Manuscript News
Since late November I’ve been pretty much exclusively drafting longhand. I personally find it creatively nourishing, as well as convenient for a busy lifestyle, since I can take my notebook in my purse to work, gymnastics practice, etc. After NaNo was over I no longer felt the need to actively transcribe my day’s work into my word processor, which took a little bit of my writing workload off my plate at a time when I needed reprieve.
Well, I finally got around to doing that this week, and the sum total of December’s efforts is… 5000 words.
Yep, I did just a hair over 50,000 in November, and followed it up with a tenth of that in December. Actually, probably even less than that since some of the pages I transcribed were written after the New Year.
And, you know what? I’m pretty proud of that. It would be easy to let myself get down about it and stress myself out again to the point of not wanting to write at all, but in the end it’s more than what I started with and that’s what counts.
The Weekly Struggle
We’ve all felt it: that itch to create. That sudden seizure of a new, wonderful idea. Characters form in your head, setting shapes itself before your very eyes, a plot arc too tantalizing to resist calls out to you.
Problem is, you’re in the weeds of another project at the moment.
So, what do you do?
That is the question I have been asking myself this week.
I’m a percolator, personally. I like to let an idea simmer on the backburner for a couple years before sinking my teeth into it, using that time to focus on whatever project is presently at hand. Lately one of those ideas has come up due. It has been relentlessly nagging at the back of my mind, even as I struggle through the middle of the first draft of my current WIP, Border Towns.
I have heard some people have the ability to juggle multiple projects at once, surging ahead in whichever fickle inspiration has deemed worthy at the moment, and then returning to those left behind when the mood strikes.
If this sounds flippant, I don’t mean it to. Indeed, I’m ravenously jealous. Because I, dear readers, am quite the opposite. Once I turn away from an idea, I may as well consider it dead. I can never seem to recapture the magic of a story left by the wayside, and if I do manage to compel myself to take it up again, I typically have to start all over from scratch in order to rediscover the excitement that drew me to it at the very start.
In any case, even if I were to give in and crack open a fresh notebook, there would still be a Great Soupy middle to muddle through, there would still be new and exciting ideas calling out to me, and there would still be a pile of unfinished manuscripts waiting for me to return to.
So, for now I will jot down bits and bobs of ideas as they come, but Border Towns, come hell or high water, is my priority.
What I’m Reading This Week
I have a couple of Greek-inspired stories brewing, including the one that’s been vying for attention of late, so this book came to me at the perfect time. One might think it would be the worst thing to read whilst trying to fend off the tantalizing idea of greener pastures, but actually it helped me suss out some things I do and don’t want to do with my stories.
But enough about me.
Circe isn’t just Greek-inspired. It’s not just Greek mythology based. It’s practically historical. It is a retelling and reshaping of the mythology of the titular goddess, most commonly remembered from Homer’s The Odyssey. But don’t think that this is a 300 page rehash of the famous epic. Circe spans hundreds of years, features Greek myth across the spectrum, from the obscure to the well known, and cameos more gods, goddesses, demi-gods and everything in between than I could count.
I consumed it. If you’re a fan of Greek-inspired fiction… well, chances are you’ve already read this. But, if not, it is worth the buy.
That’s all from me this week. I hope you all are powering through your own struggles, whatever they may be. Until next time!
or
Just Another Struggling Writer 
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