Onward!

One of the best feelings I had finishing WIP (or at least typing "The End") was that I finally knew where the story was going. Sure, I had a lot of revising to do to pull it all together, to smooth out the path my characters took, but I knew where everyone would end up. It was a huge relief to me, suddenly I no longer had to carry everything in my head. I no longer had to walk around with the characters banging against my skull.

Literally, while writing WIP I was like a zombie. I was obsessed. WIP was all I could think about. Poor JP -- we'd be walking or at dinner or just living life and I'd say "what if..." or "what about..." or "what do you think if...."

There was a lot of whingeing too. Thankfully JP is also a writer and understands the constant attention your characters and plot demand!

For the last few months, my mind has been focused on other things. Revisions, agent searching, query letter structure. And that was a different kind of stress, one I could lock away when I had other things to do. I have to admit, it was kinda nice :)

So it's strange to be starting on the next project, the new WIP. Not only was there a little bit of "First WIP came out of nowhere, it was so easy to write!" (which are pretty much all lies and myths that have grown in my head over the past year), but there's also been a lot of "How am I ever going to follow that up? Where do I even start?"

I've known for a while what I want the general plot of New WIP to be, but that doesn't mean much. I still needed a place to start, a place to go. Actual words to put on the paper.

And then the other night the first line popped into my head, much in the same way that the first line to WIP popped into my head. I'm a first line kinda girl -- once I have that it's off to the races.

Now I'm 4k in. Already I can feel the characters starting to crawl in from the corners of my mind. Soon enough, they'll be my constant companions and I'll be back to where I was before -- always thinking about the plot, trying to figure out where everything goes and how it will end.

But for now, I'm just enjoying the excitement of starting something new. Of all the possibilities that come with the beginning of a story -- all the avenues to explore.