Twice Fortlightly: Dropping a Ball

So, this past week I have:

• Maintained my inability to keep track of which day of the week it is and blog on the right one (which, by the way, has now been remedied by a recurring reminder in my to-do app)
• Obsessed endlessly about a nail polish swap I am currently participating in.
• Written roughly 7k words on my Camp NaNo project
  and, most importantly
• Decided to drop Camp NaNo

That’s right, I’m calling it quits halfway through. Why? Well, partially it’s because I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing with this story. I really like the main characters and the chemistry between them, I know that much. But I don’t know if I want to write it as a romance with some paranormal excitement on the side, or if I want to write it as a paranormal mystery with a love story thrown in. I don’t know if I want to write it as a stand-alone or set up for a sequel at the end. I’m all over the place when it comes to what style to write it in, and at this point the the plot… well, let’s call it wobbly.

That’s not the main reason, though. I’ve worked with wobbly plots before. In fact, all of my finished drafts so far started out wobbly and most of the twists and turns were improvised as I drafted.The main reason is that I simply have too much to do right now. There’s work, and then there’s a Uni assignment that I should be way further along with than I am. Somehow I thought I’d manage those things and Camp and continuing to work on Going Home at the same time. Well, it was a bit much for me to chew right now. Sometimes it seems it’s enough to say “dang, I’ve got a lot of balls in the air right now” and you feel under less pressure, but sometimes you’ve got to make a calculated decision about which ball you’re gonna allow to fall to the ground. Right now, work and school are not things I can drop. In terms of writing, I’ve had to remind myself that my number one priority right now is, or at least should be, getting Going Home ready for self-publishing. I think in a small way, throwing myself into Camp this time was a way to avoid working on Going Home (because editing, let me tell you, is a lot harder than drafting!). I’ve barely touched the manuscript in weeks, but starting tomorrow it will once again be my main project.

So for that reason, I am dropping my Camp NaNo project. And that’s okay. It’s right there on the floor by my feet and when I have more time for it, I can just pick it up again.