Happy September! Are we ready to dive into all things fall? I’m not quite there yet.
But I have been making progress in my YA novel and having a lot of fun. After months of feeling stuck, I managed to push through and just keep going, mostly because I had a limited amount of time available to make progress. I was on vacation from the day job, sitting at the arena day after day for my kids’ hockey camp. I had only as long as they were on the ice to get the work done. There was no room for hesitating. I just HAD to write if I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity this rare situation afforded me.
So I forced myself to write. It was slow going at first but after a short while, the words came easier.
And then a strange thing happened. Not only were the words for my WIP starting to come easily, but pushing myself to write and write and write every day made me start to THINK in prose. Everything I encountered was filtered through my head as if written on the page.
She poured the cheap, extra-strong coffee into a cup painted with sunflowers that looked decidedly cheerier than she felt. She didn’t even want the bitter tasting stuff. But if there was another way to get through an afternoon at a 6 year old’s soccer party, she didn’t know it.
And that means OTHER stories could make their way into my mind during down time. When I put down my WIP for the day, going about my chores, walk, whatever, my brain moves to new ideas, new scenes, new characters. I daydream. In prose. Like a little narrator is sitting on my shoulder all day, telling me stories.
So often I would let the words for these daydreams come and go as I went about my day, because the ideas weren’t for the story I was working on at the moment. But I’ve decided a new approach. Now, I jump on these surges of prose and write them down. I write them in my ideas notebook. I’ve kept an ideas notebooks for a thousand years - many books, all of them filled with stories, scenes, notes, doodles, charts, etc. Where these ideas fit in the framework of a story? I dunno. Will the plot, if there is one, even need this moment? Maybe not.
But I do know that having these random bits and pieces and scraps of stories that don’t have legs yet recorded in my ideas notebook wont hurt the story I eventually tell. And if anything, having these scraps will enhance the final story when I am fully able to write it.
And the ideas are all sprouting from similar fertile ground that may or may not be healthy. I’m finding a lot of these story ideas are anxiety buds - ideas born out of my fears and worries.
The older I get, the more I worry - about my children, my health, my work, the bills, the foundation, the state of the world, the future. And I seem to process those worries by building stories for them. Some are overt, like my story about a sentient AI breaking free of its creator, some are subtle - is this tale of clockwork dragons actually a story about my fear of confrontation?
When I'm in writing mode, I can’t not think about all these things with the voice of a narrator. I can’t turn it off. And I don’t want to. When I write these ideas down, I feel a bit better about all the STUFF. Not cus I solved the fears or got rid of them, but because I'm staring right at them.
And that counts for something.
.....until I return to an idea 5 years from now.
Doodle
I’ve been playing with new styles! Dropping the linework and having fun with rough chunky shapes and colour and texture. This has been such a fun experiment and I’m really happy with the results. Will definitely be exploring this a lot more.
What I’m Working On
More changes for the graphic novel and chugging ahead on my YA novel. I’m also getting the next book in the Zombie Shark Highway universe, Unicorn Death Drive, ready for posting! I like to have the ebook formatted and ready before I post the first chapter and its…..a lot of work to format an ebook. But it’s getting there! And finally, I’m finishing up a digital fall wallpaper for paid subscribers so keep an eye out for that.
Because I’d been off for a couple weeks, it had been a while since I hosted a WIP Corner on Authorstrator but we got one started in the chat this past weekend. So many cool projects and amazing art happening in our little community! If you’re working on something you’re excited about and want to share, hop on the chat and let us know! You can share links, or ask for feedback, or just geek out about whatever your latest creative endeavor is!
What I’m Reading
The Night Circus by Erin Morgentstern - I really enjoyed the lengthy lush read that was The Starless Sea, and I remember all the hoopla when Night Circus came out so I thought I’d give it a go. Dueling magicians in Victorian London, I’m having fun so far!
What I’m Watching
Chimp Crazy - From the same guy who made Tiger King, an HBO documentary about yet another eccentric exotic pet owner, this time in the world of chimpanzees. My heart stopped at least three times watching this twisty-turny tale.
And that’s it from me! See or read anything good lately?
Love love love this!!! Your sketches are so awesome Meaghan! I’m rubbish at ‘quick’ so my head is filled either way images that I want to draw, but so many never make it onto a page because I can’t seem to escape from ‘must make full picture and take a million years to finish’. Love your clockwork dragons and your little muse on your should and well all of it!! I capture all my errant thoughts on the Notes in my phone and then go back to them later to piece them into something (or not!) sometimes the magic is still there in the words, but sometimes it vanished, but that’s ok too ✨💛
Watching your graphic shapes experiments really has me wanting to try this myself. As someone with fine motor skill issues, line work is always what stopped me from feeling like I could art before, and now I've found mental ways around that (ish) but trying it this way could be super fun!
Also yaaaay getting sucked into the voice and prose! Can't wait to hear more about this one :)