I love this time of year. The leaves are turning a new shade, falling to the ground, making crunchy steps along the way.
The view outside is beautiful. Only if there wasn't a blank screen staring back at me every time I sit down to write. That's the problem with starting a new project. So long had I spent editing my last novel that I had grown comfortable with the fact that I HAD a whole novel to sit back on.
It was done. I just had to tidy up a bit!
But this. This blank pageness. It's daunting to say the least.
So I research. Set out to find some material to make word love with, hoping we can produce some sort of baby that will find it's way into every breathing moment of my life, begging and urging me to write until, alas, the novel is complete.
That's what happened with Waiting for Paint to Dry. I HAD to write it. The damn book wouldn't NOT let me not write it.
The book I'm working on now is one that demands to be written too, only, I first have to do the research needed to make the story grow on it's own.
And the research so far is creeping me out.
Seriously. I've got the heebie geebies and I'd rather fold laundry and scrub toilets than read into this anymore. And I've tried. I've written the first'ish chapter and done some research then retreated to mundane chores that halt all progress hoping it would also halt the thoughts starting in my head.
But it didn't. I needed to know more. And more. More research yesterday. More today. Even more creeped out now!
But I write Women's Fiction, you say. What is creepy about Women's Fiction? Isn't all about the happily ever after and all that sweet lovin' jazz?
Yes. But it's not always so cut and dry, this love and life, is it?
Nor is it bereft of the supernatural.
No. Not vampires. Not witches. No zombies...although I'm a huge Walking Dead fan and I'd follow Daryl and Carol anywhere (Rick is an idiot).
Supernatural to me is quite natural. Our souls. Our spirits. They reside in all of us and should have a place in our stories just as we are in theirs. When you read Waiting for Paint to Dry, there's a hint of spiritual direction, and not the kind you think. Can't wait for you to read it. Hear what you think of the added element ;)
But I digress.
This book I'm working on and doing the research on isn't the sequel to Waiting for Paint to Dry. That book doesn't need much research, hence I already have the first 3 chapters written and notes on more to come. But I just don't feel a heart at that story yet. Hence I stopped writing it to pick up on this new one. And when I don't feel it for this one I pick up my children's book writing, and then back to the sequel and so on and so forth.
One of these days, one of these stories is about to take off.
But I don't let the blank page keep me from writing. Instead of lamenting about not knowing what to write about on that particular day for that particular story, I just turn to the next one and write there. Or the next. THere's always something to write. Either the sequel, the next novel, some children's poetry, or even this blog.
The key to writing is to WRITE EVERYDAY. No one said WHAT to write. Just write.
Write everyday.
And you'll be a writer.
:)
