Running the Marathon

The past week has been a slow time for writing. Between family obligations and other planned events, I’ve been incredibly busy and haven’t been able to set aside much time for writing. I am making every effort to find more time and to block out my schedule to allow more time to finish my book, but I am unfortunately a very impatient person. My personality type demands results immediately, and I’m doubly hard on myself when these expectations are not met.

I suppose discipline and perseverance are two traits I’m learning while writing a book. It isn’t too difficult to write a blog piece. Often you can finish it in one sitting, and the short length means the task never seems all that challenging. With a novel, however, you have to shift this mindset. The novel writing process has shown itself to be a marathon, and it is not ideal for sprinters like myself. I’ve been training myself to avoid crunching my weekly word count into a Friday afternoon, as the quality and my enthusiasm will flag long before I’m finished.

I’m also finding as I write that the characters and the settings take on a life of their own. Some of my characters are moving in directions I never intended, and it is opening new routes to further the plot that I never saw on my own. This organic part of the writing process suffers as well from sprinter writing. A slower, steady pace helps this process to fully develop as I delve deeper into the plot.

After a little more than two months of writing I’m up to 50,000 words, and the word total I set for myself as a goal is now within reach. It seems strange; when I set out at the beginning of this journey I was worried I wouldn’t have enough to write about. Now that I’m immersed in the world I’ve created, I’m beginning to wonder if I can fit in the story arc without writing an Encyclopedia-length piece. Considering I’ve already planned four to five books for a series, it may require even more to get everything in.

Ultimately the question of an agent and a publisher are issues I will not allow myself to address now. Above all, I’m just looking at the final event, planned as a closing curtain for the first book nearly a month ago. I’m pressing the threads of plot towards that point, because an agent and a publisher do not matter until I put the last word to paper.

The process can be exhausting, but I always find myself struggling to go to sleep after a good evening of writing, wishing I had more time to stay in my own created world before returning to the dull monotony of a sustaining job. It is a dream that few achieve, to write a novel and be published. However, I am fully committed to seeing this through to the end, and to becoming a full-time writer. The dream can never come true without the required effort, and I am determined to do whatever it takes.