Back to Work

Screenshot of my current work in progress

Well, the good news has all been shared, so I guess it is time to talk about real life. Still waiting on the copyright on Book 11, Blessed in our Brokenness, and I have no idea how long it will take, so I don't want to do too much promotion too early.

I searched around my brain for options to write about, and decided to write about my work in progress, Book 12, which I have no idea what to title at this point in time.

On the home page of my website, I have a quote "A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity" Franz Kafka. I believe that, but I also believe that a writing writer sometimes courts insanity as well.

Let me explain. The next book begins with a tragic event. That tragedy, as many tragedies do, sparks many changes in many lives. The arc of the story will bend towards compassionate resolutions for those impacted by the tragedy, but lets face it, the great tragedies in life leave scars that never heal.

And that is where the courting insanity lies. I have had the idea for this book for a couple of years. I have the arc of the story, and the outline of how it will develop all done. But in the early writing, as the tragedy is fresh and the pain my characters are feeling is ever-present, it is hard. I am feeling all the feelings my characters feel as they try to express themselves on the pages. It is hard for me to avoid becoming despondent, as if what my characters are experiencing is actually being experienced by me as I tell their stories.

I wonder at times like this if all writers get so deeply involved emotionally with their characters. I don't know any other way to do it. If I want my characters to feel genuine to my readers, I have to be them and feel all the feels to get it right.

Honestly, it can be exhausting. And feel like courting insanity. But then a reader identifies with a character, and can see that character just as I meant them to be seen, and it is all worth it.

So I will continue to court insanity. And hope that in the end, I have created multi-faceted interesting characters make my readers feel as much as I do. “A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity”

Franz Kafka“A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity”

Franz Kafka“A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity”

Franz Kafka