I
have a confession. I have not worked on any novel writing at all since about
the spring of this year. I have made a few notes here and there, some new story
ideas, and some further details on the two books I have started, but truthfully,
not a whole lot of progress. It’s not a writer’s block thing—it’s a writer’s
blah thing. Well, maybe with a little bit of the block thrown in.
Even
though each of my three novels took a lot of time to complete, I knew where I
was going with each story. The time involved was because of the researching,
figuring out proper dialogue, and making sure my timeline was correct on the
life events throughout each book.
But
now I’m attempting to write a cozy mystery series. I have what I feel is a good
theme for this series, and it’s one I have not seen done. The problem? I’ve
never written anything close to a mystery, so having the idea is simple.
Creating at least 80,000 words to go with that idea is beyond daunting for me. As
I stated above, I have actually started two stories—book #1 and #2 in this
series. Since I’m still not quite sure where to go with either one, I put them
aside for the summer. I haven’t felt like tackling either story.
Now
I will share with you that I have not been wasting this time. I am working on a
project, a pretty big one. However, it’s not one that will be published. I
can’t tell you why right now, but when it’s completed, I will talk more about
it in this blog, and there will be pictures. I think you’ll enjoy it, hopefully
motivate you, because you know I am all about motivating my readers to do their
own journaling and why I feel that’s important. My plan is to have that project
done within the next few months.
In
the meantime, I do feel like I am slowly coming out of my blahs. I’m ready to
start that wonderful, infuriating, terrifying, sometimes humorous and sometimes
sleepless nights of my writing process. I have said in previous posts that I’m
not sure I will actually finish this mystery series. I hope I can pull it off,
because I do think I have a bit different idea for the theme, but I also know
if it doesn’t work out, that’s okay, too. I’ll still have fun giving it a try.
I’ll always have family stories to write about, because I come up with ideas for
that avenue practically on a daily basis. You should see my notebooks (yes, I
have more than one).
I’m
very excited about this “mystery” project I’m working on and look forward to
sharing that with you here when it’s done. Don’t misunderstand. The project
itself is not a mystery, but I do have to keep it under wraps for now. Stay tuned!
Even
though today, September 1, is not officially the first day of the autumn season,
it is for me. It’s been a long and hot summer. It not only dragged, but believe
it or not, I am so tired of triple digits and sunshine. I love a rainy day, and
we don’t get many around here. At least the temperatures are dropping into the upper
90s and low 70s at night. Almost sweatshirt weather! Once I can open my windows,
I think those 80,000 words are going to come a lot easier. On that note, I will
close for now. Thanks for hanging out with me today. I hope you have a magnificent
autumn full of beautiful colors, cooler temps, and maybe a good start on that journal
or novel, yes?
Keep
writing, keep reading, and enjoy your day!
