Sometimes starting a new project is easy. You go in ready and willing to make the story the best you can do. Words fly off your fingertips like water after the floodgates have been opened. Even if it doesn’t last, it feels like you’re flying through the first few thousand words.
Then there are the other times.
I think this is something that happens when you’ve fully finished other projects or drafts. There’s a fear to starting something new. What if it’s not as good? What if people hate it? What if I hate it? What if I don’t do the story in my head justice?
Well, that’s what’s happening to me right now. I gave myself a good few weeks of a break, knowing full well there was another project waiting to get started. A lot of people told me it’s fine to take a break, and yeah I agree. However, writing for me is like meditation. Not in the calming sense, but in the centering and reflecting way. Even writing fiction helps me put my problems into perspective, step into someone else’s shoes for a while, and sometimes even look at my emotions in a more objective light.
So, not writing felt…not great.
But even knowing that I felt better when I’m writing something, I couldn’t quite get myself to start. The Critic in my mind was just so so loud this time around. So I worked around it.
I started with just writing a summary of the ideas in my head. The whole plot as far as I knew it wanted to go. That got me two different story ideas: one very large fantasy project and one emotionally intense contemporary project.
The fantasy project is an interesting mix of old gods, religious zealots, and political games. Maybe a bit like Game of Thrones if you need a comparison. Game of thrones, but make it cozy? It’s got a golden-retriever male main character, a cult survivor female main character, oh and dragons…as old gods. I’m not sure how cozy this one will be actually, but it’s not really my style to have things go TOO dark. We’ll see. So far this one is the more fleshed out of the two. It has a solid arc it wants to follow and the characters are very clear in my mind. I just need to actually, you know, sit down and write it.
The contemporary project looks like it wants to be a Normal People meets Solitaire meets Fangirl? I don’t know. It’s about a girl’s journey through college while dealing with all the drama around relationships, or lack their of, societal pressure to have a useful degree, and accepting her true personality despite its flaws. This one wants to be a big emotional commentary, but right now I’m just letting my brain get some scenes out of my system. I’ve got a story circle started for the emotional arcs, but really not much else. The scenes I’m getting are…not at all fully formed. I get bits and pieces here and there with little to no context of a plot.
I started focusing on the fantasy project (Project Dragon as some may know it) and FINALLY got a word count going. I don’t know how long it will be yet, but the traditional fantasy novel is about 90k to 100k so I’m aiming there for now.
It feels good to be getting words on the page. I’m kind of liking having two project bubbling at the same time. One’s at a simmer on the back burner and the other is boiling and has more of my attention.
Great to feel excited about creative work again!
Happy writing!
Rachel
Subtle Stories 