Warning: My blog posts tend to be informal and not always very scholarly. Here, I write the way I speak. Brace yourselves. Weirdness is coming.
I read recently that being a writer is like having homework for the rest of your life. Sometimes revisions feel like homework. But after a hiatus from revising the first book of the Seodrass Chronicles, I'm back to All From Dreams with renewed fervor.
During this break, I fleshed out some new ideas for projects very different from The Seodrass Chronicles: time traveling Scottish Highlanders, a contemporary romance involving a familial surprise, and blog post ideas. I didn't completely abandon Seodrass, choosing to tweak some ideas in the second and third books as well as writing a short story based on Seodrassian characters (which may or may not end up here at some point - an internal debate rages within).
I also used this time to do things that make writers better (and non-writers happier). I read like I had lost my mind (until 2 am with one book - in my defense, it was AWESOME). I also watched some movies and caught up on a little bit of television (Benedict Cumberbatch is an incredible Sherlock Holmes). And I got outside of my house, spending time with family and dragging myself out of town. A group of friends and I hauled ourselves to the Gallabrae Highland Games in Greenville, South Carolina (because research - I swear!).
All in all, stepping away from my manuscript allowed me to return with new perspective. And when I returned, I was reminded how much I love these characters and this story. I hope you will too!
