(Originally published to WordPress on October 4, 2020, on Candy York WordPress.)
It’s October and I finished my second novel!
Wow, my previous post was about being a pantser or a plotter and which one works best. Well, I have my answer obviously, since I started this new novel at the beginning of July, and despite a few issues (non-writing related), I finished it in 3 months and it’s being edited as we speak and the cover designer is working on the first mock-up of the cover.
My last novel took so long that I really have no idea exactly HOW long it took. It was definitely years, maybe 2-3. I did it on a hit-and-miss schedule, with bits here and there. It was so choppily written that when I went back to edit it I realized I had made tons of mistakes and plot errors and I had to fix all of that before getting it edited properly.
Now, it’s October and I have used writing as a way to block out all the crap that is happening in reality because let me tell you anyone reading this, years from now, 2020 has been the most insane year of occurrences. It started out fine for most people, not me as I was really sick, then I got good news – my nephew and his wife were expecting a baby. I got to bask in the joy of that for about 4 days before all hell broke loose, shutdowns happened, school ended for my daughter and went online, everything came to a grinding halt and at that point, I hadn’t even plotted my second book and I just set it aside because it was all too much.
No camps, no activities, no friends coming over, no traveling, no vacations, and a trip to the grocery store became a kind of frenzied attempt to interact with NO ONE AT ALL!
By the end of June, we were all a bit calmer and I started to plot my second book, began writing it at the beginning of July, and then just kept going, for the most part, trying to stick to a schedule of writing each day. I didn’t always achieve what I planned, but I kept going, following my plotline, which was a 20-page outline (some of which never made it into the book at all).
Today, I just received the revised size proof of book one, just one small glitch in the title size on the spine. I’m editing book two, I’m plotting for book three and I already voted for President because we started early voting way back in September.
I have to say, in order to be a creative thinker and writer, I am avoiding as much politics as possible because I don’t believe there are really any undecided voters out there anymore. If you haven’t switched teams by now, you’re not going to at this late stage.
I just hope this election helps to reunite this country because if it doesn’t, I’m not sure that I want to remain here, and I have options that I can consider because I can be a writer anywhere.
So, peace out people, and try to remember we are ALL Americans, no matter what our beliefs are, and after the election has been decided, we ALL have to live together in harmony. Don’t burn any bridges with people you love over politics, it’s just not worth it – agree to disagree!
Happy October!
