Three (Other) Words

One thing I will never understand about myself is, I get so fired up when the new year starts. I have all of these goals and want them to be done at a certain time. For what it's worth, I consider the months of January and February as a time when I get busy with writing, while it seems to me the rest of the world seems to be "asleep."

It just so happens I'm working on my next contemporary romance novel Writing Soulmates. Well, if it's a romance novel, and Valentine's Day is just a few weeks out, I thought I should buckle down on the writing. Therefore, every chance I get, I'd write furiously, even if my words were disjointed and the story didn't flow well. 

One thing I'm doing better in my work on Writing Soulmates is, I've been just writing something, even when it doesn't make sense. Though I had done that when working on some of my most recent books, for this one, I did it even more so. However, there came a time when I just got frustrated, feeling like I was writing down the same idea over and over, only in a different chapter...at least three times!

In addition to this romance book, I'm working on Kill the Locust. For those who haven't seen this title yet, it is about a young woman who has endometriosis. Having had that illness myself for many years, I thought it best to write a book about it. March is Endometriosis Awareness Month. I thought it would be a good idea to work equally as feverishly on this as I have done for Writing Soulmates. In that way, I could publish Kill the Locust at some point in March.

{Cue the scratching noise of a needle on a record}

However, earlier this week, I got overwhelmed, burned out, frustrated beyond comprehension with myself for not being as productive as I wanted to be. Though I was productive last weekend in getting a few thousand words in for Writing Soulmates, I knew I was nowhere near the end, let alone finishing the first draft.

I asked myself the following questions:

• Do I really need to publish Writing Soulmates by Valentine's Day? 
• Is it going to adversely affect my writing career if I don't publish Kill the Locust by around the middle of March?
• Could there be some other good time of the year to do both? If so, when?

The answer to the first two is: no.

The answer to the third question: 

Need I say more? I will now relax and enjoy even more this gift God has given me to write, which I thank Him for every day. Having this experience has taken my trust in the LORD to a higher level. We authors can make many plans, we can be inundated with the pressures to do things a certain way at a certain time because another fellow author succeeded at it, but the LORD will direct our steps.

Therefore, if I publish Writing Soulmates in May, and Kill the Locust in September (just giving random months), it will be alright.

It will be at the right time, in God's time!