I’ve come to a shocking discovery and I’d like to share it with you. Ready??? Drum roll please. *drums fingers on thighs rapidly*
“Writing is HARD”
Gasp! Shocking I know. Okay, maybe it’s not the most shocking news in the world. Actually, if I were guessing, I’d say about 88% of people on the planet (exaggeration?) think writing is super hard. But as I’ve grown and developed my writing skills, I keep getting reminded of this fact.
I love writing. It’s one of the ways I feel I can communicate best with the people around me. The thing is though, writing is an extremely immersive activity. Oftentimes, my emotions line up heavily with what I’m writing. If I’m writing an epic battle, my heart rate picks up and my palms get sweaty. If I’m writing about death, I grow sad and might shed a tear or two. If I’m writing the triumphant scene where the hero reaches his goal the entire book’s been leading up to, I am bursting with energy. But a lot of the time when I’m writing, especially during the scenes in the book where I’m not quite sure what I’m trying to accomplish, writing can be extremely draining.
I can often grow weary of typing in my computer. It’s kind of sad really, writing has become my purpose but can also be my mountain as well. It kind of poetic though, right? The hard tasks are what give life meaning. If everything were easy, I think that would be a pretty boring life don’t you?
But enough of this sad pecking away at keys… Do you want to hear about what I’ve been writing? In December of last year, I wrote the first 40,000 words of a middle grade Sci-Fi affectionately called Project Green Future. SIDE NOTE: I give all of my books code names. This helps give it a steady name until I am ready to give it an official name, and it wraps the book in several layers of mystery. I can’t reveal all my secrets after all.
In the beginning of January this year, I wrote 10,000 more words in Project Green-Future. I had to put aside the project for a couple of months due to work, but I’m back at it again. Right now, it’s sitting at about 59,000 words. It’s currently the longest project I’ve ever worked on, beating out Project Orange-Hope (my first novel) by about 5K. Here’s the problem: I’m only halfway through the outline and I was shooting for 50K to be the ENTIRE novel. It’s for kids after all. I may have been a weird child who would eat up 500 page books as an eight-year-old but I’m pretty sure that’s not the standard.
This being my second book, I’ve begun to realize I’m a overwriter on the first draft. Considering that I’m also a huge fan of massive revisions and edits, this should be the perfect balancer. But getting to the end of the first draft so I can start editing is getting challenging. The story keeps getting longer, and with it, the word count I’m going to have to cut from the story to get it readable. On the bright side, I spent several YEARS writing Project Orange-Hope and I will have (hopefully) finished the first draft of this Sci-Fi within a year. To be fair though, I was like 14 when I started writing Project Orange-Hope. But still! YEARS to write it…
I’d say the goal is to not think about it (the mountain of a word count in PGF, that is). The thing is, most of the time all I can do is think about it. I’ve come with one semi-solution so far. I took the outline I had and copy and pasted out pieces that had to happen for the book to conclude. I placed all of these in their own mini-outline so I can keep looking at it to show me what is left to be written. I think I’ve about passed over this writing slump I’ve been in with this project. YAY! I just need to keep consistently working toward the end. Ah, such an easy task. (Please note my sarcasm.)
Project Orange-Hope is currently in the process of getting an agent. But who knows, I might need to switch to the independent publishing route. If so, I’m going to need to start saving more money. Those who reap the greatest rewards are the ones who invested the most after all. I’ve already sent one book proposal out. Last year I sent a few query letters but heard nothing back. Hopefully this round will be different. I’ve found the next agent I’m going to reach out to. By the end of next week, I hope to have this next proposal sent out. We’ll see how it goes. Be praying.
I’ve got another project I’ve started working on as well. Yes, I am juggling three projects at once. What’s your point? It’s not too bad. I actually like it quiet a bit. It means I can have several different types of projects to work on. One is in the book proposal stage, arguably the slowest stage, including the first draft. Another book is being drafted. This last project I mentioned is being outlined. I have the prologue written to give me some momentum. I gotta admit, I’m really excited for this one. I can’t tell you much yet, but stay tuned. You never know when I’m going to drop clues. Honestly, I don’t know when I’m going to drop clues.
Well, that’s all I have to talk about today. The moral of the story? I need to keep working. I know it’s tough, but if it were easy there wouldn’t be a point to doing it would there? Have a wonderful day. Whatever big project you should be working on, give it a nice try today for me okay? You can do it!
See you on the next page! – S.J.
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