When Did I Become Superstitious? #Bespoken

It wasn't until after my first several books were published that I started to become superstitious about writing. It was as if every time I made a statement, something would happen to counter the statement. And I was left looking like an idiot.

"Woo-hoo! I'm rocking! I should be done with this ms in a couple of weeks."

Murphy's Law strikes. Three months later I'm still trying to slog through the last 20k.

"I'm going to have this self-published by the end of the year... January... February..." 

Murphy goes up to bat. Kapow! Blam! Smash! 

"Forget what I said. I have no idea when I will have this self-pubbed. Live revolving around the story is not co-operating."

(Murphy cackles with sadistic glee because I'm now his bitch.)

I'm terrified to talk about my writing project because watch, I'll get writer's block or suddenly I don't want to work on this project anymore. It's happened, and now I'm sorta superstitious about the process. I'll announce I've started a project and then won't say anything else because that bastard Murphy will just love to throw a wrench into my work. I don't talk about the first 30k because 75% of the time I'll hate it and end up trashing it. It's happened time and again. Both Dragon's Eye and Releasing Chaos was like that. I scrapped three versions of Releasing Chaos until the story clicked.

Admittedly, I was a little scared the same would happen to Bespoken. I'd anticipated story being long because there was so much going on that needed to be covered. I estimated the word count to be around 100k (groan) and believed that was enough. But writing this first 30k, which I'm keeping by the way, no re-do here, I realize that this is going to be longer than 100k and told in 3 parts. (The 3 is wrecking havoc on me because the small part of me that is OCD wants it to be 4 parts for no other reason than 4 is an even number. I'm trying to stick with three. We'll see how that works out.)

I'm dividing the ms in three parts because Bespoken covers three specific times in Prometheus's life: Betrayed, Lost, and Reunion. Right now, at just over 30k, Prometheus is still five years old. I kinda worried about this for a while because it's 30k and the boys haven't grown up. But this is where the answer to the question, "Why is Prometheus the better Bespoken?" is answered. Plus a couple of other burning questions which I'm not giving away. So This part of the story must be told, plus it's showing instead of telling how Prometheus, Vipre, and Malek bond. 

Plus, I agonized over this 30k quite a bit. Who wants to read about the early life of the main characters in a romance? I don't mind it myself because I feel as if I become more invested in a character when I see the past that made them into who they grew to be. I know  there are others who would disagree, only interested in the adult versions of the characters, and satisfied with any telling required to give background. So as I'm writing away, I keep getting hit with thoughts about how people are going to hate this or that or all of it because... reasons. Dozen and dozens of reasons. I keep reminding myself this is the story that needs to be told. (And that I thought only 10 people would like Alpha Trine and look what happened there. I need to just write and not dwell on what I think others are to going to say.)

Oi! Did I tell you that I'm 30k in and it's all handwritten? Hence the picture of the empty pen cartridges. That's how many pens I've gone through. LOL! I keep thinking I'll start transcribing using Dragon, but the program has to learn all these new names and places, and I just don't want the hassle right now. I'll probably end up writing another 30k before I break down and put it in MSWord.

So. Bespoken is about a quarter done and I hope to get another 20k finished before the end of the month. I am going to take a week or two off at the beginning of January, otherwise I will stall out on the story. That is something I really don't want to happen. I'm giving myself permission to take time away from authoring to do whatever I want to to keep from burning out. I plan on reading a bunch and maybe there will be a bookstore in my future. :)

Until then, I'm going to push through the rest of this part one and into part two, spend time with family, and sit with my best friend and make sure she has a fantastic holiday. Oh, and imbibe in some tasty wine and cookies. :)

Thank you for stopping by and reading!!