How do you maintain the interest in a project that has spanned several years?

From the moment you first got the idea to all the permutations it goes through before the story actually works…how do you maintain your passion and interest in it?

It’s not always easy!

I was talking to a family member, telling her how hard it is to write when the real world news is almost more wild and inventive than any story I could come up with!

We are definitely living through *interesting* times!

But when it comes to maintaining the passion, you need to push all the distractions aside, and every day rediscover what makes the story, the idea you’re trying to convey so interesting.

Have faith that because you found it so fascinating, that you’re willing to invest how much time and attention on it, then chances are others will also find it fascinating. It’s usually the case.

We’re actually not that different from each other and whatever tickles our funny bone or makes us go ‘wow’ will effect others in a similar manner.

What I’m realizing in the writing of my current work in progress is that I tend to ‘tell’ first and then go back and ‘show’. For example, I might write a paragraph saying that this character had a tendency to take himself far too seriously. That he was taciturn (love that word!) and that he was gruff and opinionated. And then the next day I’ll be scratching my head thinking, jeez, why did I say this?

I need to *show* that he takes himself far too seriously! How do I do that? Well have him say something quite pompous without realizing how he’s coming across.

And how do I show that he’s taciturn? Well he enjoys when some of his workers aren’t getting along, so that they’re quiet when they’re out in the fields working under his nose.

And gruff and opinionated, again, it’s easy to show that with what he says and does.

Yes it adds a lot of words to the manuscript, but it’s worth it! When you show what is happening, especially in terms of the undercurrents to a conversation, rather than telling ‘he was feeling superior to the other guy’ it’s so much more powerful! And readable!

You might have more words but they’ll flow easier and feel like less!

The project I’m working on is so big and ambitious, I don’t know how I’m going to finish it even by the end of the year. I can only try.

Right now I’m working on establishing the characters. Showing the dynamics between them.

If you can delineate exactly the type of person the reader is dealing with to the point where they can anticipate how that character will react to the various things that they will encounter…then you will have done your job well!

I think I did this with my book Wanting Mor. By the time the main character deals with a heart breaking event in the latter part of the story, the reader is so in tune with how she feels that they know EXACTLY what she’s going through!

That’s characterization!

It’s a lot of investment for a huge payoff!

It’s a lot of work, but in terms of keeping the passion alive, I find writing towards that pay off! That moment when it all comes together! That’s what helps keep the passion alive for me!

Happy Writing!!!