No matter how much I love something I’ve created, there comes a time when I’m rather sick of it.
Right now, I’m struggling to finish Gray Zone. Rewrites are always hard. But since I’ve already rewritten Gray Zone at least seven times, going through it one more time is a particular torture.
I know this thread of tension I’m adding to the story will improve it, but I just want to be done. I’ve already poured myself into the book. I’m ready for the next step. Publication.
As I already said, I’m struggling.
Unfortunately, as I was updating my writer’s resume today I looked through my folder of ideas. I discovered an entire category I had forgotten about! I have ten story ideas for the BTE series sitting there, waiting for me to pick them up and flesh them out.
One of them even has an outline defining eighteen chapters.
I’m soooooo tempted to write it! I want to jump in, lose myself in the story, create a new world, become friends with new characters, see it all play out in my head.
But I can’t. It wouldn’t be fair to Gray Zone.
There Gray Zone stands, with hands on hips, waiting for me to complete it. There is a glint in Gray Zone’s eyes that let me know that it feels it has already been patient enough. It waited for an entire year while I was in the MFA program, and it didn’t even mutter a peep while I devoted my attention to the Stone Woman script.
It glared a bit, but kept quiet.
I will resist temptation. I will put aside the BTE sequel for now and continue my work on the Gray Zone novel.
Maybe the fact that I’m adapting it into a script will make up for the long wait.
Patience, like that shown by Gray Zone, deserves a reward.