My novel is such a mess. Arrgh
Good morning. Have you ever found yourself saying/screaming this? Let these few hours of mayhem be a warning to all those working on their next, eagerly anticipated, piece. If you have not yet reached that dreamy goal of becoming a full-time writer, this applies even more to you. Why? Read on.
Most of us supplement the pittance trickling through from royalties with the infamous nine-to-five timeslot of billions. We must remain on track if we are to raise our status to that of the near deity that is the full-time writer who publishes at astonishingly short intervals. So here is what happened.
Work got super busy, making me too weary to maintain regular writing input. My novel, on paper, was languishing in a wash of daily-life-generated slush. In my head it was moving along at a crisp tempo as I created wonderful characters, scenes, action — filling mini breaks throughout the day. Well, that seemed okay. Days went by, turning into weeks as I struggled to rejoin in the conversation created to shove vast upheaval in the protagonist’s next days.
In the reality of my catching buses and looking for a hot coffee to start the day, coffees sat at novelist determined temperatures for far longer than physics should allow. Patrons waited past starvation for food and drink. Strangely unsettling if you put your head right into the paragraphs queued for ensuing development.
It is not hard to imagine the chaos I met when finally sitting down with some serious space to fill in those missing jewels. I had put scraps of paper that were filled with semi-satisfying threads, characters whose history had been mislaid, and timing that was considerably skewiff. It took ages to unravel and glue together in suitable flow all that was on notes, screen and secured in my head. I was sure the odds and ends scattered about my head were safely stored in ‘current novel’ files, ready for easy retrieval. Imagine the battle to sew it all together into a cohesive idea.
You got that right. Absolute chaos.
What did I learn? Mostly it was to retain a sense of importance on maintaining the integrity of the work, no matter how interfering life becomes. Make sure those flashes in your head and the secret agent notes in your pocket are removed and securely locked into the appropriate scene, attaching great significance to each minutiae gathered. Leaving these treasures scattered about for too long will lead to a situation that feels similar to building a loaf of bread once it has been turned to breadcrumbs. You know it is bread, but it looks nowhere near the product you were aiming for.
Well, hope you got a laugh out of my mess and that it gave you a word of warning in how you keep track when you cannot get set into a daily schedule of writing.
Have fun. We wish you success with your progress to publishing.
Kind regards. Damon