coastalwriter

[coastalwriter]

Moving Forward Again

The writing process can be a touch-and-go proposition, figuring out which ideas are going to work in the long run. It's even more difficult when you have illnesses that hinder your ability to stick to the kind of schedules that used to be easy to follow.

There are times when a story idea comes along and seems promising, but through the planning process, the structure necessary to take the plot all the way to the end fails to grow and make a nice novel.

Sometimes, both the idea and the plot are doing a fantastic job of growing in to a novel, and then my life and/or health come along and hamstring the progress.

The latter is where I found myself with the novel I started in August of 2020. As of August 2023, I was in uncharted waters with it. The usual strategy of taking a break and then coming back to it because it is firmly stuck in my head kept failing me.

My life had taken a sharp turn. I did my best to deal with the consequences of that, and was just about getting my head above water, when lo and behold – another life-shattering twist.

Those events were around two years ago as of this writing, but I was still struggling to get any sort of momentum back with that Work in Progress. I still have the desire to finish the story, because it has stayed with me. The plot, the characters. I still care. I still want to find out the little things that are going to pop up in between the big, figured out plot points as I write. I want to go on the journey with the protagonists.

But I was not able to sit down and pick up the story. Not for lack of time. For lack of… motivation, inspiration, energy, oomph, get up and go. Call it what you will.

However, the idea for another quite ambitious project came up and started to fire me up and get me thinking about characters and plot points and twists and connections. I was hesitant to get too deeply into the planning process, though, because I earmarked it as “The project after the one I’m working on now.”

That would be all well and good if I had been working on the “one I’m working on now”.

I was reluctant to abandon the “current” WiP, but I came to the realisation that I needed to consciously put it aside, and dive right into something new. Something which isn’t effectively split into before and after those events which had such a transformative effect on my physical and emotional wellbeing. Something to get lost in the process of planning and refining and beginning. Not to mention working on and finishing.

When things aren’t going right (write?), go left.

So I made a decision. I’m putting the Work Not In Progress aside, and began working on the New Project. Officially. It’s a thing. I took the plunge.

So now I am in full planning mode, fleshing out the ideas I’ve been jotting down for future reference for a couple of months now. Instead of feeling dragged down by the fact that I want to finish the book, I’m excited to reach the point of beginning. 

Let’s do this.

[coastalwriter]

Hey, hi, hello.

My name is Erica. I am a self published indie author from Tasmania, Australia. I used to brand myself as Misted Words because of my multiple chronic illnesses, but after some major upheavals in my life, I decided to "rebrand". These days I go under the Coastal Writer moniker. My Facebook and Instagram are both coastal.writer

I had a tumblr before (as well as other blogs and websites), but I did a bit of a purge of stuff and things when I was trying to sort myself out. I decided to forego the blog and concentrate on the "popular and relevant" social media, namely Instagram, and to a lesser extent, Facebook. Yeah, turns out I don't do so well at building those platforms, because short-form media has never been my speciality.

C'mon... I am a novelist!

So after some further soul-searching - I'm back! Still writing through the brain fog, still learning how I move forward as the person I am now that my life has been changed so much.

I don't promise any earth-shattering insights, nor brilliant teaching moments on the craft of writing. But I hope to bring anyone who connects with this space some honesty, some glimpses of my personal writing process, and plenty of humour to season the mix.

Until next time, take care!

~ Erica xo