its own. Research was done the old-fashioned way—books, libraries, and picking up the phone. Those methods still occur, but not without a computer search first. There were also no smart phones then, so my PI and detectives had to surveil and interview witnesses in person. The process of catching up to the new norm, and staying there, has been part of the challenge.

I’ve also evolved a fair amount over the years as a writer. Dedicated pantser for most of them, I’ve recently discovered that plotting might not be a dirty word. I know plenty who embrace the plotting life and can’t imagine sitting down to write without a road map. However, my previous attempts to plot often sent me spinning my wheels for days if not weeks. Soon, with my anxiety amped, I’d just give up. But in my recent projects, I’ve worked with an editor who encouraged me to try again. We did deep dives into character, and motivation, which informed the plot. I decided that my suspense novels were becoming too intricate not to have a game plan. 

Did this process take me weeks? No—it took months. Three to be exact—at least for the last few novels I’ve drafted. Was it worth it? Yes. The actual writing took nine weeks because I knew exactly where I was going. At the end of the day, about the same amount of time as if I’d pantsed it, just split differently. I’d like to say I’m a planster now, because the plot still has room for growth, and to pivot, jump, and twirl a bit. All essential in my world.

What is also true is that I never stop learning, never stop growing. At sixty, I’m realizing that the writing is the reward. With thousands of books entering the marketplace each year, AI looming, agents minimizing, publishers less willing to take risks, the fact I show up and write and create is the only thing I can control. And while it’s taken a minute, I’m finding it’s enough.

I’m not saying I’ve given up on directing that dance production I like to call my writing career. I still want to take the literary equivalent of leaps into the stratosphere and make it big.  But maybe I’m evolving and a little more relaxed as I adapt into allowing the writing to take me where it does. 

So, for now, I’m opening the window, throwing my elbow on the ledge (dog in the back seat of course) and letting the wind blow through my hair. I’m here for the journey and excited to see where we’re headed. 

Oh, and the song playing on the radio is The Best is Yet to Come because it is—and I intend to dance to it the entire way.

Eighteen years in the legal field, and an over-active imagination, led Mary Keliikoa to plot murder—novels that is. She is the author of KILLER TRACKS, the third book in the award-winning Misty Pines mystery series, the domestic thriller DON’T ASK, DON’T FOLLOW, and the multi-nominated PI Kelly Pruett mystery series. Her short stories have appeared in Woman's World and the anthology PEACE, LOVE and CRIME.