In “Love Lists (part one – the lists)” I wrote down what I love about my current projects, in this second part I want to reflect on that short exercise.
As I was writing down everything I loved about my manuscripts I was so surprised because 1) with BLOOD OF ISIS I’m in the editing & revising process and there are so many times that I hate my writing, the story & characters, and 2) with CONFESSIONS OF A PRE-TEEN WITCH I have only been able to write the first few pages yet many of the things I wrote that I love haven’t occurred in those first pages.
So it’s interesting that even though I feel anger or have writer’s block towards my projects, I love them so much and in my head I’ve already written more of the story than is actually typed out.
It’s such a crazy feeling, and I’m sure many of you can relate, but I have a busy life and it’s taken a lot for me to realize that my life is busy by choice therefore if writing is really that important to me, I need to make time for it.
Also I love my manuscripts, they are my babies, and especially with BLOOD OF ISIS, that is almost reading to be queried, I feel so many emotions towards it. I feel like I’m constantly hating it and then randomly I’ll start laughing at a scene I’m editing. Sometimes I want to throw the whole thing away and sometimes I’m like “it’s querying time!”. And as my babies I want the best for them, I don’t want to give up or slack off and have them not be as successful as they could have so it’s hard. I guess like the girl in Mean Girls says “I just have a lot of feelings”.
But I’m so grateful to this exercise, it truly was short & sweet! It helped me see that, as always, I’m being too hard on myself, and that my manuscripts are really good even if I find the occasional grammatical error or plot gap. I love my stories and I cannot wait to write more & see them in bookstores. I know not everything I write will be something I want to publish but these two stories HAVE to be published. I have this deep feeling that they just have to be and will be. It really is not a question in my mind of whether or not they will be published, it’s more a question of when??? Patience is truly a writer’s best friend.
What are you reflections from doing this exercise or similar ones that relate to your project(s)?
Whimsically Yours,
PnC
Whimsically Yours 