Not Much-of-an-Update Writing Update

​So, in case you haven’t seen my other blog, I’ll fill you in. Sometime back around the first of the year, I had finished another draft of my work in progress. I took a quick break before what I hoped would be my last draft before sending it off to beta readers. During the process, I had gotten stuck pretty badly and after a lot of thought; I ended up cutting about twelve thousand words or so. The character arcs and the setup for the second book are necessary, but I’m going to have to be more clever about how they end up in the story.
As a way to reignite the fire in me that was dwindling, I had started two new projects. One was simply a mash up of many ideas gathered from various other mediums over the years and the other is a TTRPG adventure. I have since added a third, but I digress. Since May, I was able to power through and finish the draft, but have decided to do some cleanup to the manuscript since removing words made a few foreshadowings null and void.

​In part, I believe some of the hardship I’d had with writing was likely due to the fact that I had attended a writer’s conference. If you know nothing about the Writer’s Conference Bell Curve, read up on it before you attend one. After the conference in March, I was productive, overly productive, but only with matters that weren’t actually writing. I sent all the emails, printed all the notes, reorganized my notebook, uncluttered my desk…I did it all except actually write.

When I did finally start making headway with my manuscript, I believe it was because I had finally gotten into the meatiest part of the journey for my main characters. They had some heart-breaking moments, and they all crossed a point where secrets were revealed, and liars sussed out.

They had spent much of the journey together out of sheer necessity, but their friendship started to bloom during that time. Unfortunately, I had gotten to a point where I start throwing rocks at them, so the comedic relief that was more prevalent in the beginning becomes harder to find as they navigate the last of the book, but the momentum helped me finish up that draft.
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On another note, I have finally let go and started sharing some of my work with others. This is utterly nauseating, but I received pretty good feedback, so I’m excited about it. I know my work still isn’t the best it could be, but it raises the spirits to know that I have some decent content.

Aesthetic depicting what's in store for the group... Photo credit: Marcello De Sousa