What's The Story?

(And now I've got that Oasis song stuck in my head...)

So, here's the low down about the writing project I'm working on and usually will be referencing as my WIP (Work In Progress).

A few years back I was reading the fascinating NF book "Stiff" by Mary Roach for my online book club's monthly discussion, and a section about people who believed they began taking on new personality traits after receiving an organ transplant was the genesis for a plot bunny. I instantly wanted to write a story about a girl who becomes endowed with the empathic abilities of her donor after receiving a heart transplant. I'd been wanting to attempt YA SciFi with a mystery element, and this was the perfect vehicle to do that.

I began drafting this story during NaNoWriMo 2010. I wrote just over 52K that November, but the story was not complete. After NaNo I was forced to take a break from writing, finding that the endurance event known as the third trimester of pregnancy had completely sapped me of all my energy, both physical and creative.

The WIP lingered, untouched, for many months. Occasionally I would open the document, sometimes to re-read parts, sometimes just to stare at the blinking cursor, trying to will new words out onto the page. I constantly was thinking about my story, making mental notes about problems that needed fixing and whatnot, but no actual progress happened for months. OK, the truth is that nothing happened for a year.

Enter NaNoWriMo 2011. I desperately wanted to participate, having done so for the past 3 years. But, I couldn't in good conscience begin drafting a new story when that other one was dangling out there, unfinished and still full of promise. Despite a year away from that novel, I still loved it, still wanted to fix it, still wanted to finish its story.

I became a NaNo Rebel - I decided to use NaNo 2011 to finish the draft of my novel. This past November I finally dug back into the story, slashed and hacked out sections that needed to go, and drafted the remainder of the story. Between the deleting and the new writing, I added roughly 25K to the novel. It is by no means complete, but it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. (This is where I admit that this is actually a huge accomplishment for me - seeing one of my attempts at a novel through the drafting of the entire main story arc.)

So, what's the plan? Basically, a LOT of revising and still quite a bit of drafting. The mystery element needs tweaking to raise the stakes, the swoony boy (there should ALWAYS be a swoony boy, right?) needs his character development moved out of my brain and onto the page, the logistics of my protagonist's new abilities needs fleshing out (pun intended), and some plot points necessary for potential sequel development need to be sprinkled throughout. Lots of work yet to do, I'm afraid.

Only, I'm not just afraid (fear will be a future topic I'll write about), I'm excited. More than a year after putting the first words of this story on the page, I still feel a compulsion to finish this. To tell this story. And to do it well. My passion for this story has sustained me through long droughts of inactivity, but I always knew I'd come back and finish it.

So, that's my story (morning glory)...