I took some time off from writing over the holidays, as the pressure of an enormous story without end got too intense. I also needed some time to work through a rather nasty bout of jealousy, as some of my friends and family have been published and I'm still trapped in this enormous fictional world. Every time I sat down to write, I would feel this barb of jealousy work itself in deeper, and all my desire to write would drown in the pity puddle. I had to work through that before I could even consider getting back into my novel. And then I heard a little (though irritated) voice tell me to Quit Bitching about it and let it go.
(snarl) Fine.
So now, after the holidays and Spring Break-like Pity Kegger, I dropped the jealousy. And I've injected myself back into that fictional world.
But not the novel. Not just yet.
One of the issues I had post Nanowrimo was that, even after the 50,000 word goal had been reached, the story was still disjointed, disembodied, a complete and overwhelming mystery. I still couldn't see it, couldn't feel it, couldn't live in it. I would get in and immediately begin to hyperventilate because I had no idea what this world was really like. I had glimpses, I had some genre-specific environmental tropes that could guide me, but instead of seeing the world and the events and recording them, I was attempting to imagine them in situ, making everything up as I went along. Fun, but also overwhelming when considering an entire plot/theme arch.
Solution: start small. In this case, a short story. I picked one of the lesser characters and figured out his history. I'm working on this right now, actually, letting the character monologue, then going back and imagining my way through the events to draw out details. Still haven't decided if the story will be first or third person, but right now, that doesn't matter. It's all about his story at this point. Not only do I focus on one event and one character, but I limit my focus to one location, which for me is important, as this location demonstrates one variation of the Steampunk world. I only have to think about this one place, this one type of Steampunk, and the events occurring therein. SO much easier than worrying about a huge plot arch. But it fits into the novel and enriches the story as a whole. It also helps me develop the character. And I've already found a way of incorporating one of the themes from the novel.
Besides, a short story is easier to finish and submit for publication than a novel. Not to mention that it gets my name out there as a foundation for the publication of the complete novel.
Let's see how hyperfocus works.
