Writing

Seth Godin's blog today is a good one. If you haven't read it, here's your chance. If you don't read his blog regularly, I suggest you do. You don't have to agree with everything he says all the time (I certainly don't, and it aggravates me when I want more from him and he doesn't nudge through with just that little push), but he does have a unique view of the world that will open your mind.

Then, after you've read his blog for today, go write something! I did.

Feeling your harmony

Writing is a sublime passion. We find the "hole in the paper" and slip through to another world. We love being there in that world of our creation. Story surrounds us and we are in deep. In that moment, we understand the truth: harmony reflects passion.

If your writing has become a struggle and you're not feeling in the zone with it, is it time to rethink the plot? Go back to that last moment where the writing was easy and start again. Let your passion for the story tell you if you've gotten off track. Then you can get going again and finish your story.

Progress on Second Book

I have to admit that I thought writing the second book would actually be easier than the first. It's not like this is my first "cake walk." I've got several manuscripts under my bed, so to speak. I have been writing since I was four, after all.

I knew that most of the second book would be a total rewrite from what I already have, but I also knew I'd be threading in a lot of the material from my earliest drafts of this story. So what's happened?

I'm on chapter 8 of scripting this out. I realize I have a lot of talking heads. If nothing else, thinking about how I'm going to put this into a graphic novel eventually has made me more aware of character interactions and settings. Pick up any comic or manga and you'll see intense action on nearly every page. It is harder to maintain that level in a book. I also realize this is my very first draft of this and there will be much rewriting to be done so I'm not even real worried about pace right now.  There's something more bothering me.

I wish I could put my finger on it. Maybe I'm anxious because the first book is so close to coming out. Maybe it's because I don't feel ready to put a deadline on the second book.

I use to never understand authors who had writer's block. I never believed in it. Until I faced my own.

Am I scared of getting into this and facing another block? Am I afraid that I'll have a failure to launch with the first book and no one will even care about the second book?

It really is times like these when my main character, Steigan, gives me strength. I can hear him telling me to circle round my fear instead of letting it circle around me. To do the latter means that fear takes my strength, but in the former strength is gained from the energy of fear. It forces you to be your best, to think things through, to stay sharp. Yes, he would say, there is a mind-shift that occurs when one turns the tables on fear. Even now, I can feel it like a seed within me.

My first draft doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be material to start with. Yes, I know what's going to happen in the story -- I should after all the time I've spent on it.

Good, strong characters come from the core of the author. Steigan is my core. When I feel like I'm going to shoot off in a million directions or fall to pieces, he steps in and reminds me to be who I am. He is my balance, my center. As long as I've listened to his noble advise, he's never led me astray. I'm glad to be telling his story.