And many apologies. Let’s just say real life can be personally/physically/mentally challenging at times but it’s the little things that make us strong. Enough said.
Let’s start by saying I’ve renamed my first blog to reflect a change in direction to be geared more toward writing instead of random commentaries. The second blog I attempted for that purpose was a total mess. Again, many apologies. I went in like a bull in a china shop and ended up somewhere I never meant to be…
Enough with acknowledging I’m less than perfect which is true, and on with the story. I wrote a while back about the difficulty I had writing the sequel to The Wolf and the Warrior. First, I had some temporary physical challenges that interfered with my productivity. If that wasn’t enough of a distraction, the story outlined from start to finish in my head refused to be written. Yes, I said the STORY refused to be written. I don’t know if any of you writers are as nutty as I am, but I’ve had a couple of books that “dictated” how they would be written and how the story would be told. This was one of them.
While my contemporaries are light beach reads that aren’t that difficult to write, my Golden Wolf Series historicals are anything but easy. The difficult novel in question was the second book in this series. When I realized I would never get Back from the Shadowlands out in July of 2024 as promised, I wasn’t sure what to do. Eventually, I pushed the release date to October 24, 2024. Amazon wasn’t too happy with my actions. I wasn’t either because I still wasn’t sure the novel would be finished in six months.
After making that decision I had no choice but to step away from the novel until the characters decided to share their tale. Once I stopped pressuring myself to write the story I’d outlined, Thor and Alexandria started sharing a different series of events and the book started flowing again. No, my characters don’t literally talk to me although I do converse with them aloud at times especially when I need to experience an emotionally charged scene I’m writing about.
I’m happy to say that once I started “listening” to Alexandria and Thor, the novel was finished ahead of schedule. While it isn’t the novel I meant to write, it is the next installation of their story as it was meant to be told. I’m always nervous about a new novel coming out, but I think I’m a bit more nervous because this novel is so different from The Wolf and the Warrior. The characters are the same, but the events are different. We’ll see what happens after the twenty-fourth. While nerve-wracking, rolling out another story is exciting, too.
In closing, my intent is mainly to share my most serious writing challenge to date and its resolution. While I thought this was writer’s block in the beginning or burnout from writing too many books too fast, it took me much too long to realize that wasn’t the problem at all. I don’t know how many people write as I do, but my characters are very real to me. Even more so in my historicals than my contemporaries. I ignored that fact and spent several unproductive months trying to force my characters into a story I thought would be exciting to write. While that story may get told one day, it won’t be with Alexandria and Thor. It wasn’t their story, and they didn’t fit. Sometimes a writer just needs to listen to the whispers in her head.
In closing, I believe next week’s blog will be about the contemporary romance suspense I’m writing now.
Until next time,
Tori
Tori Lennox Author 