If you’ve read past posts, you know that I wrote my first book (Synchronicity) having literally no idea what I was doing. Going through the process was a crash course in author-ship. Thankfully, I chose to write the prequel novella (Demergence, aka book 0 of the series) before publishing book 1. Not only did it clarify what was missing from the initial versions of Synchronicity, it was a much simpler process. I learned. Less guesswork was required.
Choosing to publish those books back-to-back was also an education. There’s something about doing it twice that helps transform painful lessons into essential knowledge. I completed the process with two chunks of experience in authoring novels and plenty of motivation. Immediately, I jumped into writing book 2 of the Social Science Icons & Grace series, ready to leverage this newfound experience into a steady stream of content and book sales. And then…
I got distracted by the need to execute a public stock offering for my company. The desire to write faded as the words put to paper slowed. Writing a prospectus was tiring and I didn’t have the energy to write fiction afterward. Months passed. Capital flowed into the company and public reporting became the focus. Each day I was more financial services professional and less author.
Three events occurred in succession that got me back in the saddle. First, a family member had a surgery and I traveled away from home to care for her. Once the conversations began to repeat and the political news on MSNBC became intolerable, I cracked open the iPad and started reviewing the stale 19k words of Book 2. They weren’t bad, actually. I even remembered (mostly) where I wanted to go with the story…so I wrote a scene and then a second. I realized I was only two scenes away from a first draft of the beginning hook. That’s when the pandemic hit, the second of the three events. COVID-19, while an awful illness, changed the nature of how I worked and played. It created extra time. After returning home I started to fill small bits of that time with writing, but unstructured. I picked up the iPad if I felt like it. Watching movies still took priority, though. I was almost there but not quite. The third event was a reconnection with a different relative, this one an aspiring writer herself. We acknowledged that each of us could use some light-hearted writing support and began communicating daily. We talked about process and craft. I realized that I knew how to do this. Motivation reared its welcome head. On a Saturday afternoon I discovered that I was re-engaged with both time and motivation at my fingertips. The perfect storm.
Like when I wrote Synchronicity and Demergence, I’m back into the structure needed to write effectively. Only this time it feels different. I know what I’m doing, at least as far as the craft of writing goes. When I hit the inevitable lull in creativity, I instinctively begin a line edit, patiently awaiting the return of said creativity. If it doesn’t come back, I know that I’ll start writing down my dreams as proof that creativity still exists in that noggin of mine. When the desire to plan becomes overwhelming, I know to limit myself to broad strokes because deep outlining bogs me down and I lose inertia. When the plot becomes the focus and the process becomes fuzzy and sterile, I know to focus on my voice and character development. I remember that the first draft will be crap no matter how many line edits I do and no longer worry about it. I also know that the serious editing comes AFTER the first draft, not before.
All this to say – I’m back! I’ve updated the back matter of both published works to better tie them together and I plan to find a new cover designer to produce something more compelling for all three books. While doing that, I expect to learn how to make the descriptions/blurbs compelling (finally). But most of all, I’m going to write. Every day. Without fail. In some form or manner. I’m told that one method to ensure accountability is to make a public commitment. Here’s mine: Book 2 is steadily taking shape and my goal is to publish it early fall 2020.