When the Muse Strikes, it Strikes

 

 

So… what’s been happening?

Well, as per my New Year’s goal, I thought I would write about the first quarter and what’s been going on.

 

 

Mainly, I have been redrafting my second novel, Identity, which has led me in many directions!

After I finished my first draft, I envisioned some edits and a couple of rewrites, but that hasn’t been the case. You would think I would already know this, but my brain has tricked me into forgetting just how much time, energy, and attention goes into bringing a story to life.

My first novel, Bitter Pill, was a long time in coming. It had themes I needed to write about because I am so passionate about medicine and healing. As a nurse and homoeopath, my experience already covered most of the research. I did, however, do plenty of other research, too, but my characters, plot, and all other aspects were more or less living in my head for a long time.

 

 

For my next novel, Identity, I was under the illusion that I wouldn’t need to do too much research, because once again, it covers topics and themes I am familiar with and have some knowledge of. Wrong!

Since writing the first draft, one of my minor characters, Max, fascinated me so much that I needed to delve much deeper in order to be true to my character, who has complicated emotional needs. Needless to say, there had to be much more research and at least two re-writes and I’m still going.

My protagonist, Bethany, discovers Max during her quest to find out more about her past, and she ends up saving his life.

 

I had hoped to have Identity completed by July, but the research is taking up more time than I had expected, as well as lots of legwork. So, I’m not sure if I will reach my goal for this project.

To complicate matters, I have been working on book three, a crime novel with a working title, The Puppet Master. The research for this one was on my list of goals because I had a date in my diary to interview an ex-chief of police. However, I scheduled the writing of this book for much later.

So what’s the issue? Well, unexpectedly, I started to write it! This wasn’t the plan, but when the muse strikes, it strikes! As any writer knows, when a character has something to say, the pen has to come out, whether or not you are ready, or whether the timing is right.

 

 

Other stuff on my goal-setting calendar: 

Courses: Tick box here for some of them, I’m pleased to say. 

I enrolled in one course, called Writing Crime (another reason for beginning The Puppet Master). It was interesting and had a strict weekly deadline, which I stuck to, despite a busy few weeks. 

To add, I have had two more learning sessions (for my work as a restorative justice practitioner)  both were also useful for research for my books, too, so that was a win-win!

My next novel, Identity:

I completed some edits on Identity, and I’ve researched police procedure and had a meeting with the ex-chief of police, so another tick, but the July deadline is looming!  

Blog Posts, Marketing & Social Media:

I had planned to publish more blog entries, actively engage on social media, and handle some marketing tasks (my least favourite part). The courses have taken up a lot of my time over the first quarter, but hopefully, during the next couple of months, I’ll pay more attention to these areas and you can follow me on LinkedIn for updates here.

So what about the rest? Well, there are only so many hours in a day. I’d better get on with it then!

For more information on Bitter Pill, go here

For the goal-setting blog, go here

To visit my introductory post on homeopathy, go here

For other posts on my blog, go here