I kept my New Year's resolution for three whole days. I'm impressed with myself because it's two more days than I kept last year's resolution. As it's been over a month since I've written I have a lot to say. In fact, instead of overwhelming one blog post with a lot of information I'm going to post two different times today in order to try and keep all my thoughts straight. It's hard to keep track of everything in my head right now, thoughts are coming faster than I can write and inevitably I'm going to forget something. But let's start with the fact that I've missed a very important anniversary. On February 8, 2011 I started this blog, my second baby (right after Guardians), and my way to promote and self-deprecate my writing, to share my half-formed thoughts and to let people see the inner turmoil of an aspiring author who is a professional procrastinator. It's been a little over a year since I decided to actually share the blog and to my surprise and joy I've been met with support and encouragement, which shows how much I know about sharing my writing. So here's to another year of rambling semi-edited sentences, well-worn cliches, and never ending a blog post adequately. Here's to a year of expression, creativity, self-discovery and the slight possibility that I can inspire someone else. Here's to maybe being able to post once a week...maybe.
So, on to the updates on my writing life. The biggest one is that this past Sunday I spoke to a family friend who has been working on a novel for about three years. She was incredibly helpful and made me realize that what I go through as a writer is far from atypical. She assured me that it is normal to not look at your story for three or four months and that it is actually an important part of the writing process. She also reminded me that I do need to be able to return to my story however, or nothing will ever get done. I think the most important thing I learned from my conversation with her was about the importance of detail. In my story I work within a world of magic and multiple universes. I have to keep track of the details of my world and flesh out a very real feeling universe. I have to know about their religion, currency, calendar, weather and way of life. Even if all the details don't make it into the final product the important thing is that whatever ends up making the cut is believable and clear. I'm telling the story from four different perspectives and each character is unique. I need to know about each one: their birthdays, favorite colors, fashion sense, strengths, weaknesses and everything in between. I need to actually be able to have conversations with them so that they are relatable, tangible, and speak to people. She also reminded me of the importance of not getting too attached to any one section of a novel and to be able to cut, rearrange and add whenever needed. Even if I love a particular section it might not help my story in any way. Most importantly though, I remembered that I did need to get back to writing and working on Guardians and that once again, writing is what I want to do with my life so I'm finally getting back into it.
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