Writing after a Break

Last week I wrote about 9,000 new words in MS:L. It took a minute to get back into the rhythm of working on it, but it felt really good to move the story that much closer to its’ ending.

Getting back into a story after taking a break from writing can be a really refreshing experience. In the time I had to walk away from it these past few weeks, it hasn’t been dormant, but rather quietly percolating in the back of my mind. The writing I did was much more in tune with the theme of the story and the characters’ journey. It still is 9,000 new words of a first draft, which is as great as first draft writing can be, but it’s exactly what I need to launch me into revisions for a better second draft. Nothing is as important as getting that first version of the story down on paper, much as it is sometimes difficult to let go of the idea of what the final version will be to get the first version out. With occasional reminders of these truths as I wrote, I was able to get that writing out and done. I was hoping to write about 3,000 words more, but that’s not bad for the week. We’re getting ready to move into a new phase with remote learning and in-person learning so the rest of this week was spent preparing for that. The word count I need to catch up on will be rolled into next week’s goals.

This week, with a couple of night sessions, I’m hoping to finish the first draft of MS:L! Once it is finished, I’m going to set it aside for revising at a later time. My next project is to work on the revisions and rewrites of MS:D and MS:TS. These are the next two manuscripts I’d like to query and I’m eager to get them polished. While it is a lot to work on two projects at once, it makes sense because these two stories happen in the same universe. This gives me a really great opportunity to work on creating a series guide. Doing both at the same time will make the stories stronger and help me see the deeper connections between the characters within the world. But, before that, I’ve got to focus to get the 13,000 words written to finish MS:L and it’s rather urgently calling for my attention. 🙂

In case you haven’t been told today, you are more than enough.

Happy Writing!