It has been over two years since I’ve blogged, but it’s time to get back to work. I spent some time finishing and submitting my novel to publishers and that took up a lot of my attention. Unfortunately, those submissions did not go well. Granted, it was really only about ten submissions and it was last summer, but I got very discouraged and basically lost all interest in this novel that I had spent my time and heart on. I was honestly a bit heartbroken.
So I gave up.
Recently, I started getting back into it, but my passion has waned. It isn’t that I don’t want to write. It isn’t that I don’t want to get published. I’m just a bit…hopeless about the whole process.
So I started doing some soul searching. I truly feel that this is my calling. I feel that I have unique ideas and perspectives to offer the world for both entertainment and growth. As much as I enjoy reading, I want to offer that enjoyment to the world. I want to help people grow, find themselves, and find a lightness in the imaginary worlds I create that will help them through the heaviness of their normal lives. I want it. And that realization is stoking the flame again.
This means it’s time to get back to the thing I love: the writing. But I need to throw myself into it harder than before. I need multiple projects to work on to keep my changing gears and keep me interested. I don’t necessarily mean different WRITING projects as in different novels. I have different stories at different stages of margination so I have plenty of material to work with. But I need more than that. This is coming down to three to four projects:
- Restarting my blog (right here!). This will allow me to get my feelings about the writing onto paper which gets it out of my head and my heart, clearing the way for the creativity to flow. I won’t lie and say that I have not considered someone in my position reading my blog and finding comfort in it through identifying with my plights and struggles.
- Finding an editor. Through my submissions and rereading my first chapter repeatedly, I’ve found weakness in it which has shone doubt on the rest of the project. Ten rejections have not helped. So, it’s time to call in professional help. Point out my problems. Point out my strengths. Help me find ways to bolster what’s working and make the story more engaging and entertaining.
- Write the “next” story. It’s good to keep the well flowing to keep it from getting stale. I have many stories at various points in the marination/maturation process, but there are three in the hopper that I could write at the moment:
- Book 2 in The Tidestone Cycle
- Book 1 in a new trilogy on a new planet in the same Stratum (I’ll post about my whole story universe tomorrow)
- A short story that has my brain enthralled involving causal loops
- A potential newsletter. I’ve learned a lot from authors I respect and whose stories I love and one common thread is a newsletter. This would definitely be a monthly thing; daily and weekly newsletters make me crazy when they flood/clog my inbox so I don’t want to make it worse. Monthly works well for me so I’m considering that. For now, obviously, it would just be project updates like this, but, should publishing begin for me, no WHEN, then I would include that as well.
Between these four writing initiatives, I should have enough to keep me busy. If I’m busy, I’m interested. If I’m interested, I’ll keep writing. And that is the critical thing right now.
I just took a look back at my writing chart from 2016 and I was doing A LOT of writing on a daily basis. It’s time to get back to that. To make this blog work, though, I need a system. So here’s what I’m thinking for the format:
- Update on the progress of finding an editor for Blood in the Storm
- Recap of yesterday’s writing
- Thoughts, feelings, hopes, dreams, fears, and other items
We’ll see how this goes, but I want this! My wife (that’s right, I got married recently!) is starting her dream of owning and operating a wedding planning business. I want to work on my dream as well. This is my dream. This is my calling. It’s time to answer.