I feel all these vibes!! A writer needs incredible self motivation to keep going, I try to accept the bad days are as part of the process as good days! My problem is I'm impatient - why does it take so long to write a fully-formed book??!
I'm in the getting to know you phase and figuring out why the characters are in the book and what's the lesson they need to learn. My goal is to spend time with the project each morning, first thing, and put in the time to make the thing exist.
That's a wonderful goal, Brionni! It truly is baby steps, and I find morning writing to be my best time when I can get it. But if not, I try to find time when I can. It doesn't have to be perfect, we just have to keep chipping away!
What Hadley said about having to change gears to work on another project and then having trouble jumping back in really resonated with me. This winter, when I pivoted to getting my next book (Trust Falls) ready to publish this year, I was thinking about the momentum I'd just gained on my WIP, and I wanted to try to avoid that. I made scrupulous notes to myself in my Scrivener project that begin in all caps with something like WHEN YOU RETURN TO THIS PROJECT, START HERE!!! and then a specific, concrete set of tasks to do. I haven't gotten back to it and I suspect I won't get back to it until 2027 (because now I'm prepping a second book that's closer to publication-ready as well as Trust Falls), so I don't know that this will work, but I'm hopeful.
I write similar notes too Kathleen!! So so helpful to have those guideposts when we are jumping in and out and know we can't be as consistent as we'd like. Such a good point and thank you for sharing!!
I so relate. My 3rd book came out in January of this year and I've been working very sporadically on novel #4. I'm about 20,000 words in, but can't decide where to go with it. At first I wanted it to be a bit of a thriller, but decided that's not really my forte. I've pulled back and am stuck. But I think "trusting the process" is where I need to be.
Huge congratulations on book #3!! I found it so hard to jump into a new creative headspace after launching a book, so you should celebrate how far you already are. I am sure that you and this book will find its way and sometimes we have to sit with the discomfort of not knowing exactly where to go next to get there. I say that as I am in that same discomfort myself!!
I feel all these vibes!! A writer needs incredible self motivation to keep going, I try to accept the bad days are as part of the process as good days! My problem is I'm impatient - why does it take so long to write a fully-formed book??!
RIGHT?! lol books are so long it's silly any of us want to do this in the first place! But little by little, we get there. Rooting for you!!
Aww thanks!
I'm in the getting to know you phase and figuring out why the characters are in the book and what's the lesson they need to learn. My goal is to spend time with the project each morning, first thing, and put in the time to make the thing exist.
That's a wonderful goal, Brionni! It truly is baby steps, and I find morning writing to be my best time when I can get it. But if not, I try to find time when I can. It doesn't have to be perfect, we just have to keep chipping away!
What Hadley said about having to change gears to work on another project and then having trouble jumping back in really resonated with me. This winter, when I pivoted to getting my next book (Trust Falls) ready to publish this year, I was thinking about the momentum I'd just gained on my WIP, and I wanted to try to avoid that. I made scrupulous notes to myself in my Scrivener project that begin in all caps with something like WHEN YOU RETURN TO THIS PROJECT, START HERE!!! and then a specific, concrete set of tasks to do. I haven't gotten back to it and I suspect I won't get back to it until 2027 (because now I'm prepping a second book that's closer to publication-ready as well as Trust Falls), so I don't know that this will work, but I'm hopeful.
I write similar notes too Kathleen!! So so helpful to have those guideposts when we are jumping in and out and know we can't be as consistent as we'd like. Such a good point and thank you for sharing!!
I so relate. My 3rd book came out in January of this year and I've been working very sporadically on novel #4. I'm about 20,000 words in, but can't decide where to go with it. At first I wanted it to be a bit of a thriller, but decided that's not really my forte. I've pulled back and am stuck. But I think "trusting the process" is where I need to be.
Huge congratulations on book #3!! I found it so hard to jump into a new creative headspace after launching a book, so you should celebrate how far you already are. I am sure that you and this book will find its way and sometimes we have to sit with the discomfort of not knowing exactly where to go next to get there. I say that as I am in that same discomfort myself!!