Writing Again
Picking up a story where you left off is not easy. I started writing an additional chapter to my book and found myself looking through my notes. I probably spent more time staring and rereading what I had written than thinking or writing, although I did a bit of that, too.
The chapter I'm writing is an interim chapter between two chapters I had written at a rapid pace. I thought I was missing something in the relationships of the newest characters to the existing ones, and I thought the events of the first took great leaps to the second.
I sat down and looked at my notes. I had created a structure to follow, an order of events to write that had seemed to flow in my mind. The longer I stared at the notes, the more I thought about different options.
The only way to continue forward now is to actually write out what's in my head. It will be messy, it will be imperfect, but I've got to try it. If this doesn't work, I rewrite it. If it doesn't work after several rewrites, well....I've still got my old manuscript to work from. Perhaps I could develop the relationships and events quickly, using the minimum amount of page space. Why I wouldn't do that in the first place I don't know, I guess I was excited.
A good thing is that after a long hiatus I am writing something again. I sat down for a few hours and did nothing but focus on the story. It was great. I needed that unstructured time.
Perhaps I'll keep writing so that I don't have to pick up a story again - I'll have it ready in hand and mind.
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