Hello, dreamers. Writing isn’t an exact science. I feel like that’s been the theme of my writing over the past few months. But sometimes, when a story hits you, you have to follow it. The way I look at it, if I’m writing, that’s good. If I’m having a hard time writing a story, but really want to work on another one, I’ll let myself follow the words.

So this week, amid a flurry of changes to my notes for Aquarius 1, I let myself walk outside. The result was a new story. But I feel I still made progress on Aquarius 1, because the story represented another step in a long-running project: writing like myself. So here’s the latest on this year’s project:

Aquarius 1

I’ve mentioned interiority a lot over the past year. It’s a major buzzword in the literary world. Over the past six months, I’ve been working to write from behind my characters’ eyes. To let them tell the story. But it’s been a slow process. And a frustrating one, because the thing is, that’s how I used to write. Until I made myself stop.

There’s a lot of writing advice out there on the internet. A lot of it comes from writers who will gladly tell you about their masters in fine arts. And far too often, the advice is out of touch with the literary market. But I come from a professional background. I’m predisposed to trust people with degrees in their subject. And while that works well for those in scientific fields, which are quantifiable, as I said writing isn’t an exact science.

So, I tried to alter my writing. I cut back on interiority, almost eliminating it. I tried to put the entire story into dialogue. The result was the first draft of Aquarius 1, which felt less like a novel than a verbose movie script. The bare bones of a story were there. The dialogue was good (albeit abrupt, as I was trying to keep the word count down). In the end, I was left with what could be a really great TV series, and a book nobody would ever read.

Earlier this year, I finally snapped out of it. Now, I find myself trying to re-learn how to be me. And the past two short stories I’ve written are without a doubt some of my finest work. I’m proud of these pieces. For the first time in far too long, I feel like my writing is heading in the right direction.

Which brings me to Aquarius 1.

I’ve begun working my way back into the story, but it’s been slow. In the past, I used to know my characters very, very well. I’ve often told people that, at the height of writing for Pioneers, I could’ve carried on a conversation as any of the major characters. Now, I have a new cast, and before I can do this story justice, I need to think as these characters. So, this past week, I spent some time getting into Anita’s head.

I only managed a few paragraphs of Aquarius 1, but I’ll be back at it this week. And it feels good to be me again. – MK