It wasn’t a bad week in ROW80 land. Â I did have to face up to my own limitations. Â I actually have to sleep and rest and do self-care these days. Â I am no longer in my 30s and able to sleep two hours a night for a whole week and still function. Â How did that happen?
Still, good stuff happened this week. Â I found my Blood of the Mist pages but none of the original planning notes. Â Those may just be gone, and I’ll have to live with it. Â It might be a good thing in the long run, because now I’m going to have to rethink scenes and things, and that will probably freshen up the story and help me get back into it.
I’ve been looking up anything I can find about how to get back into an unfinished story you’ve been away from for a long time. Â I’m not entirely sure how to reconnect with the story and move forward. Â For now, I’m going through my pages with a notebook at hand to write a few words about each scene.
Anyone have any resources for restarting an old story?  I’d love to have a look if you don’t mind sharing.
I did more than find my pages and start revisiting my old story. Â I also checked in with 5 fellow ROWers. Â I love the connection I feel by doing that, both to other ROWers and to the writing community in general, so I really want to stay on top of that.
The writing? Â Not as much as I intended, at least not fiction writing. Â I’m still doing a lot for the Willamette Writers Conference, and I may have to acknowledge that I’m not going to get as much done until it’s over (11 days from now). Â Especially because I’m really into finding my way back into Blood of the Mist. Â I’ll try to get some actual writing in over the next week, but if I only have a short amount of time for my own writing until after the conference, it may be spend working on BoM.
That was my week. Â Next week I hope to report more blog check-ins, progress on my BoM note taking, and one writing session (it’s hard to write that, but I need to be realistic, but I feel like I should be able to do all of everything!).
How was your week? Â What are you planning to do next?
See you in the comments!
I find that when I have been away from a piece of writing for a while, I can’t “force” myself to get back into it – either it happens or it doesn’t. I will read what I have already, but if the muse doesn’t take over, I just put it away until that spark returns on its own. Probably not very helpful advice, but that’s all I got.
Best wishes for a productive week.
Thanks, Chris! I’m finding that letting myself think about it and read bits and pieces now and then is pulling me back into the story. I think you’re right–forcing it doesn’t go over very well.
I’ve just written a guest post for Janet Sketchley that will go live tomorrow. The title? Just Say No to Overextending Yourself. I say, “Kudos for being realistic,” not a bad character quality. I wanted very much to go up north to visit my coauthor the second week of August, but because I will be out of the office for the best parts of three weeks in September, that’s not going to happen. I have way too much to get done. It’s actually very freeing to postpone even good things. Not enough motivation and I stall out. Too much and I flame out. I’m still trying to find the right balance and my 30s are w-a-y behind me. 🙂
Thanks, Steph! Being realistic is *not* a strong suit of mine, but I’m practicing. 🙂
I wish I could help :/ My first WIP was written during last November during NaNoWriMo. I let it sit for at least six months and then tried to pry scenes out. No luck..turns out the entire thing is thirty thousand + words of descriptions of the two characters, dreams and internal dialogue lol
Good luck on your quest. If you need a refresher on anything writerly I have a nice collection of resources.
At least you have some good character work in place. That could be useful for writing their story later.
Old stories? I read them again right before bed and then I dream on them. If I actually dream on them, I can start writing from there. If not… I try writing a few old sentences and then adding a few more after that. Sometimes I throw away a paragraph or two…
You may not be writing much, but it sounds like you’ve been getting some stuff just done. Hooray. And btw, I meant to tell you a few weeks ago… Welcome Back!
Thanks for the welcome back, Eden! I love the idea of reading your old stories before bed. I’m trying that tonight–it sounds like a fantastic way to get back into a story.
As I am revising my NaNo from last year, it’s a trip down memory lane. And I can only imagine how it’ll be when I revisit the 2011 novel. Seeing the good passages and then the OMG why did I write that bit. it’s helping me to see how I write and how I can write better.
First I first this one, then we will see if I go back to the 2011 one or the 2013 one. And in-between I write and revise my shorter stories, and then submit them. An on going cycle. I did get two small poem published in a local calendar for the Friends of the Chemung River Watershed. That’s a plus! 🙂
Here’s to a great and amazing week!!
It sounds like you have a great system in place for keeping things rolling, Cindy. That’s great! And congratulations on the poems!