Location Effects, Summons in a Bookstore, and the Pit of Panic!!!

This week I took a break.

I was 25,000 words into the manuscript of Book Two, and wasn’t feeling it. There are some differences between the first and second worth noting:

I wrote Summons in Montreal, in a new apartment that was very bright, full of light from morning through the afternoon. I was going to yoga every night. I was in a social network with lots of friends to visit and hang out with.

I am writing – or trying to write – Book Two in Ottawa, in the house I grew up in. It is relatively dark. I swim 2-5 times a week. I barely go out.

I know writing books like The War of Art tell us to do our work no matter what the circumstances, but… we are artists, not machines, are we not? YET… I do suppose there is something I must get past. I must get past writing crap. Not in the sense that I need to stop writing it, but in the sense that I need to start allowing myself to write it and fix it later.

My worry is that I will produce a demon of a manuscript that will not be tamed.

SCARY, isn’t it?

Well, it scares the crap out of me. And meanwhile I’m dropping my books off to Perfect Books in Ottawa (where Summons is now available, btw) and listening to the question, “When will Book Two be out?” asked in playfulness but secretly pushing me into a pit of panic. Oh, wouldn’t I love to tell you!

BUT! Fear not. I am on the job. I’m trying to work it out. I’m trying to figure a way to present the book the way I want. See- the issue is the plotting, and I’ve been flirting with ideas, like interweaving short stories through an overarching tale. And I like the idea, but you have to understand that the execution takes some serious cognitive power. I wish I was the Emporer in Star Wars and I could just have “UNLIMITED POWER!!!!!!”

But no such luck.

So in the meantime I’ve been thinking, strategizing, planning, pondering. And reading Wonderbook. And what a doozie of a book it is! I’d say it’s a decent instructional book for writers, with a few novel approaches and ideas, but the greatness of it comes from the design and illustration. It is a thing of beauty, the sort of book you would only ever want to buy in physical form. It’s also inspired me to write a few micro-fictions that I think I’ll post up here within the next few days.

So that’s my news for the week. No auditions. No knitting. Just some books in a bookstore and writer struggles. Meh.

Hope all you readers are swell!

~Johnny

The post Location Effects, Summons in a Bookstore, and the Pit of Panic!!! appeared first on Johnny Eaton.