I’ve been writing a lot recently.
I’m working on a new novel, the working title of which is The Shadow Catcher. It’s a YA Fantasy and January has been a productive month for it.
I’m really enjoying it! It’s been fun and the story has been flowing easily. (Knock on wood!) I’ve put other activities, like publishing and marketing, on the back burner. Mostly, I just feel like working on this first draft.
I was reminded of an article I wrote on creative rhythms while reading Writing Like It’s My (Second) Job by author D.M. Domosea. Domosea talks about her own writing process and creative rhythms in the article and mentions my article Seasons Of Writing, which I wrote back in August.
In that article, I talked about how I don’t write very much during the summer months, but I do work on other writing-related activities, and that’s pretty much been the case for years. For whatever reason, my motivation to write during the summer is very low, but my motivation to tackle other projects is high.
Now it’s the complete opposite. My motivation to write is very high and my motivation for other projects is low. And that’s fine. It seems a bit unbalanced on the surface, but over the course of a year, it’s perfectly balanced.
I always had the tendency to worry about whatever it was I wasn’t getting done. In the summer it was, “Uh Oh! What if I never go back to writing again!” And in the winter it was, “Uh Oh! These books aren’t going to publish and market themselves. What if I just want to write forever?”
I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with these ebbs and flows, because I know that they move. I’m not going to stay stuck in one place forever. I’m going to move out of it, just like I moved into it. It’ll be fine.
But that does require me to leave certain things in the “To Do” pile. I have a couple of finished short stories that I’d like to publish in various ways that I haven’t worked on. I’d like to re-title and do new covers for my novel, Dragon, which I haven’t been working on. (Despite the title, Dragon is a contemporary YA suspense story, not a fantasy. That was a learning experience and, hence, the re-titling!) There’s some other stuff like this too. I mean, there’s always plenty to do, right? Some things just can’t have my attention right now.
But they’ll all get done. Eventually. And I trust that things have a timing of their own that maybe doesn’t match my schedule. 🙂
Meanwhile, I’ll keep writing away and come the spring I’ll probably have a finished first draft of a novel, which will be fantastic. 🙂
Photo by Rodion Kutsaev on Unsplash
Amanda Linehan is the author of North, about a young woman on the run from her past, the law and an old adversary out to get her. Her newest release is Bored To Death: A Vampire Thriller, about a 300-year-old vampire trying to restore the balance between life and death. She has published five novels. Get a free short story every month when you sign up for her newsletter.
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