Voice of a New Book

I haven't found my Blogging Rhythm yet…but I'm working on it. I'll get to the point of blogging consistently!

A little over a week ago, I sent my completed manuscript into my editor. I'm always really relieved and happy when I do that.

For about an hour.

Then I worry if my editor will like the book, or if my career will suddenly vanish. I worry about what revisions will be needed. And I know I have about 9 months to write my next contracted book, so I start pressuring myself to move onto writing the next book. So I sat down with my yellow tablet to do a little brainstorming.

But my brain goes all stubborn and resistant. It's still wrapped around Wes and Holly from the book I just finished and refuses to budge. That puts a knot in my stomach because I want to get started. But that's simply not how my process works. I know better than to force this, so after a couple frustrated attempts to work on plotting a new book, I faced reality.

I need time to say goodbye to Wes and Holly.

I gave it a few days, and slowly, Wes and Holly started wandering off the stage in my head. What's really interesting about that is that with the old characters fading away, new characters begin taking shape. It's really kind of amazing how it happens. The new characters are rough, they only talk in whispers that I can't quite hear yet, and they appear very transparent so that their images are hard to pin down. But they are there, and they are starting to tell me their story. Which eases the knot of worry in my stomach—the fear that I'm out of stories, ideas, characters…

That's just my process. I can't force the story, I have to give the characters time to come to me. They'll tell me their story at their own pace. Experience tells me that they will dole out pieces of their plot, in random and confusing order that will frustrate and annoy me. But if I just wait, relax, trust the process, they will eventually give me all the pieces to weave a book.

So I will wait. Starting next week, I'll be back to showing up at my computer regularly and hoping the new characters are ready to talk. And if they are stubbornly silent, I suppose I can fill the time by blogging!