As I was looking at my blog yesterday, I realized I haven’t posted in two months! What on earth have I been up to? Well, lots of trips to the park, the playground, picnics, the beach, the pool and eating copious amounts of hot dogs, cheeseburgers and ice cream. In other words: it’s summer, and I’ve been living it up with my two little people, while the getting is still good! (All too soon, my piles of soggy beach towels will morph into piles of snow-suits and soggy mittens.)
However, my hands have not been idle – I’m still plugging away at my Sleeping Beauty retelling. The writing of this story is going a little slower than my previous books. I’m trying to be OK with that. I think what I’m getting out of each writing session is stronger. Better action. Improved pacing. I think now that I’ve done this a few times, and I have a better idea of where a story like this needs to be to actually get published is causing me to be more careful. Hopefully, more polished.
With our regular fall routine launching again because of school, I’m going to try and pick up the pace a bit and get a higher word count out each week, than I have this summer.
I’m moving into the last 30% or so of the story and I want the ending to be really strong and compelling – I want the love story to blossom (or not, perhaps?) and while the reader thinks they know what happens to the sleeping beauty when she wakes up, I am aiming to shake things up a bit.
I also have the typical intermittent writer’s angst, which alternates daily between, “Am I EVER going to finish this book?” to “I’m on a roll, if only I had one week with nothing else to do, I could just crank this out!” to “This is going to be the book, this one’s going to get published! I love it!” to “I just don’t know if it’s good enough. I may have to write ten more novels till one sees the light of day!”
These words came to me today, as I am laboring and spinning my story. A good reminder not to worry. The flowers don’t. Their beauty just is.
“Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.” Luke 12:27