Ever have that smashing idea for a story but wind up getting stuck in the process? Your GMC just isn’t there, or maybe it’s your characters who can’t decide what the heck it is that they want to do. Those are things we can’t control. Sure you could write the first draft of a novel in thirty days, but hell, can you imagine all the bloody rewriting you’d have to do just to figure out where you’re going.
In 2009, I endeavored to write my first full-length novel. The premise was good—or at least I thought it was. To this day, I haven’t found another book like it. And for a while there, I thought this was it for me. Wrong. I won’t go into the specifics of how many ‘newbie’ mistakes I made because we all make them and this is not what this post is about, but sometimes you need to bring your idea to a rolling boil before you write any further.
Here, we are now, three years later, and Mistress of Forsaken Souls: Pandemonium has been driving me crazy. Who’d have thought that a lengthily break was exactly what the story needed.
Has this happened to you? How long did it take you from start to finish?
You know I rewrote one story several times before I got anywhere with it, and I’m doing the same with my current WIP.
Hugs! Hoping it goes well.
Happens to me ALL the time. I have to ‘percolate’ the story in my brain, the characters need to sort themselves out, something doesn’t feel right, whatever, it means I’m not ready to write yet. I completed NaNoWriMo recently, but I haven’t touched the thing since then. There are tons of things that need to be changed and I’m not ready yet. I’ll know when I am. I think as writers we need to trust our instincts.