I've been a little all over the place with writing.
This year so many of my ideas and dreams for my future changed. My priorities dramatically shifted. Writing used to be near the top, now there's a few more things above it. I took some time away, I started some new hobbies. I finally returned to writing and what hasn't changed is my love for writing.
At the beginning of the year I sat down and wrote a short story I'd been pondering for a while. It's set in a world I co-write with one of my best friends that I've written a few book drafts in. It follows a young werewolf who's trying to reconnect with his estranged father. It was supposed to be a romance, but the rebuilding of his relationship with his father took the spotlight and I love how it turned out more than how I'd planned it.
I'm really in love with this world and these characters. I've written in this world since I was 10ish, and its just easy to fall into the world and each story. I know these characters so well. But I've never written a short story. I got it onto the page pretty quickly and really loved a lot of what I wrote. . .
Then came editing.
I've written a good few first drafts. . . But have never gone on to edit any of them. I very quickly get overwhelmed. Trying to sift through 60,000 to 100,000 words and make sense of it all is hard. Its not a skill I've worked on at all. Its not something I've researched much. I feel like I need to read a hundred books and articles and blogs about editing. So even having only 8,000 words to sift through was daunting, I think I got through the first scene before I set it aside.
I want so badly to finish that short story, and more, to finish a first draft and then edit the whole thing. Editing one scene is so much easier, editing a whole book. . . Its so much easier to just start the next one.
So that is what I've done. Started plotting a story I had thought of years ago, but never put any work into. One of the things I've learned over the last few (failed) drafts is that I have to be willing to let the story change. In the past, I've hung on to how I imagined it, and didn't let things shift and change like it needed to.
This whole story started with one idea: friends you'd go to hell for. It's become something I'm really excited about. Darker than anything I've planned before, and I'm nervous to see if I can pull it off! I haven't read much horror/thriller, and I'm not entirely sure if that's what I'm going for or not or if it's going to be more action. I know my writing tends to read as very YA, and I love more argument/relationship drama and less fighting/action scenes. So the entire thing is out of my norm and I think it will be awesome.
My short story it still sitting on my desk, 4 months after completing it. The document is still open on my laptop, I still think it about it most days. I need to finish it. And a huge reason I wrote it was to do exactly what I'm avoiding: learn to edit a short story before I more on to editing entire book drafts.
My last few months have been spent daydreaming and sourdough baking, and a lot of music listening. I've read some really really good books, and been trying to refil my creative well, and branch out and learn new things. I wanted to see if I could live without writing, and the resounding answer is no. Even thought I have a million more things to learn, and a ton of hard work ahead, I'm excited to work on all these stories I'm working on and give them life outside my daydreams.
Much love,
Thane
Comments