FRIDAY FINDINGS: WHOLE LOTTA LOVE?
No, I’m, not talking about the Led Zeppelin classic rock song. As far as I’m concerned, that’s an amazing guitar piece (yea Jimmi Paige!), but totally devoid of any real romantic “love,” at least in the lyrics. Pretty much R-rated if not X.
What I AM talking about is love for a romance writer, namely me. There’s still a whole lotta love in the stories themselves. That’s why I started writing, to show the world I still believe in romantic love and relationships.
Loving the actual writing process, from the author’s perspective? Not so much for me these days. I am faced with what feels like an obligation to my first book, Return to Rainbow Ridge, to finish it once and for all and self-publish it. My passion for the story is still there, but muted by the tedious process of re-writing much of it.
It is much harder to do or want to do that than the original writing part of the process was. Then, it was telling the story by putting together words on a blank page, sheer creativity, like painting on a blank canvas. Now, this rewriting and reforming the novel is like working a puzzle.
I see pieces that don’t fit where I’ve put them, so I need to remove them. Sometimes I reuse them elsewhere, but sometimes they are not really part of this puzzle picture (Ever had a puzzle piece that’s actually from another puzzle? It’ll drive you crazy!) I may need to create something else to fit in the blank space where the wrong piece had been. I may need to just leave it out and push the other pieces together to fill in the hole.
It’s VERY slow going. I don’t have a deadline, which is good and terrible. I try to work on it every day. I WILL get it done, I hope soon. Having to stay home sheltering in place give me lots of time, but not the motivation I need. I love this story, but I’ve lived with it far too long. Like a child that’s lived at home way too long, I need to figure out how to gently, or not, shove it out into the real world, to succeed or fail on its own.
I’m already working on the second story, Rule Number One. And to be honest, there are dozens of other stories, more every week, that lure me away from the drudgery of re-editing an existing story for the fourth—no fifth—time.
Don’t get me wrong. I still believe Return to Rainbow Ridge will be a great story. It’s the same basic story I started with. But there are major differences in how Ethan and Melody reach their happily-ever-after. I’m still figuring all that out.
“A work in progress”—ain’t that the truth! The work needs to end, and soon. We’ll see how that proceeds.