Not Ready Yet...

I find that each time that I get a light bulb going off in your head moment about a piece of work your have pushed to the side or are currently working on it's almost as if you now know the meaning of life. With it also means that there is a lot more work that needs to go into the manuscript.

One of those things that I had a light bulb moment is when it comes to writers block on a story. You've tried to find that one moment where the story and characters decided to take a path that lead to a dead end. You've tried to find the main road and you just can't get it. Either you don't know the world you're creating well enough or you don't know your characters or are missing/need to kill someone off. In the end this is thing thing that made me realize why I can't climb or blast my way through the road block, THEIR STORY ISN'T READY TO BE TOLD YET.

Que end of world noises. But how can that be? How can their story not be told yet? I know the people I'm writing about, or think I do, and I know how I want it to end. I just can't get there some how. Well that's just it. Your characters aren't ready. Or you, yourself, aren't ready to dive there to tell the story that the characters deserve to be told.

I've had this with my first MS I've ever written. So to speak. I got the whole thing done no problem. Victory in itself. When I went to try to edit the thing, I killed the first chapter.

How do you kill a chapter? Or a MS? You over edit the thing to the point where something that was workable is in need of a total rewrite or delete the whole thing. After weeks of one chapter I was fed up frustrated and was starting to hate myself and my work. With new characters vying for my attention I decided that it was time to step away from that first MS. I was too close to it to give it any justice. In the end their story wasn't ready.

Finally coming back to the story years later I read through the MS. And it was crap. Like all first drafts. Like all first novels. But the story and characters are all apart of me wanting to be told. So thinking it might be time, I went back at it. Doing a full rewrite. Crazy I know.  But then I hit that wall.

Not only was the characters and story evolving again from concept to the point where I'm at now, but there are parts of the story that aren't ready. I had huge pieces of the puzzle but now that the characters wanted more attention. To be told in 3rd person instead of 1st, there was so much more that needed to be said. Either I or my characters weren't ready.

While I had this 100k first MS to work off of and had a general idea for book two I had the second light bulb moment. I need more time. They need more time and space for the story to be told. What I thought was the end of book 1 isn't really the end. In fact it might be the end to book 3. This though knocked me right on my ass. Holy shit! I was trying to force too much into one book.

Slowly that was of the writers block started to fall apart and I was able to find more pieces of the puzzle. Still the wall stands shorter than it once was, yet just barely too tall to climb over without some help.

While I've technically had started this story since I was 20 the characters haven't been ready yet. The story is evolving more and more each day even when I'm not really thinking about it. and then you have a light bulb moment that is leaps and bounds farther down the line then you thought you'd be without it. This story wasn't ready yet until I was mature enough to handle it. Same with the characters. We've all grown up and are just about ready to tell their story.

The latest light bulb moment has me rearranging the whole story again. And for once the wall if I jump I can feel the top of the wall. Soon I'll be scrambling over the top and you all will finally have the story next year. With any hopes in time for my 27th birthday.

It's kind of amazing just how much you can realize with a little light bulb moment as your not ready yet. While it's a hard hit to the ego in the end it makes sense. If you want to put out the best story you will listen to your characters and not force it. You will wait til you and the story are ready to be told.

And I'm glad that I've waited to tell this story cause if you ask me it's pretty epic. I know I'm evil by not telling you more. You will just have to wait till the story is ready. :)