Getting There From Here

I've got two WIPs going at the moment. One is completely written, in the editing stages, and waiting on its shiny new cover. The other is about halfway written on the first draft. Guess which one is giving me fits?

Yeah, the one that's already written. The cover is well in hand and I'm happy with the sketches I've seen so far. The book, itself? I want to pick my laptop up and throw it through the window. All I have to do is edit the darn thing and do a final read through. Why is that so hard? Each time I open the document to do that, I get lost in something else, side tracked, called away, or whatever. My head's not in it and I don't seem to be able to get it there.

I'm thinking one of the reasons is the two WIPs are so far apart in subject matter, it's just really difficult to leave one world and get into the other. The first book is more a novella at only 50k words. It's got some adventure, some romance and some fun. The second is one of the darkest things I've ever written and it absolutely wrings me out when I work on it. Trying to switch between the two is like going from gut wrenching sobbing to lollipops and rainbows. If messes with my head.

I'm working on a solution. One which will, hopefully, allow me to polish up the first so it's ready for publication. I'm putting the second WIP away for the moment. I've saved it, backed it up on a thumb drive, and closed the document to file away. I just can't bounce so far on the emotional scale and still be a functioning writer. Once the novella is released, I'll put my head back in the wringer and finish up the novel. Even if the characters in my head are pouting about being put in the corner for a time out.