Last week I finished a novel. I’ve been working on that book for four years, which is in my mind an appallingly long time. I’d say an unconscionable one, but I do have reasons, not just excuses, for my slug-like progress. I have concerns over the time passed while the book was forming, though. I am not the same person I was four years ago. None of us are. Will the book survive the growth process? Well, hopefully beta readers* and editors will tell me over the next weeks.
I’ve already started work on the next project, which was supposed to be a long short story or novella to be published on Halloween. One of the Groundskeeper tales, only this one is shaping up to be longer than I’d originally planned. We shall see. I’m currently on vacation and not managing my thousand-word days, more like three hundred. I’ll take all the words, really! This gives me a break without actually stopping writing, which was my intent.
I have… several… potential next large projects. I have a half-finished military fantasy novel I’d begun writing with my husband. I’ll have to see if he feels up to continuing that with me. I have some other things I should re-read and see if they spark my imagination again. It’s been a long, strange journey, but my hope is that by finishing Tanager’s Flight, I’ve uncorked the bottle, as it were, and can begin to write rapidly once more. Practicing the daily discipline has been good for my mind. Doing that, on top of other life commitments, is going to be a serious challenge in the coming months. It will be worth it. I have faith in that.
Now, I have a question for all you readers out there. Do you prefer a shorter, or longer article? Do you like to see essays like this, where I’m talking through process in hopes it helps one of you, or would you like more technical how-to articles (with the note here that those are more difficult, so you still may get the fluffier essays on off weeks) from me? I’ve noted that engagement seems to drop off on the longer articles, so I’m trying not to blather on quite so much.
*if you’d like to be a beta reader, you can drop me a line at cedarlila at gmail dot com. It will be another few days until the ms is ready to go out, and then I’m looking for about a two-week turnaround on the reading and inputs. If you want to read a space opera centered on family themes, but also, pirates!, and you’re up to that time schedule, I’d appreciate it!
(header image is a derelict building in Clarendon, Texas, photo taken by author)
Mad Genius Club 
13 responses to “Now What?”
My first thought on seeing the landscape: please get out of my front yard. I’ll mow this week, promise.
Just a few words are enough, some days. I went through a spell when I could add a few sentences to one story, tidy awkward phrasing on another, and that was all. Longer work took mental stamina that i had spent elsewhere.
We were somewhere in the Panhandle at a rest stop – and that’s a pasture! No mowing required!
Some days, it’s the mental discipline to do something, the quantity doesn’t matter, just that you thought about it and did some small action. That keeps momentum up.
I like both types of posts. If I don’t have time when it comes out for the longer ones, I go back and read them later. Of the “things” I follow, MGC is one I go and find if I’ve missed one. I wouldn’t worry too much about the length, just keep doing what you’re doing. I know I’m just one voice, and usually a lurking one, but it’s reassuring to see other authors living life’s challenges too. It’s been an hard year, and vacation pics are cool. I wish you peace.
What this commenter said…
Thirded
Endorsed.
second
I guess it’s not that helpful though when we say “write what you want” but write what you want. But I will add that the pictures do add a nice touch.
A little tiny one-screen theater! And it’s in business!!!
https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/13374
My guess is acquired by the local economic development council and reopened.
Three movie showings a week and also can host live performances.
No need to guess, that’s what the link I shared says.
I know a lot of times I read the longer essays and feel like I don’t have anything to add, it’s not that I didn’t enjoy them, I’m just chewing on what they tell me.
From a production side, I have to say it’s liberating to share observations with others who get them, even if they may not be immediately useful or applicable. And I like that as a reader, too.
Thank you all! It helps to know I should just keep on.