Storying is Hard.
Some of you (esp if you know me IRL or on other social media sites) probably know I've been struggling a bit, writing-wise, over the past few years. My daughter was born in 2013, and has kept me hopping ever since, and the previous year, within a span of five months, I got an agent, went on submission, was passed to another agent, and then dropped when my project didn't sell. Not outside the norm for a writing life, and I know other people who've had similar things happen, but I'd also been floundering on my next project even before I got dropped. So basically, since early 2012, I've been a bit off.
All this off-ness has happened while I've been trying to work on a project-- DARLINGTON (Full working title: DARLINGTON: WHERE SHADOWS DWELL A Novel of the Dominions). I've been thinking for years that it was an inherent problem with the story I'd written in the first draft-- and I couldn't seem to get away from certain plot-events that I kept questioning. They just didn't make sense to me, no matter how I played with character motivations, setting changes, cutting minor characters, whatever. I tried writing other projects because I kept getting frustrated with this one. Actually, I tried switching to not one, but five other projects. Six, if you include revising ACCURSED (the book that was on sub), partway in 2013, and then fully a couple months ago.
No, despite having started it in December 2010, I couldn't figure out DARLINGTON until last week. In 2016. *headdesk* And it wasn't even something totally outside of what I already had-- oh, no. It was a subplot that had been there since the beginning. One that I knew turned out to be important in the ending, but that didn't surface much throughout the middle of the book-- in fact I'd debated trying to find a way to cut it all together.
So here I am, starting yet another draft of this dang book (because I also discovered it seems to work better in present tense, not past-- who knew?), and hoping I have enough energy in me to get a queryable draft by the end of this year. Oh, did I mention I now have a 2 1/2 year old, and I'm 15 weeks pregnant? O_O But I have to try. I've given too much of myself to this novel to let it go just when I'm finally seeing the The Way Out.
All this off-ness has happened while I've been trying to work on a project-- DARLINGTON (Full working title: DARLINGTON: WHERE SHADOWS DWELL A Novel of the Dominions). I've been thinking for years that it was an inherent problem with the story I'd written in the first draft-- and I couldn't seem to get away from certain plot-events that I kept questioning. They just didn't make sense to me, no matter how I played with character motivations, setting changes, cutting minor characters, whatever. I tried writing other projects because I kept getting frustrated with this one. Actually, I tried switching to not one, but five other projects. Six, if you include revising ACCURSED (the book that was on sub), partway in 2013, and then fully a couple months ago.
No, despite having started it in December 2010, I couldn't figure out DARLINGTON until last week. In 2016. *headdesk* And it wasn't even something totally outside of what I already had-- oh, no. It was a subplot that had been there since the beginning. One that I knew turned out to be important in the ending, but that didn't surface much throughout the middle of the book-- in fact I'd debated trying to find a way to cut it all together.
So here I am, starting yet another draft of this dang book (because I also discovered it seems to work better in present tense, not past-- who knew?), and hoping I have enough energy in me to get a queryable draft by the end of this year. Oh, did I mention I now have a 2 1/2 year old, and I'm 15 weeks pregnant? O_O But I have to try. I've given too much of myself to this novel to let it go just when I'm finally seeing the The Way Out.