The A to Z Book Diary: "G" is for Getting in the Game

The last time this dear 'ol diary of mine left off a year ago, I had just finished the first draft of my first full-length novel, and I was so excited that, looking back on the post now, I seemed to be just about hyperventilating in typewritten form. SO many exclamation points. 

And since the book, in that finished form, didn't end up working out... heh, that reaction makes me a bit sheepish in hindsight. But I hold to it nonetheless; it was my first book after all - couldn't and wouldn't be helped! And I'm still proud that I made it through that one, even if it didn't turn out the way I'd hoped it would.

But now, as the title said, it's time to get back in the game and start over. "The Sentry" will sit on the shelf for a little while (pending a possible rewrite when I'm not sick to death of the sight of it any more), and in the meantime, I'll set my sights on a new project and get my writer's brain juices flowing again.

Which... man... this is really exciting again! A new beginning, a different track; new characters, conflicts and story lines to dive head-first into! A new book really does put the wind back in a writer's little sails, doesn't it? :)

But now... oh no... it's back to the trouble I was in before I really poured myself into "The Sentry": where do I start? Which story do I write?? So many ideas, and nowhere near the time to write them all at once here... hm.

Image courtesy of jscreationzs at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Do I go with one of the kids' books about dragons hiding in a mountain over a village? Do I go with a YA drama about a teen who's a single father in a disintegrating small town? An adult comedy about an agoraphobic and a bank robber? A pre-teen comedy/horror romp about ghosts, Death and ouija boards? A YA adventure about time travel? 

GAH!! I want to write all of them - but which one can I REALLY invest myself in and get excited about for the present until the somewhat distant future? And I don't want to make the same mistake as I did with "The Sentry", where my main problem was that I had an idea for a story that I liked, but I stuffed it into a niche that I thought would sell, and it ended up hurting the story...

...Maybe if I switch gears completely? Yeah... what if I pursue a book that's well and truly a fresh start? Go for a different tone, different age group, different all-around execution? I think that's it - I need to write a story where I can just have fun with it, and learn to have fun with writing as a whole again. I was focussed for so long on just getting out a finished book that I lost sight of the fun I used to have just creating something. Who knows? Maybe that hurt my writing as much as trying to stuff it into a niche did.

So let's do this: I'll start small - go for short and sweet, and just plain fun. The kids' book about dragons. I'll start it today, and stop thinking so darn much - no over-thinking, just writing and having fun with it. 

I like this :) - off I go, let's see what happens!

~\\//~