Whoo boy, have I made some changes.
Remember when I said I was working on my holiday-themed story? I was hit by a creativity spark while reading my beta reader’s feedback on my other novel, so I’m planning to finish the holiday novel’s rewrites in November now (for NaNoWriMo+) and I’m working on rewriting the first story again.
I got a burst of inspiration last Friday as I looked through my notes for a romantasy story I was slowly starting to piece together. It clicked! I could combine elements of that story with my first story. My first story is so personal and matters so much to me. Like they discussed in today’s episode of The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, taking the time to really focus and hone the story I want to publish is important.
I don’t want to give up on it and leave it in a closet to die.
Since Friday, I’ve completely retooled the plot outline, making it follow the Save The Cat beat sheet. It has a real flow now, and the themes jump out much more than they used to. The conflict is much clearer. I’m so excited to work on this draft! I only wish I’d discovered STC sooner, so I wouldn’t have been such a strugglesaurus these past few years. But I know, thanks to WriterThreads, that I’m not alone.
I changed the title of the novel for the fourth time, too. Ha. It fits the story better, though it could’ve worked with the older drafts as well. That’s part of how I know it’s a good one. Titles change a bunch of times, though. I’m not getting attached to any of the ones I come up with.
Thanks to Carly Watters, I have another genre I can add to my pitch paperwork, too: autofiction.
Don’t be afraid to work on something else if you’re feeling stuck on something. Even if that something else is the thing you’ve already “finished” twice. 😉
Sara Mazariegos 