Writing Again...

Sometime over the summer, life intervened, self-doubt paid a visit, and I stopped work on The Old Power Returns, the sequel to Darksome Thirst.

Even after I figured out what the problem was (sophomore slump) and had convinced myself to keep going, it wasn't until just after Christmas that I finally sat down and starting writing again. Well, re-writing. After four months, I didn't trust myself to remember what I had already written, so it made the most sense to start from the beginning, editing and embellishing as I went along.

When I left off in August, I had seven pretty-solid chapters written. I've now edited/rewritten to the end of Chapter 3. No, I'm not that slow, it's just that every once in a while I'll reach a point where I need to do some research on something and wham! -- I'm lost in Googleland for the evening.

But if I get up early and start writing the novel first thing in the morning, I tend to do well. Maybe it's because I'm too sleepy to remember the fears that my second novel will be worse than my first. Or maybe it's because I'm still in that half-world of dream and sleep and can concentrate before all my other obligations crowd in.

Last night I read an article by the now-deceased legendary horror author Richard Laymon and it gave me just the kick I need to get going again. In his "Laymon's Rules of Writing," Laymon says basically that there's no excuse not to write. Not life problems, not fears, not nuthin'. And on that note, I'm going to log off now -- and start writing.

Morven


Copyright © 2005 Morven Westfield