So, as some of you may know, I’ve been rewriting and older piece of mine to turn into a published novel and, hopefully, a series later on. It’s an urban fantasy/adventure type novel called Cat’s Paw (title may change at some point). I really enjoyed writing it the first time around and I think doing a rewrite is going to be a good thing. It’s got potential.
Why, then, is rewriting this novel driving me to the edge of insanity?
(Okay, maybe not quite that far, but pretty close.)
I’ve gotten around 11K words into the rewrite, which means I’m getting to the interesting parts of the story. And yet, it feels like everything is lagging. Dragging. Whatever you want to call it. The dialogue feels a bit stiff and it bothers me.
It got to the point where I considered stopping the project altogether and redoing a different novel instead (more time-travel with a mystery). I know that the stories are both good and I will definitely end up doing both of them as self-published novels. At some point. But I really wanted to get Cat’s Paw rewritten. I can have so much fun with the sort of thing.
Given the amount of writing that I actually do (a lot), this is not the first time something like this has happened. I don’t automatically love all my stories. A bunch of what I put onto paper is only so-so quality wise, but I write it anyways. Why? Because writing is what I do.
The more I write, the better it gets.
However, that means that a good portion of what I do is not going to be published (not without serious rewrites). That’s okay. I don’t mind. I write because I love writing, not because I’m determined to make millions of dollars (though that would be nice).
I have found that sticking with a project even if I don’t love it means that I get to practise my technique. And, usually, it turns out better than I realised at first.
So, no, I’m not going to stop writing Cat’s Paw. I will finish it and do my best to enjoy writing it. I may have a lot more edits to do before beta reading, but that’s okay, too.
I might just need more tea to get me through. Sigh.