Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Stepping Back To See The Big Picture

Well, I've come to the conclusion that I really don't know when FP will be done and I'm so okay with that.

I watched the final MOTG again with the intention of going to bed when it was over. That didn't happen. As usual, it inspired me to just do a little work last night. Which turned out to be more than a little.

As I finished typing in the last of my handwritten pages for FP, I realized that my hero and heroine still have so much more to tell me. I was typing a scene dealing with her emotions and I realized how much they reflect his emotions as well. Wow! I hadn't seen that before and I've been working on this book since January 16th (the start of the 100 words/100 days). For the first time, I'm understanding that my characters have layer upon layer of personality. And you know what? I'm having SOOOOOO much fun! (Oh yeah, it's now looking more like a long contemporary. I'm at 220 pages and I haven't written a full love scene yet and huge chunks of other parts are still unfinished.)

Then I thought, why am I going to try and rush this? I don't have any new couple breathing down my neck to have their story told next. I don't even know if I'd "stay in Scotland" or go back to suspense. I don't have a contract deadline. So, I'm going to take my time and set my goal of finishing it for when I come back to Austin. I know in my heart that that's enough time.

I think I was putting pressure on myself because I used to write 2 manuscripts a year and I thought originally that this would be a 6 month manuscript for sure since it was going to be a short contemporary. But you know what? I then reminded myself that NONE OF THOSE OTHER ONES SOLD! So what if this takes me 8 months? If I get it just right, this just might be THE ONE....

4 comments:

TJ Brown said...

Very good idea. Sometimes you have to let the book tell the story:)
Teri

Anonymous said...

Good luck finding the story! You'll do great. :)

Elisabeth Naughton said...

I think you're on the right track. You don't have deadlines right now, enjoy taking your time and fleshing out the story. Deadlines will come all too soon and you'll look back and thing, "gee, I wish I would have enjoyed it when I could."

I'm glad you're enjoying writing this story. Isn't that the best feeling?

Bailey Stewart said...

I found out some time ago that some books have their own schedule and you just have to go with the flow. Have fun with it.