It's time to change gears

How I switch to fiction after writing nonfiction for months

After publication, the writing must go on.

Having focused on finishing Writing through Fear from January until May, I now have to reorient myself in more ways than one.

I made an ambitious plan this year: finish the nonfiction book I’d been dragging my heels on, and then finish the novel I’ve been working on the last year and change by autumn.

Yes, this is a lot to accomplish in one year, but it’s not unreasonable, based on writing schedules I’ve kept in the past. Neither of these projects were brand new ideas, so they’ve had time to incubate in my brain and imagination before I commit them to the page. When it comes down to it, I just want these done so I can move onto the new ideas I have bubbling up off in the distance.

The hardest part of the whole plan happens right now

I am the sort of writer¹ who thrives with an established routine. My favorite part of the writing process is right in the middle of a draft, when I’ve gotten the thing off the ground and I don’t have to land it yet. I have achieved cruising altitude, I know how much I need to write each day and I’m showing up and making it happen.

This point lasted through a big part of February and March this year, and even the beginning of April, as I was plowing through Writing through Fear. This is one of the rare periods in writing life when I am free from the anxiety that I need to be doing more than I am. It’s total bliss.

But this, like all things, comes to an end. I finished the draft, then the revision, and then the production process. The book is out.

This is when I must change gears

Perhaps, unlike me, you love change in your working life. Don’t get me wrong, I adore a spontaneous trip to the cinema (or the bookstore, of course) or when we decide to treat ourselves by ordering in for dinner. But with my writing life, change is awkward and ungainly.

Having just gotten my nonfiction drafting brain into tip-top shape, I have to shut it down and move into an entirely different mode: fiction.

I gave myself a week off to recover after the book came out. May 23-31 was a much-needed break where I wasn’t yet required to make progress on the novel. But in that time, I had to start turning the gigantic cruise ship that is my brain onto a new course.

How I shift my grumpy brain

“Wait, I was in a groove — what’d you have to go and change the entire process for?”
-My brain. Every time.

Here are a few things I’ve found helpful that allow me to make the awkward leap back into the novel:

• Re-read a book on story structure. I chose Take Off Your Pants by Libby Hawker, which is an excellent primer on flexible outlines that’s a quick read.

• Look over what I had written so far. I reviewed the current Scrivener file to see how far I’d gotten when I last worked on the story, and make notes on next scenes to write.

• Make notes on new insights I’ve had about the book during my time away. I’ve had a lot of realizations about my main character’s internal life and wanted to make a few changes to the book. Writing about this helped solidify the details.

• Update the book’s outline. Using the Take Off Your Pants structure, I made a new overview of the story and felt much more solid about the arc of the book afterward. Excitement to get writing again really built at this point.

• Start a new podcast. Ok, maybe this isn’t the solution for everyone, but sharing my process in real time has become an excellent way for me to hold myself accountable in the past. More on this below.

This series of steps took me until today to complete, so we’re looking at about 10 days between publication day and feeling like I can write scenes in the novel that are worth taking the time on.

Full disclosure: I plan to take one more day outlining the antagonist and possibly an additional POV character tomorrow and then get to drafting again on Wednesday, so we’re closer to a two-week transition at this point, but I’m happy with that amount of time.

Oh! Murder

If you’ve been following me a while, you’ll remember my substack, Oh! Murder, named after my grandmother’s preferred swearing exclamation and my love of mysteries. It began as its own substack, but is now a section of Book Alchemy.

I’m going to start posting about mystery writing again this week, as I’ll have plenty of insights on mystery while I work to finish the current manuscript.

As part of this process, I am indeed starting an informal podcast. This will be a solo show, and will be my accountability and discoveries from the week of writing. What did I learn, what did I get done, and what is my plan for the following week?

Here’s the art for it. I am extremely spoiled, being married to a graphic designer.

I’m calling it Murder Diaries.

As this will be quite a personal project, it will be available for paid subscribers only after the first episode. Everyone can listed to the first installment to get a sense of how the show will work, and then I’ll be pay walling it from then on out.

I do plan to share periodic public posts on mystery as well, so stay tuned for those.

Back during lockdown, I used Instagram Live as my accountability tool in a similar way. I went live daily, Monday through Friday, for several months, and a wonderful community of writers built up around these conversations as we all struggled along with our writing. It’s my hope that this project will create a similar community feel. We’ll be able to discuss and share goals in the comments and to keep each other working toward our writing intentions for the next few months.

No need to be a mystery writer to take part, or to benefit from what I share, however I will talk about challenges and struggles to do with mystery, so if you love that genre, this will be especially exciting.

Can’t wait to share this with you!