I returned to Jack today. On my timeline, October is for the rewrites. I started typing out some thoughts this morning on how I wanted to approach some of the feedback I received so far, mainly planing to lengthen some key ending scenes, and those thoughts turned into Jack’s voice and I rolled with it.
I’ve been using the word listless a lot more this last month and I think it’s because I wasn’t writing as fervently as I was in the months prior. It’s good to take a break and get some space but that floaty lack of creative energy — even as I half-heartedly tried to write something new — didn’t serve me. As I’ve dealt with a frankly unexpected and unnecessary level of anxiety after submitting a query for the first time (to PitchWars), returning to Jack today felt like returning to my body.
This story’s not done with me yet. (Part of never wants to be done writing in Jack’s voice — maybe that’s why I’m having a hard time starting something else? Should I just write a hundred stories about him?) My timeline this month is to complete rewrites so I can do the first round of official queries in November. I still have feedback coming in that I’ll take as it comes but there are a couple of areas I know I want to dive into regardless of other editorial suggestions I receive.
In the meantime, here are my last sentences from this past week:
- 9/23: If only his past would leave him alone.
- 9/25: She kicked them off ruefully.
- 9/26: It was something she learned to do with her mother.
- 9/27: Somehow this too felt like Al’s fault.
- 9/28: Wasn’t everything?
- 9/29: Look, let’s get out of here.
- 9/30: I’m not going to help you kidnap that prince.
With Love,
Natalie