Sometimes you need to relearn your own lessons.
Months ago, I posted blogs about how different authors approach their works differently. Some write straight from the beginning to end, while others write from the middle of the manuscript. Some write every day, others only write from time to time but for hours when they do.
But, as I hinted at in last week's blog entry, I did not realize there was another way in which writers could be different: we can get our ideas at very different paces.
I first thought of the story for The Pride of Central in 2008. When the novel was published in 2019, I had no further story ideas. I did get the occasional small concept, but not a storyline. No big themes, no plot, no interesting characters developed in my mind.
Meanwhile, in some of the author groups I joined on FaceBook, or accounts I would follow on Twitter, it seemed like everyone else had already written one book, had another one releasing in a week, and third one already being developed. Some of these authors would even lament that they had two or three more book ideas that they had not even begun.
At first I did not take much notice to this difference between myself and many of the other writers online. But over time, it started to wear on me. Why was everyone else getting so many ideas, and I'm stopped at one?
I have no complaints about The Pride of Central. Though I do not pretend that the book is perfect, it has been more successful than I ever expected. But I started to get down on myself because I seemed to lack the imagination to ever write another book.
I thought I was a failure. And that was the lesson I needed to relearn: none of us are failures.
The thing I missed was that authors get their ideas in different ways and at different times. A writer might think of several stories over a course of a year, and then spend a lifetime publishing all of them. But that was not me, and that may not be you.
A couple months ago, a story did finally develop in my mind. No baseball this time, but rather a drama/romance, surrounding a married couple who is trying to find the jewels that the wife's late father had intended for her to have on her wedding day. The working title is The Jewelry of Grace.
The story idea was going to come eventually. I just needed to be patient, and not judge myself based on the speed that other writers created their own story lines.
Maybe you published a book or two, but they were over ten years ago. Or twenty years. You are wondering when the next story will come to mind. It is hard, but be patient. You can think about it, but you can't force it.
The next story will come in its own time.
Next week: A writer's greatest joy