The Life of a Never Ending WiP

The Life of a Never Ending WiP.

Boredom. I think I’m rather harsh on myself when I use the word boredom. I’m not sure that’s exactly what it is. I seem to have a a multitude of WiP’s on the go at any one time, but have been struggling to finish any individual one.

I always start with excitement, plotting, choosing images and names of the characters, even giving them a wonderful history—whether used in the novel or not. However, with each one I have a certain pivotal plot point in mind. I know exactly where that comes and exactly how it will play out.

I start writing with gusto, learning a little about my characters and falling in love with them the more the chapters fly by.

The excitement is like a new relationship—I can’t wait to write, can’t wait to visit with them again. Invariably, my high will reach its peak when I begin to write that pivotal scene…and that’s where my problem starts.

After anticipated that plot point for long, everything afterward seems…meh. I begin to question whether my characters are strong enough, likeable, even sexy enough.  I rethink every word, often deleting great passages because of the second guessing. And then I stall completely, often needing to start something new to get the words flowing again and stop any writer's block.

 In many cases this isn’t a bad thing, because I’ll start a novella, often getting that finished in a short period and aiming to get back to the original WiP. In the case of my new novel, ‘A Path of Petals’, it was written about eighteen months ago and only required the last five chapters writing for it to be complete. I’d stalled completely on it, wondering if the whole thing should just be deleted. Obviously not, as it saw its publication on April 16^th.

I’ve tried writing that important plot point first, but my mind doesn’t seem to process scenes when they’re written backward. So, I guess I’m an author with a never ending list of WIP’s.

Sure, eventually, they will all get finished and hopefully, published, but for now they lie dormant, begging me to sort my brain out.

I just hope that will be soon…

M. A. Stacie

xxx