I'm between books at the moment. not in the sense that I've finished one book and haven't started the next yet. Oh no. It's much more complicated than that.
First there's the Viking book I've written for publication in January 2011: Sigrun's Secret. That's been to my editor and I'm working my way steadily through the rewrites. It's not difficult, but it takes a lot of brain space.
Secondly there's the book I've written with a friend and colleague, which also needs rewriting. We're not actively working on it right now, but I keep having ideas at inconvenient moments, like the middle of the night.
Thirdly there's the book I started writing in February, but have now put aside to work on at a later date. I've tried very hard to put it out of my mind too, but the main character is Katla, named after the sister volcano to the one that's currently erupting in Iceland. And the story was going to be about a devastating eruption. So the news is rather making it hard to leave.
Then there's the story I've agreed with my publishers (the lovely OUP) that I'll write next. I need to get researching and planning on that one very soon, and had a plot idea whilst ironing yesterday.
So perhaps it's not surprising that I feel like on of those very slow computers that has so many background programs running that when you ask it to perform an every-day task, it responds very s-l-o-w-l-y.
4 comments:
Oh, ML, this really struck a note with me. I feel just the same at the moment with several things on the go and I can't seem to get my brain going on any of them.
People who know me well might be surprised because I often have a few books going at once and I never usually have a problem with it, but right now it seems to be more difficult than it ever was before.
I am coming, slowly - like the computer you mentioned, to the conclusion that I need to stop and pick one thing and focus completely on that for a whole day, or even a week. Perhaps that might work for you, too? Fingers crossed!
The computer analogy is spot on. Hopefully all of your targets will get semi-equal screen time soon.
Linda, it's the only way really - one at a time. Rewrites first for me. But meanwhile the other stories can't be done away with completely! Hope you get sorted your stories out soon.
And thanks Nayuleska! I'll get there.
I know what you mean, too, M-L. I am always writing several books at once, and/or dealing with edits, but at the moment I'm really struggling with the mix and end up doing none of them. Oh, and spending all my time commenting on blogs, of course...
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