So…

It’s been several weeks since my last post about my writing progress. I was hoping to be able to put it off until I had something more satisfying to report, but the truth is, I am still mulling over the plot. I wish I could give you my word count or at least tell you I started an outline, but I am not there yet.

I haven’t been spending as much time on writing as I had hoped to since I went back to work, but I am still chipping away at it. I have over 55 notebook pages filled with thoughts about this story. While it’s true not every one of those ideas fit into the same story, I really have been more focused than ever before.

Here is some of the progress I have made:

1. Identified 4 fairly solid characters. I still have to flesh them out, but 2 have names!
2. Considered about 5 other characters that may or may not belong in the story in one form or another
3. Came up with a romantic sub-plot involving 3 characters
4. Brainstormed a few decent antagonist ideas that also need fleshing out
5. Came up with a few conflict ideas, but none gel perfectly with the other elements I have so far
6. Changed my mind about the starting point and setting of the story more times than I care to count

Okay, so maybe #6 doesn’t count as progress exactly, but I’ve put a lot of effort into it so it’s staying in the list.

The week of vacation I took to spend working on my novel is over. It’s back to my regular 50-60 hours a week at work.

I won’t lie, I had hoped to accomplish more during my week off. I wanted to have something more substantial to show for my efforts – like an outline or even the first draft of a chapter or two.

I still feel good about what I did accomplish. It was like a roller coaster at times because my progress tends to take one step back for every two steps forward, but I guess that’s better than the other way around! I’m happy that I kept working on the same story instead of giving up and starting over repeatedly. Even when I procrastinated, I managed to stay somewhat on topic by organizing my writing desk, grabbing some fantasy novels to read or researching agents and publishers.

I noticed that over the past week, the evening was one of my most productive times of day. I hope I can keep it up while working full-time.

So far I feel optimistic about that. I couldn’t stop puzzling out my story idea during my commute and I read articles on antagonists while eating lunch. I can’t get my story out of my head. I had such good ideas at several points throughout the day that I had to sprint from the car and dash out of the shower to jot them down.

Guess what? I did exactly what I said I was going to do and it worked. I didn’t start over, I kept building on my previous story decisions and now I have my premise!

Yesterday I reviewed the main story ideas I had so far; the ones with the most energy. I ignored any pieces that didn’t fit well or stressed me out. Then to ease into things, I listed questions surrounding that core group of ideas. I still felt hopeless at the beginning, I’ll be honest, but writing down those unanswered questions was easy because those were the things that were overwhelming me. After a page or two of questions, I couldn’t help but start to answer them.

My first ideas weren’t always the best, but I was surprised how quickly more ideas came to take their place. Those ideas felt really good and they naturally fit with multiple elements of my story including some bits and pieces I had discarded earlier. Instead of focusing on the fear I felt about inventing science fiction elements and deciding on my main character, I allowed myself to brainstorm within that framework. The results were awesome.

In the evening, a cool twist popped into my head, fueled by all the other story decisions I had made. I think I may have actually said “Aha!” out loud when it hit me. Playing with that idea led me to reconsider aspects of my setting and timeline which produced a very nice story hook. Suddenly I knew where my story started, I knew the crisis and who experienced it. Just like that, I had defined my premise.

I recognize there is a lot more work to do, but I feel confident that this premise is the right place to start. I am so glad I didn’t give up.