The Writing Life: Difficult Restart

A week ago I returned to a manuscript that had been in a file folder for nearly a year.  I had put it aside for various and sundry reasons. 

For those who don't follow my blog, I'm working  on the sixth book in the John Ross Boomer Lit series. 

I confess that it's been a rocky return to the manuscript. I work on a chapter each day with edits and rewrites. The problem is that I'm still not sure I like where the story is headed.

I originally thought I could build on the 40k words and finish the first draft in a couple months. Perhaps that'll happen once I get into a groove. 

My big concern is that I may be developing a case of writer's block with the manuscript. I've wondered if:

• Maybe I was away from the story for too long to get back into it? 
• I should simply put it away and come back when I can devote more time to it?
• I'm putting too much pressure on myself to complete the manuscript with my self-imposed deadline? 

The one solution I see right now is to quit fretting about rewriting, editing, and word count and simply read!

So that is what I plan to do. I'm going to re-read the manuscript, take a few notes along the way, and then get back into it with renewed energy and focus.

Don't you like reading thought processes of a writer? Kinda crazy, huh?

I'll let you know in a few days how things worked out.

Until the next time . . . 

The Writing Life: Back to the Keyboard

 It's been nearly a year since I saved the manuscript for my next novel on the hard-drive. I put it aside for reasons that I'll keep to myself. 

But on Feb. 1, I reopened it to begin work on the sixth book in my John Ross Boomer Lit series. It's my hope to have a complete draft finished in two months. 

I've written more than 41k words so my first task is to read what I've already written and go from there. So far it's been almost like going over another writer's words. That's good because I'm giving a reader's eye to the story.

I'll be making edits and rewrites along the way as the story comes back to life. Of course, I know the story in my head; just not the details from what a wrote a long time ago. I've put drafts aside in the past, but they were completed. I've never returned to a partial draft after almost a year. 

I've made mental notes and a few physical ones about the novel. I'm sure there will be more notations in the coming weeks. 

My editor at Wings ePress has reserved a spot to publish the book later in the year so I'm on somewhat of a deadline to get it to her in plenty of time for the edits, copy edits, proofreads and everything else entailed in transforming a manuscript into a novel.

Until the next time . . .