I love the paragraph about the book of myths, philosophy, all of it. And having the patience to let the story emerge. I read about all these people writing entire books in a few weeks and I sometimes feel like a failure because while I have begun, I haven’t really. I’ve been thinking and writing notes and sometimes scenes, but I’ve just felt the story wasn’t ready yet. The book of myths being part of why.

Anyway, thank you so much, again!

Write.

Who knows–it may even replace (instead of supplant), your original intent.

One other, very important matter–be patient. Do not rush a work. Let simmer, and write when it (or part of it), is just right. The work will be done when you have written all of it, when you have considered all its parts carefully, and not as a result of some arbitrary deadline (unless, of course, you’re on a production schedule, as is the case for newspapers, magazines, and journals).

The cogs are turning, Fortuna has looked upon me with favor, renewing my strength to march forward, damn The Fates.

Thus, I now turn to my mechanical marvel of letters, ink, and paper, so that my stream of thought be not lost to time or trivial circumstance.

I’m still struggling with the “voice” thing, yep. I apparently have one (according to someone I sent stuff to read) but I can’t for the life of me figure out what what it sounds like. I think until I learn to recognize the voice, it might as well not be there.

I love the story about the book you had to write before you wrote your novel. Like most new writers I tend to think there are things I *should* be doing, instead of doing what I think I need to be doing. And one of the things I had been considering was writing a book of myths (almost completely made up) before I actually wrote my novel. I haven’t thought of writing it for publication, exactly, but as sort of background–for me, and for the characters in the novel, I guess. Something like that, anyway.

As for Scrivener… I love the idea of it, but for me I think it’s a bit too much of a muchness.

Thanks again for taking the time to comment and to give so much of your experience.

I have enjoyed reading a number of your posts, particularly on the many drafts and then this one on starting –again. This post reminds me of the time I was rewriting a stage play-turned-book, for which I researched little, for which I had written nearly a thousand pages, later to decide I had to ‘kill my babies’ and start over.

I stopped writing and left all of the documents in two crates, for years, during which time I put most of my energies to work and advance in my career.

One day, I decided to return to my attempt to writing a book. I perused through a good amount of the writing I had abandoned (and honestly, incorrectly thought I had destroyed). It was perhaps the worst quality of writing I had ever read (I have since found just two published works that matched that awful venture). I found my writing absolutely laughable, and I could see INNUMERABLE mistakes from page one onward, in comparing it to the knowledge I had acquired (and the bit of short writing I had done from time to time).

It’s a matter of ‘finding your voice’.

I had not idea what that meant, but once I understood, I decided to not attempt writing anything at length before finding my ‘voice’. I learned to dismiss any notion of conventions promoted by any writer or expert, and to discover what I was comfortable doing in terms of writing. Once I reached that moment, the writing flowed from my pen without much effort, to this day.

Yes–I said, ‘pen’. (One of my personal discoveries is that I realized writing on a keyboard sometimes presents its own impediment. Thus, I write putting pen-to-paper most of the time. It could be that I do not trust computers (I’ve had too many instances when a computer simply decides to give up the ghost). It could be that occasionally, sitting in front of the computer seems counter-intuitive to writing. It could be that scenes or the stream-of-thought of a character is too intimate to produce with the clicking-n-clacking of keyboard keys (I prefer absolute silence when writing, though that is not always possible). Or, it could be a combination of all of those things. (The last one rings true for me, I admit.)

I have yet to finish a book I started writing a long time ago, which I had to stop almost all work on in late 2010 after realizing that another book would be required first, as a point of reference to the audience. (The novel is a work of fiction, but with some philosophical references I which to posit for use in actuality. The book I felt compelled to write prior to the novel is a book on logic as a philosophy, which is almost complete. I had to do A LOT of research to write what is essentially a very small philosophical work. Nevetheless, I am very satisfied with the text.)

Moral of the story? Keep writing–small works, for which you probably will not have any intention to publish, help in ‘finding your voice’. Write. Read what you wrote in a few days time. Put it away. Write another short work. Read what you wrote in a few days time. On most occasions, you will probably not like the quality of the writing. But eventually, you may begin to find works, or parts of works, that are representative of great prose–and your work, nonetheless.

Personally, I have learned that finding one’s voice can only be explored by writing about something we truly care about and researched for, about the love of words and language, about resilience, about the passion to create something.

(And, yes–working with an outline helps. I also have an adversaty to outlines, but I have learned to first create an outline based on the key events of the story, goals of the characters, and the message I want to convey in the story. Only after that is completed do I return to review the outline for the necessary prerequisites [story arc or the like].)

Good luck.