Deja Vu

In the words of Taylor Swift: "I think I've seen this film before"

Photo by Josh Millgate on Unsplash

Do you want to know something weird about writing? If you work on something long enough, you forget what you were writing about in the first place.

This is most obvious when you read over your manuscript in preparation for another draft. It doesn’t take much for a detail to get lost in translation when something cooler comes along. You either think crap and hurriedly add it back in every chance you get, or you go eh and rewrite whatever’s necessary to make the story work.

This happens to me often, mostly intentionally. I’ll get to a plot point that isn’t hitting like it should, think of what would make it better, then shrug it off. That’s a problem for round two is practically my catchphrase.

But there is another big downfall to long projects—running out of steam.

I have a lot of “half-baked” story ideas. Whether just story beats or a string of loosely connected scenes, I’m always working on something. Multiple somethings. Probably too many somethings.

My current something is an idea that first came to me in college when brainstorming with a screenwriter friend of mine. I’ve been working on it off and on ever since. After months of plotting—and way too much time spent on unnecessary graphics—I finally opened up that Word doc when I joined my university’s Creative Writing Club.

I’d say the rest is history, but it’s a little more convoluted than that.

For one, I only got about halfway done with it before restarting from the very beginning.

Finishing senior year, working multiple jobs, and preparing for life after graduation kept me pretty busy. I’d say I got about halfway through this manuscript in about a year. Not bad for a college student, but not the best timeline, either. Other stuff also got in the way, like my current novel that’s out on submission right now.

After that manuscript left my hands, I was eager to stay on top of my writing by jumping into another story, one I was familiar with, but there was just one problem.

It had been so long that I couldn’t get into it in a satisfying way.

Yes, I knew my story beats and what had to happen, but I wasn’t connected to my characters anymore. Toss in some POV uncertainty and you’ve got one struggling author.

My grand solution was to rewrite the entire thing from the beginning. I mean, what did I have to lose? I already had a list of plots I wanted to streamline anyway, and starting from the beginning would get me better acquainted with these characters.

Truly, this was looking like a win-win situation.

The even crazier thing? In half the time—much less than half the time—I’m already back where I started. As of the morning I’m writing this, I’m literally right where I left off. The same stakes, the same Midpoint, everything.

It’s given me some serious deja vu.

Photo by Jason Strull on Unsplash

Want to know something even weirder?

Before college ended, I got to a stopping point that lasted for months. It was a few scenes after I picked this story back up that I realized I needed to fully experience these characters again to write something I could work with.

Before I went on vacation, I reached that stopping point. As I’m writing this, I’m hitting those following scenes that made me rethink everything.

Weird, right?

The way things lined up make me really excited to keep going. I’m about to be in new territory for the first time in over a year. Not only that, but I still have plenty of time to continue working with this story, making it into what I’ve always imagined it can be.

All the synchronicity has only fueled my drive (which you’ll see in my weekly recap down below). And the time away from writing means I have more energy than ever to make progress. Chapters that would usually take hours now take half the time. I don’t expect the enthusiasm to last forever, but I plan on taking full advantage of it while I can.

I’m not trying to get ahead of myself here. I know this manuscript, while chugging along, is nowhere near “finished.” And I have plenty of time to perfect it.

What’s most exciting is that, after 5 years of wanting to write and not being able to, of struggling through idea after idea waiting for something to stick, I can say that in only 2 years (because yes, come what may, I imagine I can finish this new story by December 31), I will have written two stories.

Two stories in two years.

Who would’ve thought that a consistent writing schedule, proper motivation, a host of in-person and online supporters—oh, and good time management skills—would make all the difference between wanting and doing.

I’ve wanted to write novels for years. But now, I’m actually doing it.

Somebody pinch me.

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End of Week Writing Stats

Days Worked: 4

Words Added: 8,890

Handfuls of Motivational Snacks: 0