My Writing Process// Part Five: Redirection

Welcome to part five of my writing process series! I'm glad you could join me today. If you missed the past few weeks, here are the links:

Growing the Idea
Outlining
Research and Development
First Drafting

This week we're talking about when the story that you've spent so much time working on doesn't work out and you need some redirection. It's different than the previous posts as I won't be showing you how I do things, but rather give you encouragement when you have to step away from a story.

Sometimes the story doesn't work. You'll start writing and find yourself hitting a wall. No matter how hard you try, the story just won't cooperate. You get frustrated and thrust the story aside. Or gently set it aside, depending on how you feel about it.

I've only had this happen once in my life since I decided to take writing seriously, but it was a struggle. This was when my tried and true rules failed me (demonstrating that all writing rules can and will be broken).

It was in 2015 when I started writing a two-part series called The Agents of Orrania. The books were titled Overcome and Reconcile. I followed all of my steps. I added details to it for years. I outlined it (even made a huge outline poster for it). I planned to write it quickly, with the second book following shortly after.

I started in February 2015. I think I quit around April, with a fraction of the story written. I loved the characters. I loved the concepts. I didn't love the story. I have no idea, really, what went wrong except it wasn't my story to tell. At least, not yet.

I still believe I will write this story, just in a different way. I think I'm still learning what the titles mean to their fullest extent. They're meaningful to me and I want to do them justice. Maybe I just haven't overcome my struggles yet, or I haven't learned to reconcile who I am now in contrast to who I used to be.

So I set the story aside. It's still tucked away in a folder on my flash drive. I haven't had any motivation to pick it up again. I did think of a way to use the titles again, but I don't think that idea works either. Whatever happens to it, I know setting it aside was for the best, as I was able to spend the rest of the year focusing on my second trilogy. I don't regret a thing.

For those of you who've set aside stories, be encouraged. It isn't necessarily forever, but even if it is, it's not a bad thing. You will open up more time to focus on stories you need to tell the world. That's wonderful! Embrace that! Go chase other stories. You never know what you might gain when you let something else go.

Next week, I'll post the final installment of this series. I hope it gave you some ideas to add to your process.

Have you ever had to set aside a story? Did it hurt? What were you able to accomplish after letting it go?