This week’s update on my progress toward finishing The Modest Proposal Institute: War of the Institutes, which is book 4 of the series, is about arriving at the place I always reach when writing. I’m now writing lots of words — but the story is getting lost in them. It happens with every book. Here’s a summary of my writing ‘method’:
- Develop the plot and events that come from it
- Begin writing and write quickly up to about 20% of the book
- Come to a complete halt — revisit plot, plan, events, and decide the whole thing isn’t worth it
- Struggle on making absolutely no progress
- Revisit revisit plot, plan, events, and see a way to finish it
- Write quickly until I have more than enough words for two books but haven’t actually finished the one I’m writing because the story is lost in all that mountain of words
- Decide the whole thing isn’t worth the trouble
- Edit, edit and edit to get back to the word count
- Write the story back into the words and send it to the editor really quickly before I change my mind again
I’m lost in stage 6 at this moment and still hoping stages 7 – 9 will work out as they have always done in the past. For those of you writing your own novel, I hope this information will help you through the dark days ahead. For those of you just considering writing a novel, be warned! Or alternatively, read a book instead. One of mine perhaps, which you can find at my Amazon Author Page.
