Hello and Catch Up!
It’s been too long since I’ve posted here, and I think it’s time to remedy that. I have been deep into Novel November (again!) because the project I started around a year ago needed a complete re-plot. I’ve spent all year working on a version of this book, and it changed every month due to my own learning and feedback. I amended it in various ways, and then in October I hit a wall and the project before me felt off. So, I tore the plot apart. I simplified it. I made it more about the main character and less about her ex. I stripped it bare and rebuilt it – two stories crisscrossing in time – Mia’s own personal journey as well as her romantic journey. I didn’t need a tonne of the backstory I’d created. Obviously I need backstory, because that makes Mia who she is, but I’d added so much convenient backstory (as well as the convenient death of her parents) but it ended up clogging the forward plot. I didn’t need it all.
But starting again (again) was HARD. It was very touch and go whether I’d bin the whole thing or not. But by the time November rolled around, I knew I had to give it a shot. I mean, I’d worked on it for a year, attended classes, reworked elements and given myself to the characters. I also wanted to take part in Novel November, so it made sense to stick with something I really knew, rather than starting again and having more unfinished projects.
I’d had so many hopes of querying in November. To be writing a fresh draft instead is both disappointing and also proof I’m tenacious. And it might be delusional, but I don’t care. Every other unpublished novelist I know is the same; we work hard, fall down, pick ourselves back up again and the cycle continues. WE. NEVER. GIVE. UP.
But I won’t lie, as a neurodivergent person, writing a book is HARD. Executive dysfunction, demand avoidance, overwhelm, low self-esteem, anxiety, exhaustion (just to name a few!). But my main goal is to push through and write, and November helps with that because it’s a sort of accountability challenge and plays right into my ‘too little time, too much work, you can’t do this, yes you can’ brain!
Anyway, I’m hoping to be more present here, to show you my (very long) journey to publication. Even writing that I feel like a fraud, because there are no guarantees. Hang on, there is one. If I stop writing, that’s the end of my journey. And I choose to continue…
So if you’re struggling or second guessing yourself, please remember, things will get better, you will work your way through it and come out of the other side. Just don’t give up!
Kels xxx
