A New Direction

Over the course of the last five years, I’ve written at length about the two very different stories–Facing the Music, my young adult contemporary issue book, and my new adult mystery–that have consumed so much time. I got the initial idea for Facing the Music all the way back in 2012, and the initial idea for the mystery in 2013. I’ve poured hundreds of thousands of words, countless hours, and years of my life into each of these manuscripts, and I’m very fond of them both for very different reasons. If I had my way they’d be published, and other people would have the chance to fall in love with them too.

But. (You knew there was a ‘but’ coming, I’m sure.) As hard as I’ve tried I can’t seem to make either of these stories work. I have good ideas and compelling characters–at least as far as I’m concerned–but I haven’t been able to put the pieces of the plots together in a way that fits the characters’ story arcs. Or, in the case of the mystery, I haven’t been able to come up with plots that fit together at all.

I have so much more experience now, as a writer and as a storyteller, than I did when I first came up with these ideas, and I think that’s why I’ve been struggling so much. Both ideas came about because of Younger Me, who had no shortage of talent and drive and determination, but so much still to learn about writing craft and story structure and how to apply the strategies she understood on a logical level to her own work. Trying to execute those ideas has fallen to Older Me and Current Me, and Current Me knows enough now to recognize that ideas, no matter how compelling they are, don’t necessarily make good stories on their own. When it comes to writing a novel–or making any kind of art, really–it’s just as important to consider how each of the pieces fit together as it is to consider the pieces themselves.

And I’m far too close to Facing the Music and my mystery to have any new insights into how I can rebuild those stories, and far too burned out to keep trying. Which is why, as much as it pains me, I’m shelving both of those manuscripts indefinitely so I can work on something new.

This isn’t an easy decision, but I know it’s the right one. I’ve been struggling with my writing for a while now, and a big part of the reason for that has to do with the time I’ve spent beating my head against the same brick wall surrounding these stories. At this point, the healthiest option is to put those old manuscripts and all the emotional and personal baggage associated with them aside and move forward. Given my track record, the odds are pretty good that I’ll come back to them at some point, but I won’t be sitting around waiting to regain my motivation in the meantime.

With any luck, I’ll have fallen in love with a whole bunch of new stories instead.