I actually, officially dove back into revisions! I finished revising the final confrontation scene. I’m definitely not that far in the WIP, but when inspiration strikes…

I spent half of this week just rereading the last full draft of my WIP to make sure I hadn’t left anything crucial out. It had also been a while since I read it and I needed a refresher.

Good news, I’m still really in love with this story and the characters. Re-reading this draft made me really excited to dive back into revisions.

I had hoped to do more revising than I was able to before this post goes live, but it’s not quantity that matters, just that I actually started.

I’m pretty sure I talked about this in last month’s update, or a previous update, but I haven’t really been writing much. Outside of few short scenes when Shiny New Ideas present themselves, I’ve not felt inspired. I haven’t really been inspired to be proactive in my writing since December of last year. I’ll get urges to write, but then won’t. The drive is there, but the follow through is severely lacking. As you may know, I had to put my dog down in December, and that took a huge emotional toll on me, I still think it has an emotional toll on me. Grief is weird and some days I feel fine and other days not so much.

I don’t want to say Oh I’m getting over it, because I’ll always be affected. And then there is this fear that I’m going to have to say goodbye to my Aunt’s dog sooner than any of us thought we would.

You might be wondering why I’m upset about my Aunt’s dog – I fully believe that as much as we choose our pets, they choose us in return. From the moment they got Jax (110lb gorgeous German Shepherd) 3 years ago, he claimed me. For whatever reason, from the first time meeting me, he claimed me. I consider him my dog as much as I did Charlie.

But basically, I’m not exactly thrilled or ready to go through that again, and I’m scared that I’m going to fall back into this pit where creativity eludes me. And there’s this guilt that I’m just using grief and lack of inspiration/drive as an excuse. Logically, I know I’m not, but illogically my brain hates me.

Sorry, that got heavier than I expected this post to get. I figured I’d sit down to write this post, congratulate myself for finally being productive and proactive and instead I write about sad things and grief.

I’m planning on revising at least 3 chapters tomorrow, but hopefully 5. I want to get back in the swing of things while the re-read is still fresh in my mind. I have roughly half the book left to revise, so if I can stay focused and on track, it really shouldn’t take me that long.

My SF WIP isn’t the only thing that I wrote/dabbled in since the last update. You know how Shiny New Ideas often happen when you’re in the shower, well…

There’s this broody, moody vampire guy occupying space in my brain. It’s a reincarnation story, where in fits of bloodthirsty rage, he constantly kills his soulmate and has to wait for her to come back.

I had this vivid idea of how the opening of the story would happen, so I wrote it. I spent the whole time getting dressed after my shower repeating lines so I wouldn’t forget them. I don’t have much more in the way of actually plot for this story, so who know if it will ever go anywhere, but this vampire hasn’t left my mind yet. And I totally blame the resurgence of vamps in YA for my desire to write one.

This Writing Update took a turn I wasn’t expecting, but I’m thrilled that I’ve finally gotten back into my WIP. I missed it. Hopefully your writing exploits are going better than mine!