The Forest and the Trees

I just can’t commit. Oh, to people, I commit very hard. Once

you become my friend, I will ruthlessly defend you even against yourself. Even if we haven’t spoken in years, you hold a dear place in my heart. I still frequently think of those I cherished in my childhood as much as those currently in my life. If one of those people showed up at my door today, best believe I’d be inviting them in. It may sound like I am being hyperbolic, but one of the things that draws me to writing is people. I am incredibly introverted, it’s true, but I love deeply. When you touch my inner circle, you never leave it, at least not in my heart. I have had to let people go. People move, relationships change, but I still treasure that span of time our lives touched. That sounds overly romantic and still too hyperbolic for anyone who doesn’t know me to believe. Let me arrive at my point. I am speaking of literary commitment.

When I am reading, it is never just one book. I have an

audio book I listen to on my commute to work, a school book, a book I am reading to read, and a book I am reading to annotate. I’d probably finish a lot more books if I just stuck with one at a time, but that doesn’t work for me. I don’t know if I count as a mood reader, but each book serves a function beyond being a book. The audio book is how I redeem my time when I am stuck in a car. My school book is because I have my classes read independently, and I read too, so that I am a good role model. I can tell the kids I read at home, but they will not accept it because it isn’t in front of them. The reading to read book is one I want to move through casually, best for when my brain is a little too tired to think deeply. The book for annotation is where I enter into a deep dialogue with the text. I analyze it through three roles: teacher, reader, and author. The teacher role assesses whether I could add the book to my classroom library and which skills it could help my students acquire. The reader is the book’s author’s intended audience, reading to enjoy the story in whatever authentic way I may. The author critiques the prose, looking for what the book has to teach me as a person and as an author so that I may continue to improve my craft. It is so in-depth that I am not always in the mental space to do it. Having four books going at once ensures that I am always reading something.

However, this lack of commitment also extends into my

writing habits. Since starting this blog, I take one writing block a week to write the next week’s post, which is a multi-tasking you would expect. After all, you are reading this post right now, and you can read my fiction through what I have published and the sneak peeks my newsletter subscribers get. However, I also jump about in my novel writing. Stories are like different flavors, and I can only eat the same thing for so long before I would rather go hungry than eat it again. Now, that analogy breaks down immediately; it is not that I become bored with my stories, it is that I hit a wall.

Lots of people have talked about writing styles, and they

have given them a variety of names. Because I don’t know which names you may know, I will just spell them out. There are people who plan in great detail before they write, those who plan nothing or very little before they write, and a combination of the two. I live somewhere in the combination. I get myself a general direction, write until I run out of road, and then reevaluate. It works well for me. I have managed to write 50k words in a month multiple times. However, if I stick to one story, it doesn’t always turn out that way. Eventually, I reach one of the forks in the road, and I can’t see down any of the paths forward. It is a writer's-block white-page lock thing. When I hit that wall, I have three choices: endure it, roll in it, or come back later. Enduring it has only left me stuck for ages. No bueno. Rolling in it can get me unstuck sometimes. I write a conversation to myself about what the problems are and how I can solve them, and sometimes I find the answer that I need. However, what yields the best results is coming back later. I jump to a different In-Progress and work on that. Sometimes, all it takes is one writing session. Other times, I leave the story I was stuck in for weeks. Eventually, I get the call to return. The story starts tugging on my creativity again, and I go back to it.

Would I recommend this writing method? Yes, and no. It

works for me. I still complete multiple drafts of novels over the course of a year, and I actually finish. However, many people would get stuck jumping and never go back to finish what was started. So, I wouldn’t say don’t try it, but I would say know yourself. If jumping between stories means you never finish any, you’re not a portal jumper. That’s okay. For me, it unlocks my creativity and ensures I am always working on something even when I get stuck, which in the end equals me not getting stuck. If that’s not you, you’re just different.

Aside from getting stuck, I am sometimes just so drawn to

a project that it stalls me out on the one I was working on. For example, when I get a new novel idea, I can’t ignore it. That first story spark is so vivid that if I don’t address it, I lose the shape of it. I’ll still remember the main thrust of the spark, but the clarity will diminish. Additionally, it is consuming. If I am actively writing a novel, cranking out between 500 and 1000 words per hour during a writing session, and then I get the novel spark, my word count drops the longer I avoid the new idea, until I hit that writer’s block zone. If I spend a day to a week pouring out everything I can about that new idea, I can return to my active project, and sometimes my word count will even increase. For me, jumping between stories refills my creativity well. It keeps my ideas going. So, even though I have multiple projects running at once, I can still be productive.

I do wonder if this will eventually change. When my first

novel lands and I get into a rhythm of publication, will this style of writing serve me? From my current vantage point, I think it will. I may have to be a bit more intentional about what my active project is, but considering how much I am currently able to write and self-edit, it seems likely that I will be able to write enough for consistent publication. I can’t really know until I get there, but this is working for now.

I do worry I will get lost in the forest of detail. Right now, I

am drafting the second book in a series while querying book 1. I am also writing the third book in a series I have on deck for publication. I am editing a standalone novel, and I have a bunch of other novels in early drafting that may or may not become a series. This can be encouraging as I am well on the way to creating a backlog of novels to publish, but I do wonder if it is too much. Each of these novels are fantasy novels with their own world-building. It requires a lot of thought into small details that make a cohesive big picture. Am I focusing on too much? How does the saying go = “miss the forest through the trees.” Is this a strategy for longevity or just a lack of commitment that will stumble me? Time will be the judge. It did just let me scrap a whole novel that wasn’t working and write a replacement in half the time, so I might just be alright.