WIP Thoughts

This week I'm going to talk about the state of my WIPs. 

Not just because my head's been buzzing with stuff, but because I've been juggling and brainstorming and writing a bunch of different stories at the same time. There are several characters trying to grab my attention, but I finally feel like I might have found some kind of balance. Maybe. 😁

The story I'm working on is a (possible) novella-sized story about an unstable mother-daughter relationship further complicated by a demonic presence. It's actually a WIP I started last month. One that started at a much slower pace than usual after I handwrote the beginning in a notebook. By the time I'd typed up the first two chapters, I'd lost some of the momentum. Then some real life crap got in the way and I got a bad case of distracted brain.

Still, I continued to add words. It became a sporadic affair, made even harder when I was consumed by a short story featuring one of my old characters. A shortie prequel I wrote during a weekend in February, and then spent the following week revising. Actually, I got so caught up in it, I couldn't move on until it was polished. And subbed.🤞🏻

And that's when I went back to my demonic WIP. But even then, I wasn't adding as many words as usual. I just wasn't as involved as I wanted to be. Getting an unexpected idea got in the way! Well, it was initially a dream I carried around in my head for a week, before realising it could totally be a story.

Yeah, another horror story idea to add to the mix.

So I took some notes, put a file together and started adding inspirational pics, cast the characters and even gave them names. And it wasn't until I got this done that I finally returned to the ol' demonic idea. And really got stuck into it.

This has been the most constant week yet. I've added words every single day and surprises keep popping up all over the place. So I've finally found my groove. Without a hundred other things trying to get in the way to crowd my headspace, I was able to finally focus and keep a steady pace of new words going.

And you know what? It feels really good. During the last few weeks I let the interruptions convince me that the story might be the problem. That it wasn't as ready as I thought, that I couldn't get into it because I wasn't ready... but nope. The story was never the problem. 

The problem was mind clutter. Sometimes I let too many things get in the way, so I was glad I stuck with the story. Any progress is good progress.

I still have no clue how long this tale of mayhem is going to be, but I'll keep going until I reach the end of the draft.

Every project is different, and the process continues to evolve. I'm glad I kept going no matter what because after adding words all week, today I passed the 20k mark. Yay.

And not just that, but for the first time since I started this story there are so many new ideas and paths ahead. I can clearly see where I'm headed and am super excited about it. Also, everything took a creepier turn than expected. Even the family drama has been amped up.

*rubs hands together*

Well, there you go. These are some of the thoughts circling around inside my head at the moment. 😁

Have a nice weekend!