When I first re-launched this blog back in April 2023, my intention was to use this as a means to practice my craft by writing more frequently and to share what I have written with an audience. That didn’t quite pan out the way I had intended. Instead, I focused solely on the novel I’d been working on for several years and left my newly refurbished blog in its original packaging. What I’m realizing now is that I should have been using this website as a means to update everyone on the status of my novel. In fact, that was my original intention. That’s what the News section of my website was going to be dedicated to but I still haven’t messed around with it. Anyway, the point is, this post will be the first of several that I plan to write in regards to the status of my novel and where I’m at in the writing process. My goal is to make this post once a month in addition to the normal content I write. Updated on Fridays, of course.
I’ll be brief here as I don’t want to sound redundant but one of the biggest reasons why I quit my job was to complete the first draft of my novel. However, that wasn’t the main reason why I left. I left because my brain needed a break. I don’t think I was quite ready to just jump back into writing after being in a miserable place for so long, and not giving myself enough time to heal did more harm than I anticipated. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I started this website and wrote as much of my novel as I did last year but I should have waited. I should have just enjoyed the vacation and got back to writing once I felt like I was ready to do so. I didn’t come to that realization until almost Thanksgiving. Consequently, I put things on hold to work on relaxing and keeping my stress as low as possible.
A bit of history for those of you who aren’t aware of my attempt at writing this novel. I’ve had this story in my head since high school, which is over twenty years ago now. Originally, I had conceived this story as an episodic television show but I kept making changes in my head to the story and, due to those changes, I decided that it would make for a better novel as it would allow me to have more creative freedom. So, in May 2013, I started writing. I wrote what felt like a lot in the first few months. Then I got a new job in which I would stay on for nearly ten years. I actually wrote a decent amount in the first year and a half until I got promoted at my new job. Once I received that promotion, my time spent writing slowly declined. Eventually, I would go months without writing, only touching upon it when I would go on vacation and had time to kill on the plane. This would happen regularly until I quit my job in January 2023.
By that point, over the course of the past ten years, I had written maybe half of it. In May 2023, I got back to the grind in earnest. Between May and September, I had written about fifty more pages, roughly a quarter of the novel. During that last month, I had a good pace going and a lot of that progress was made in that period of time. Then, my brother and I took our mother to Disney World for her birthday so I obviously took a break. Once that trip was over, I had a very difficult time jumping back into the novel. I had a good rhythm going and everything! I told myself that I would have the first draft completed by the end of that year and I think that pressure I put on myself is what caused me to struggle with it. So, I decided to put it on hold until I felt ready to write again.
Now, after nearly a year since I last made any progress on the novel, I’m finally ready to jump back into it and finish the first draft. I have given myself a writing schedule that I will adhere to and hopefully, increase upon as I get into a good rhythm. I do want to have it finished by the end of this year. And it’s certainly doable. I have written 75% of it so far. But I’m not going to stress out about it like I did last year. If I don’t finish the first draft before 2025 begins, then so be it. The world is not going to end.
For those of you who don’t know, and without going into too much detail, the novel I am writing is part fantasy, set in modern day Chicago, and part love story. This story in particular will focus more on the latter, though the former does play a big role. Basically, it’s a modern day love story with magic. That’s what I usually tell people, anyway. It’s also the first book in a trilogy. Originally, I wanted to make it a four or five book saga but later decided that I could get the story completed in three books.
So far, I have written 162 pages consisting of 18 chapters and nearly 83,000 words. Based on my outline, I have about five chapters left to write, though that could change. Another question I get a lot is what the title will be. And after all these years, I still don’t have a title. I don’t even have a title for the overarching trilogy. I think about what the title could be on occasion but nothing that leaves me completely satisfied. I do feel like I am getting close to something good. Or at least something I like.
That’s all I’ve got for now. I am more than happy to answer any questions about the novel that you all may have but I am being tight lipped about certain aspects of it until I can at least have a completed draft. I’ve written down a lot of ideas and notes in my time away from the keyboard that a significant portion of the story could very well change when I get into the next phase of my novel. It’s been a long time since I’ve been excited about writing again so I’m looking forward to getting back into it! I have a Threads account that I am trying to use as a way to get my writing out there for the world to see, and it will also serve as a way to keep people updated on the status of my book a bit more frequently. My username is realbigdeal, which also happens to be my Instagram account. Feel free to follow!
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