Lord of the Words: Return of the Writer

I don’t think I need to point out that it’s been a while since I’ve done…. well, anything. The lengthy hiatus from all things writing, however, is coming to a close. I’m slowly returning to brain-storming, idea-generating, character-profiling, world-building, word-choosing, syntax-crafting, prose-refining, and work-submitting.

The break was due to a few things. Part of it was my mental health, which I’ve talked about before. Part of it was that I sold my van, and at that point most of the writing I was doing had to do with the van. Part of it was that I’d kind of made myself hate the thing I was most passionate about in the world, and I realized that if I was ever going to love it again, I needed to let it go.

In the meantime, I’ve been working as an Algebra teacher. Yeah, I know, it was out of left field for me, too. I think I did a pretty good job, all things considered, but it’s amazing how much it made me long to write again. Despite the crazy hours and heavy workload, I decided to do National Novel Writing Month again in November. And boy, did it suck! I drove myself totally to the brink…. but I hit the 50,000 word goal, and working on my writing agin felt so. Damn. Good.

Naturally, the moment I started to make progress on one of my projects, I realized the main character was completely wrong and the book was aimed at the entirely incorrect audience and the theme was only attainable by changing the entire story. So that’s something we’re working on, now. Though it has occurred to me to write it both ways. I could complete the Young Adult version, which is more lighthearted and honestly, easier to organize the plot, and then go in for the grittier, more meaningful adult version. I’m not sure what that looks like to a publisher, though. I think most of them would scoff and show me the door if I waltzed in saying “hey, so I’ve got this book, except it’s two, and it’s basically the same story except one’s for adults and one’s for teens and also the plots are totally different and the characters aren’t really the same.”

I’ll probably try it out both ways and see what happens. Maybe I will end up getting two books out of the same general idea. The adult version will definitely be more difficult to pull together, though. It doesn’t have an antagonist or central conflict yet.

I’ve gotten off topic. The reason I bring up that I’ve been teaching algebra is the main reason I’m back here. The main reason I’m writing this post with confidence and the commitment to follow through. I recently left that position, and on my last days with them, I was blown away how many of the kids commented about my writing. The number of times they asked if I would sign their copy of my book when I finally published it, or told me they were going to look for it in bookstores, or said they were going to follow me on social media so they’d know when it came out, blew me away. I haven’t talked that much about my writing with them. I think a lot of the time I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t even sure if I would ever properly get back in the saddle. But these kids were so sure of it, as if it were a foregone conclusion that I would get published, that my book would be successful. They asked me to remember them when my book became a bestseller, they listed writing as something I was good at. Faith is so powerful. Their faith in me rocked me to my core. It restored my faith in myself, in my dream. The world can be such a let-down as you get older. It’s easy to become jaded, as the rose-tint gets scratched and battered and starts to flake off your glasses. My kiddos polished them up for me, a bit. Reminded me what it’s like to believe so whole-heartedly, so blindly, in my dream. And I don’t want to be another let-down. I don’t want to mar the tint on their glasses. I want to be successful here to show them it can be done. Those kids are so bright, and capable, and talented. I have at least as much faith in them as they do in me, and I don’t want them to give up. I want them to know that dreams are real, are attainable. So I’m back, I’m here, and I’m ready to do the work. Let’s get down to business.

Here’s what the return of the writer looks like at the moment:

First, I’m trying to get everything updated. The last time I went through this website and made sure everything was up-to-date and working correctly was…. I don’t even know. Probably around 4 or 5 years ago, honestly. My social media has been lacking lately, too. These are things that I can pull together satisfactorily rather quickly, so they’re top of my To Do list. (Speaking of to do lists, I got this new app called WaterDo, and it’s basically a to do list that rewards you for completing tasks with these little animated islands. It’s super rewarding. 10/10 would recommend.)

Next, I’m looking at my short form work. I started a sort-of character study on the website years ago, called the Character Breakroom, and I want to do more with that. I’m also going back and revising a short story that I think has some great bones, and I’m going to submit it like crazy until I get a bite. I want to work on more travel-related essays and memoirs as well.

This is less writing-related, but I’m also planning on starting a podcast about travel, culture, and the ways our world intersects. This is probably going to be a primary focus in the next few months.

Finally, I’m going to aim for consistent work on my long-form fiction. I don’t really know what the timeline looks like for this, I’m not even sure what project I want to focus on, but it’s important to me that every day when I go to bed I can identify some sort of progress made on a novel-length project.