Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Thoughts on Finishing the First Draft of my Tenth Book

This past Saturday, I wrote ‘The End’ on my tenth novel. *throws confetti* If you’ve been following along for awhile, you’ll likely know I’ve had a lot of setbacks in the last few years. My last full-length novel, Something in the Air, was released in November of 2015, and even getting to that point was a struggle. Shortly after that, a lot of crap happened in my family that basically turned my life upside down. I lost my motivation, I lost my drive, and there were times when I honestly felt like I'd lose my mind. I worked away at different projects, but had trouble focusing on anything, plus my writing time was much more limited than it was previously. Depression and anxiety were basically the cherry on the shit sundae. I knew I couldn’t give up, though. I love writing and have always loved writing, even when writing didn’t necessarily love me. I would have bursts of creativity where I’d write for a few days in a row, thinking 'maybe this is finally it, maybe I'm getting my mojo back', and then not touch that project again for days or even weeks. But I kept going. I believed things would get better. I tried to stay positive even when it felt like there wasn’t much to be positive about. I used to be able to write a book in a matter of months. My personal best was two weeks in 2012, when I wrote Waiting for the Storm. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do that again, and I’m not entirely sure I want to; while that book is my personal favourite and the book that’s closest to my heart, it was also fueled by grief and my need to keep myself afloat and not drown in my own sorrow. That being said, I’d love to return to the days when I was able to write a book in one to three months, and that pride in having a daily (or almost daily) writing routine. So many things have been out of my control in the last two and a half years, but when I wrote ‘The End’ on my latest novel, I felt like I got some control back. Some of the issues that prevented me from writing are still present, and my mental health issues are still...well, an issue...but I’ve proven to myself something I’ve always known: I can do anything I put my mind to. I’m strong, I’m capable. I'm resilient. I still have a lot of work ahead of me, but I’m ready. I’m actually excited to dive into edits and start a marketing plan for this book. Want to know more about the project I’ve been working on? *It doesn’t have a title yet. Yesterday I realized the book needed an epilogue (the MC kept telling me something that happened a few months later!). When I wrote the final line, I decided there was a possible title in there, but I need to give it some more thought. *The main character is Ivy Sima, who was first introduced in my 2017 Christmas novella Mistletoe Kiss as the main character Bridget's best friend. Bridget gets a fair bit of page time in this book, but it can definitely be read as a standalone. *The love interest is Scottish. And swoony. And I love him a whole lot. *The story started out as a Christmas novella, but morphed into something completely different. It takes place around Christmas, but isn’t a Christmas-y story. It ended up being a full-length novel at just over 83K words. *I’ve been calling it a romcom, but I need my beta readers to tell me if it’s actually funny enough to call it a romcom, haha! If not, it’ll be categorized as Contemporary Romance. *Tentative release date is November 13th, 2018. In the next few weeks, I’ll share more info about the book, including the title and synopsis. I’ll also be putting out a call for beta readers, reviewers, and people who are willing to help with the cover reveal and other promo. Watch the blog, along with my bookstagram account for more information. 




1 comment:

  1. Life sure can be a bitch, eh? I'm happy you've kept at it and have finally finished a story as a result.

    ReplyDelete

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~Marie

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