My New, Old WIP (Work in Progress)

As you can see by my wordometer on the left hand side of the blog, I'm no longer working on A Blast From The Past - that's been put away for future use.

Instead I'm working on WIP- work in progress as it is yet untitled. I call it my newest, old WIP, as this is my 3rd attempt to write a paranormal YA.

This story came to me in an idea in February 2009 as I stood outside staring at a cloud- I know, what can I say? During that year, I wrote 2 different drafts of the same story and each stalled out around the 30k-40k mark. I knew the characters and basically what I wanted to write but I could see no end in sight and worse, I had no plot. I shelved it for a while and moved onto something else.

Fast forward to July 2010 and after a rough personal year, I'm finally separated from my husband and living on my own with the boys. I also have some spare time. The idea of the paranormal YA came back to me with a vengeance- well, the characters had never really left my head- but all of the sudden all these ideas for it kept popping up out of nowhere, when I'd least expect it. I had no other choice but to sit down and write it.

On July 7, I started writing the 3rd attempt, with an aim of 5k words per week with the week ending every Sunday. As of today, I'm just shy of 25k.

There is one thing that is different this time, than the previous 2 attempts. I'm writing it in longhand. For whatever reason, this works for me. There's something about the physical act of writing- pen to paper- that propels me forward. Looking back, I realized that 2 previous manuscripts that I wrote- one mystery, the other chick lit- were initially written in longhand. In the end, both were completed and sent onto agents. So, I'll stick with what works.

I'm curious: does anyone else write any of their drafts in longhand or do you sit right down at the keyboard?

One thing is certain: I'm happy to be writing again.

Write Away

Perhaps you've noticed my new 'wordometer' to the left of my blog. It will keep track of my new WIP-work in progress, tentatively titled, A Blast from the Past.

I've spent the last 14 months laboring over a paranormal YA and it has come to the point where I have to retire it to a drawer for the time being and move onto another project. I'm stuck. The characters still bang on in my head but I've stalled at 40k words. When I got stuck the first time at around 40k, I put that draft aside and wrote a completely different version, 2nd draft and became stuck at 40k. You'd think if you'd put them together you'd have 80k and a book- (is it too much to ask?) and everything would be golden but it didn't work out that way. At the end of the day, I still had 2 very different drafts of the same book. However, I don't see it as a waste of time. Instead, I choose to look at it as a writing exercise. I loved writing it and I loved the characters, but for now it's time to move on.


Anyways, I was already to start my first 'Irish' themed book centering around 3 very different women from one housing estate. It's presumptuous of me to think I could pull it off being an American but I thought I'd give it a try. That is until an off the cuff comment from my fellow writer friend and published author, Clodagh Murphy (The Disengagement Ring, Girl in a Spin) said, "What about that one book you were writing about the detective?" Jesus, I'd forgotten all about that. It was a story about a 30 something woman whose questionable uncle returns after a 30 yr absence. I opened that document up this morning and reread it and still loved it and what's more I knew how that story had to end. Oh yeah, this is what I want to write!


It was a simple conversation with Clodagh Murphy and Trina Rea about where we were and what we were writing next and I mentioned about the Irish themed book when Clodagh asked me about my previous WIP. It was serendipity at it's best.

Happy Writing.