I Paused Writing My Novel.
(Just for a lil bit)
By Alex Holmes
I’ve paused writing my novel. So far, I am 40,000 words into the world I have built, and I have a target of reaching 65,000. The aim was to get the final word count by August, then spend the last few months of the year editing.
This is a realistic goal. I can still reach the next 25,000 words by the end of summer. If I were super diligent, I could probably even be completed just before.
However, I had to take a break. Not for any fault of the process itself, but I reached a point in the story that requires a turnaround.
The process for me was such: I would sit at this desk and write a MINIMUM of 500 words a day, Monday to Friday. Usually in the morning, in a writing group I had been part of since 2020. We gather in the morning for about an hour, write communally, give feedback on progress, and then get about our day. I would head to the gym after. I would get back home, shower, and then I would get on with other writing work or, at present, I would be job hunting.
It is a pretty snazzy routine. It makes my life so much easier, and it keeps me disciplined. The thing about the 500 words minimum is that it means there is a baseline.
I have never been one to say, ‘as long as there are words, you have written.’ No, that’s not what I think helps us make progress. Effort has to make you sweat a little. You should be able to get to the last 500 and feel stretched. It must make you bleed a little. Well, that’s how I view any practice. I view it as a creative weightlift.
Lift heavy enough at first so it makes a difference, then progressively increase the weight.
The daily word count was reaching 500-700, then I got to my 1,000 words a time as I flowed into the chapters. Sometimes with ease, but most times I stumbled through them.
What is the book about? Well, I am getting to that. I don’t want to give too much away, but essentially I have hit a plateau. I am at a point where I could go in many directions, and I just have no idea what I want to do.
My mind said, take a break, and what became a couple of days became a week, and now, as I write this, I am thinking about not writing anything to do with the novel until the beginning of May.
Alright, I’ll tell ya what the book is about. Maybe in one line, or two.
The book is about an investigative journalist who is brought home for his father’s funeral, but his return threatens to undo a family secret that seemingly died with the patriarch.
That’s all I can give you, I’m afraid.
But it’s intriguing, no? I hope it is. As you get deeper into a story you are writing, you begin to find certain parts of your character that you feel might do better to remain hidden. You don’t like fighting, but your character does. You don’t like swearing, but your character does.
You might not even have a malicious bone in your body, but when you dig deep into that character, you find the darkness in them - and that darkness comes from you.
It has to. There has to be a place it was lodged and stored away as bad or something, but the point is that there is a huge amount of soul searching I need to do to push through to the next bit.
I have to be careful. In some ways, it feels like I am writing a dramatised version of my life, and in other ways, I am laughing at the ludicrousness of this family and the main character who, in the best of intentions, probably is not the main character of this story.
My suggestions on anyone writing on a big project at the moment? Keep going.
Even if you take a break, that is still keeping on. Your mind needs time to think through, and it also needs time to explore through other means.
You have this in the bag.
Stay blessed, and keep on writing.
Alex