Tentative Steps

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, we’ve been distracted from our fiction by an unrelated project. That project is finally in its death throes — finally! — and we will soon turn our eyes and brains back to writing.

As the title of this post suggests, we’ve taken a few hesitant steps back into our imaginary world already. On our walks, we’ve started to talk about the characters again. It feels like we’ve been away from them forever, and I suspect that it’s going to be a little tricky to get back into the flow. We plan to finish kicking the side-project’s ass, then take a little break to watch the new season of Arrested Development (our carrot through this whole process). Kent has a week off, so the timing is excellent.

Once the Bluth family is done with us, we’ll recommit to the fiction. We’ll start by rereading the unfinished novel, to get our sea legs back, and then we’ll push through and write the rest of it.

A writing partner can make it easier to get back on track with a project, because you are responsible to someone besides yourself.

The right partner can also take on the majority of the work when you have other obligations, thereby minimizing downtime. Just be sure to return the favor when your partner’s life gets hectic.

In the Rune Skelley case, being married means that this intrusion impacted us both equally, and derailed the entire novel. Maybe we need to hire an intern to take up the slack.