For those in the know W.I.P is writer shorthand for “work in progress”. Whenever I get a quick text/chat from another author friend there’s usually some variation on “WIP? How’s it going? W.I.P good?” So I thought I’d give a quick blog update on my WIP so far.

I honestly know very few authors/writers with just one W.I.P going at a time. Most always have one or two and even something just forming in the background that they are leaning toward researching/daydreaming/sketching out, etc. I am in the multi-W.I.P group myself, so here’s a summary:

W.I.P # 1 (Completing/publishing Book Two in the #hiawathafallsmysteries series): The Title of Book Two is “The Case of the Floating Foreman.” A big goal I have is to get the books in my series set and to align Books Two’s release (which has a summer theme) and Book Three (being drafted now, with a fall theme) more on track with a seasonal marketing campaign. But to achieve that goal, Book Two must be completed first. I had to reread my first book in the series as I had wanted to bring some of the small elements from there back into Book Two but couldn’t remember things since its been two years since it was published. So yes, believe it or not, I had to re-read my own book this month. That’ s not as embarrassing as it sounds, right?

W.I.P #2: For NaNoWriMo I set the challenge of creating something to honor my grandmother, who taught me to love writing as a separate act from reading. It’s a sort of combined story between the two of us, but I haven’t decided specifically what to call it yet. The book begins with a short story my grandmother had written me as a child in an effort to teach me to how to build tension in a story. She wouldn’t have considered it much and NEVER would have tried to submit it publishing, but I saw it as a chance to show how all her hard work at trying to help me get better had turned out. I’m on my half of the book and I think its going well. If I used this time of the long Thanksgiving break for my “paycheck-job” I should have my portion completed and read for publication before the end of the year.

W.I.P#3: Or as I like to call it, THE LONG SHOT. This project, in fact, is not a book but a screenplay. I’ve been picking at it for a while now, honestly can’t remember when I started writing it, but it was and has been my first true case of what we call “Muddle in the Middle.” Yes I know how it was supposed to start, and have a clear view of what I want the ending to be, but somehow everything in the middle sort of got foggy on me for a while. This little project means a lot so I want to get it right, but didn’t know how to break this bog I was stuck in. I think I found the answer this week in a book on writing called “Mastering Character Arcs: How 15 Universal Journeys can power up your Novel Cast” by Lewis Jorstad. Its was wonderful, like taking a deep breath after holding it for a long time. He gave me the answer on how to get this long-stuck character a change to move forward. Now, I have to find additional time to get back to this work while trying to meet the two goals I’ve set above.

So there it is, these are the point and focus of my mind going forward. I’m interested in seeing where they will all eventually lead me.

As traditional and ubiquitous with the season as turkey and pumpkin pie, I’m taking the plunge again this year at attempting to complete NaNoWriMo 2022, otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month.

For those who are new to it, this is the time of year set aside for all writers (and those attempting to become writers) to put real focus into the goal of creating your book (or screenplay, poems, etc.) This will be my third year to try to achieve the goal of 50,000 works written in a month. The actual goal is different for everyone but that’s the stated goal for the group.

My first year, I had just completed writing and published my first book, “A Study in Sod: a Hiawatha Falls Mystery” and wanted to focus in on getting started on my second book in the series. I found, later, that this may have been too big a goal because I didn’t get anywhere near the target. To be fair, I was just beginning my journey at that point and still needed to focus more on building my skill set and basics habits. But this is what the goal is for; finding what works and what doesn’t for yourself and your style. Hats off (BTW) to everyone who did get a book written in a month. I stand in awe of your glory. I fell short by half the mark that year but I logged it as a win.

Year Two was a little tougher. I had just had breast cancer surgery and was still recovering, and at the time I was focused on my mental health as well and with the work I was doing there, my brain was almost as exhausted as my body. Don’t get me wrong, I did okay, but again my goal shifted into something other than the specific number of words each day.

This year, I now have a better understanding of what I should be using this time for. I’m working on the second book again, and this time I have a short story too. I’ve lowered the personal goal number down to 35,000 and am accepting a combined word count from both projects to achieve that goal. I’m shooting for daily writing but accept that as a lesser goal. If it happens okay, if not that’s okay too.

Why are you repeating this crazy effort you may ask? I’ve gotten fond of the idea of setting aside time for something just for my own self, especially something I’ve put off, or may seem unachievable even for me. I’ve found I simply like the idea of trying. I think that we’ve forgotten the importance of just daring to try. We suggest it to our kids all the time, “just try”, “you won’t know till you try”, so when did we stop taking our own advice?

So this is my time, this is my time to try. Without judgement, without guilt, without expectation on myself. No matter the end result I can confidently say I’ve re-taught myself the Art of the Try again.

#ArtoftheTry #nanowrimo2022 #writingagain .