Two steps forward, One back

The title should be a clue. This is an update on progress.

Editing of MageLife is proceeding well, according to my editor. Looking at the end of June/start of July for the edits to come back to me and be assessed, and approved.

Writing the sequel, has hit turbulence. Now I’m just a baby author. Magelife was my first work, ever. And my process is not one of plotting and planning, it is of writing what feels right and seeing where it takes me. I have goals in regards to the story, things that must happen, but outside of this, it is very freeform. Some authors call this gardening, and it’s a style that many serialists, and novelists, employ.  Which actually makes it sound like more of a choice than it is. Some of us just can’t do the whole planning thing. Creative stuff can be weird.

Brandon Sanderson has a collection of YouTube videos that discuss this aspect of writing, if you are interested. He has a whole range of videos and posts. Write about Dragons.

But it is not without its problems, one of them is that it is easy to start in the wrong place, which is what I did. It took 40 thousand words and a month of work to realise that that is what the problem was. I may be learning slowly, but I am learning.

I like to think my writing has come on leaps and bounds, and my grades in english have borne that out, but sometime I make mistakes.

Starting again, and scrapping what I had worked on, was painful and demotivating. Doubt and worry are constant companions for most authors.

“Is it good enough?”

“Am I wasting my time?”

These are questions that haunt us, and for me, it has gotten worse since publishing. The large amount of positive feedback, is so frequently overwhelmed by the relatively small amount of negativity. In much the same way that you can be praised all the time for things you are good at but its the small criticism that weigh on your mind. Its not rational but it feeds the doubt worm in my head.

Now, none of this means I’m giving up. I’m not that sort of person. It doesn’t even mean that I’m slowing down, just that I’m cutting far more, and second guessing, so the progress is more steady.

I hope that results in a stronger story, and a better written one.

 

 

This is a duplicate post from my original blog, I decided to transition to a dedicated author’s blog.