Taking a Break when Writing

It's later than I usually stay up on a week day, and especially a Monday at that. But I just had to share my small victory for tonight. 

I took a break from writing yesterday (Sunday). After realizing on Saturday evening that there were some flaws with the magic system in Clara and Claire I spent a lot of time thinking. So much time that I didn't feel very accomplished on Saturday night. What should have been a 6-8 hour period of free writing time was maybe 2-3 at best because of my concerns. I spent most of my time scribbling ideas and questions into my notebook. And I have to admit it made me feel defeated in a way. A book where everyone in it has magic can't exactly make it if it has an issue with how the people use magic. 

So come Sunday night I took a break. I didn't even look back into my journal. I spent the night relaxing and catching up on sleep to start another week.

And then tonight I decided to jump back into the action. It's been a long day, but I decided I had nothing to lose. And honestly when I know I've skipped a night of writing I feel guilty and want to write again. So I did. And I did it all without my notebook full of questions and ideas about the magic system. Instead I went to Pinterest for inspiration. A lot of my inspiration comes from there --the images help me piece together my own ideas in my head. And once I fueled up on inspiration I dove back into writing again. I finished the chapter that I couldn't finish Saturday night and reached 30k words in total for the rewrite. And 30k out of 82k I can't complain about --keep in mind these numbers are approximate; the first draft was 82,719 but it's easy to just round it to 82k.

So even though right now it's almost midnight and I'm still awake, I just had to share while I'm in the moment. Now that I'm done writing for the moment I wanted to share this because I've seen a lot of writers admitting their defeats lately. And to some this might seem like a small victory, but writing is made up of a bunch of small victories. Being able to jump back into writing tonight like nothing changed reconfirmed yet again that this novel means so much to me. And that this story is important; my characters are dying to tell it and aren't afraid to fill my head with their voices. Each time I get further in the rewrite I'm that much more excited to share this book once it releases. 

I think these breaks in writing are important. They're not something I always enjoy, but afterwards it allows me to return to my writing with a open mind. It stops me from being overwhelmed and clouded with too many ideas or questions. It helps me stop analyzing my work so much that it takes the fun out of it. Tonight I just wrote with inspiration and changed up the scene and feeling of the chapter along with it.

Since it's late, I'm going to post my writing progress on social media and head to bed. In the meantime, let me know how you take breaks when you're writing. Leave a comment and I'll get back to you!

Lindsey Richardson

May: New goals

I love new months, and I'm so excited that May is here! I started rewriting Clara and Claire at the end of April, and my goals for this month are important to finishing that process. This month is all about finishing rewriting. As I've mentioned before, I'm going on vacation at the start of June. So I would love to go away, knowing that my book is in the hands of beta readers! In order to ensure that happens I made myself a schedule in hopes of staying on track.

As I write this post I am 21k into rewriting the book. I have mentioned changes happening in the book, and they are very noticeable ones. During the break I took after editing I really worked out plot holes and the world building for the story. I added in a new chapter, and tonight for instance I changed the beginning scene of chapter seven (which is now chapter eight because of the new one I added in). The great part about rewriting is I can tell the book has changed immensely for the better, and this is the version I can be proud of. This is the version I want to share with my beta readers. This is something I can really work with if after this still more needs to be changed. 

Like I mentioned at the beginning of starting this book, I never want to rush myself through this process. I've rushed in the past, and it's only lead to pain and nightmares. So this time around I'm not going to be too harsh on myself if say by the start of June I'm near done but not complete. I know this is a long process, but I also feel like I'm making great progress with how far I've come already. I am really optimistic and hopeful this can be done in May. Especially since I'm not changing every single thing in the book. Adding in a new scene or altering something here and there is nothing in comparison of if I had to change the whole book from beginning to start. I just want to make sure now with rewriting that Clara's voice stays consistent the whole way through. Now that I am more familiar with her, her narration has also improved. But hey, that's just my opinion. I guess we'll really know once it's left up to the beta readers to decide.

If everything goes according to plan --and believe me, I'm determined -- I will let interested beta readers know. I'll probably send out a definite invitation by the last week of May (or second to last). By then I should be able to tell if I'm going to make it to my deadline.

Thanks so much to everyone for being so patient while I work on this book. If you've already finished the Magicians series, I'm sorry to keep you waiting for this next book. But believe me so much is going into it, and I'm really eager to finish it with the deadlines and goals I've set in place. As always I'll keep updating my social media with progress I make as I go.

But for now, I need to catch up on sleep.

Good night!

Lindsey Richardson.