I haven’t been working on a lot of new writing lately, and it’s just killing me, or at least giving me sinus infections.
I had a number of things that were all supposed to happen in January/February that haven’t. They’ve been delayed, I’ve delayed them (in one case, due to a bad idea that I just couldn’t let go of but have since ditched), or they’ve just…lingered, so I can neither finish them nor get them off my plate.
I was trying to be smart and not overbook myself. “Ah, these things, they are supposed to happen in January, maybe February, so I will not start a new big writing project until March.” I was thinking, “Hey, it’s a TWO MONTH WINDOW. Surely, I’m giving myself enough leeway.”
Things being what they are, I can’t complain, except in one case where I have no idea what the holdup is, and in that case, I won’t complain, because I don’t have enough information. I have always had this horrible suspicion that when people aren’t talking to me, it’s because I’ve put my foot in my mouth (again) and have pissed them off, but that’s just a self-centered paranoia. So I will find out what the real reason is and stop being so vain as to think the world revolves around me. For a little while.
So here I am, in March, when I promised myself I could start on something long, specifically the third book in Ray’s series. It really doesn’t matter that it’s not the smartest thing I could be writing, career-wise, because it’s for Ray and it’s meant to progress along with her as she grows up, so if I want to really catch the things that concern her now, now’s the time to write it. Regardless of how it’ll sell. It’s a kind of literary photo album for me, if nothing else. “These are the kinds of problems that Ray had, at this age. These are the kinds of things she had to deal with.”
I’m starting it on Monday. This one is about loyalty and the complications that ensue therefrom. I’m not sure whether the plot I laid out on Friday and Saturday is going to make Ray a happy reader, but it’s what feel right, if not necessarily logical. I’m planning it to be about 35-40K, so it shouldn’t take long to write. I’m hoping I can get it written, edited, and sent through Lulu so I can give her a pretty print copy by Easter.
This, of course, means that everything’s going to hit on Monday, and I won’t have time to come up to breathe.
Good.