Confusion is the welcome mat at the door of creativity ~ Michael J. Gelb
How are your goals going for 2014? After a few adjustments along the way, I’ve achieved the first of my goals, which was to completely finish the manuscript for The Higher Law. I returned to my first merman novel and it is well on it’s way. My goal is to finish Sartin and then return to Frank and Gregory and the next part of their story in the sequel to A Place to Call Their Own.
But have you ever been at a point in your dream journey and just hit a brick wall? It’s a horrible feeling and situation to be in. Last December, after Disappear With Me was released, I was in such a spot. I had a healthy start on it, a quarter to a third of it, and at the same time it wasn’t clicking. I thought, maybe it’s not Robert’s time and moved to Sartin who had been swimming around in my head for about a year at the time. Literally swimming, Sartin is a merman.
I thought maybe I could use Sartin as my piece in November for NaNoWriMo. If you will reference any blog post from November or December, just remind me that as long as I work a full time job, I cannot write enough new first draft words to achieve NaNoWriMo! I am all for setting stretch goals, but it just takes me too long to formulate new words. If NaNo was about about editing, I could do it, no problem, but not new first draft words.
After Sartin didn’t work out, I toyed with the idea of skipping ahead of my plans and writing the sequel to APTCTO. By this time it was January, the holidays were over, I had no more excuses and needed to get to work. I didn’t have any finished manuscripts in the polishing stage. For as long as it currently takes me to write and polish, I had to get my butt in gear to get at least one title out this year.
Out of this confusion in early January, my mind cleared a path. I found the missing links in The Higher Law. After toying with the idea of working on three manuscripts at once, I settled back into it and was able to finish it last week. I am still waiting to hear from some beta readers, but so far the feedback is good. I hope to submit it to Musa by the middle of the month.
I am back to work on Sartin and his story is developing nicely. If all goes as scheduled, he should be ready for submission by October or November.
When has a time of confusion helped you muddle through and find the path back to your dream journey?
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Is it possible for two Civil War veterans to find their place in the world on the Kansas Prairie?
Love
is greater than hope or faith, but can Reverend Leander Norris convince
a jury that the love he shares with another man is natural?
Then request an Authorgraph, an electronic inscription, from me.
Use #APTCTO and #disappearwithme to mention on social media!
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