It’s been quiet on the blog for a while.
I’m between books.
For the first time since 2009, I don’t have a book in the works. It’s a weird, unsettled feeling.
It’s not that I’m not writing! My hands still ache from typing at the end of the day. I’m churning out textbook materials at a furious rate, now that the industry has picked up a bit. I’m writing Common Core readers’ guides for trade publishers. And I’m working on something completely new and different that’s both exciting and unnerving for me.
Still, I miss that rollercoaster of ms-to-bound-book. The elation of acceptance. The despair of the editorial letter (four single-spaced pages of criticism? How could there be THAT MUCH wrong with it?). The nerve-wracking fascination of seeing a story change with every revision, becoming more and more itself. The pleasure of a manuscript copyedited by someone who notices that the truffle-hunting pig is the wrong gender. The elation of the first cover viewing. The pure joy of a box full of bound books. The anxiety of the days leading up to publication (the reviews! the reviews!). It’s a wild magnification of emotion, and without it, things are…calmer. Flatter. Quieter.
But the upside is, that calm is a place where I can write. Its flatness allows me to create my own imagined hills and valleys. In its silence, I can hear my characters’ words — and even, if I listen closely enough, their thoughts.
Please, please, please start writing another breathtaking story. I understand if your busy or don’t have any ideas or inspiration, but you’d be surprised how many people practically hang on your every word, waiting to be swept away.
Why not think of some of your favourite fairy tails, even if there aren’t many princesses in them, what about the princess in ‘Pus in Boots’? Or even the Christmassy, joyous tale of ‘The Nutcracker’? Or, one of my absolute favourites, ‘Beauty and the Beast? Rapunzel is also filled with writers inspiration.
I know that what ever you write about, no matter what you take your inspiration from, your stories will be amazing,they will fill outhers with joy and also a content sort of peace and a racing, fantasising imagination.
A true writer has the ability to write so that their readers learn and benefit from reading their works. Even if the story merely brings immense joy, that is huge and significant for that reader! Or, maybe, the readers gain much, much more as well? Maybe the readers discover something a about themselves within each marvellous page?
I know that you are a truly great writer, for these reasons and many, many more. So, please find some inspiration somewhere, so that you can be swept away once more in the joy of writing, creating, and you will undoubtedly bring joy to others.
Thank you, Elentia! What a lovely comment. Bringing joy to readers is what every writer aims for — and the idea of readers discovering themselves in my pages makes me happier than I can say. I am working on new books (though not fairy tales at the moment) — I hope there will be one out for readers soon!