I know. I’ve said it before, but I feel like now is a good time to reiterate it. There are no rules when you’re indie. Hell, even if you’re just a writer. The laws that govern progress are wild and intangible. What am I on about? Let me explain.
Something I don’t talk about much here when I discuss my writing journey is a middle point between my first publication gig falling through and my descent into indie publishing. The very first version of Order of Crows aside, my solo books were not the first thing I wrote to actually get published. There are two novels and two novellas that are part of a co-authored project. They’re still out there, under one pen name for the two of us who wrote it. Then life happened, a lot of it, and we never wrote the third book. So for years, those characters have been left hanging with no resolution.
Now, bring the camera back to about a week ago. I was looking through some old files and I was reminded that I did write a handful of chapters for that third book. I fell down an entire rabbit hole, realized I miss those characters quite a bit, and with the blessing of my co-author…guess where I have been. Yep, I’ve been writing in a story that has been dead for literal years. It has taken some gentle prodding to get the characters to talk to me again, but they’re talking. Perhaps they missed me, too.
So that’s what I mean when I say there are no rules. Is a project ever really utterly dead in the water? Only if you leave it there. It might take actual years, but even the least likely project has hope. To boot, this writing breaks a creative block that has persisted for the majority of this year. Crazy? Yes. Also pretty cool? Very.
This will definitely be a long-term endeavor, as both I and my co-author are busy ladies. But I have a new determination to eventually finish that book. I think we both deserve to see it through. And we have tentative plans to eventually release second editions of the first two books, too. Again, very long-term goals, but even just having those plans settles my soul a little in a way I didn’t realize I needed. And if this isn’t a sign not to give up, then such a sign doesn’t exist. (It does and it is.)
Well, that’s my inspirational tale for the day. We may only have a few months left of the year, but they’re going to be better than the ones we’ve already survived. Cheers to you, my friends!
