Hang In There

It’s not always easy to finish a story. If, like me, you mostly have a problem with endings, it can be very hard indeed. I admit, though, that outlining beforehand helps enormously with that. Recently, I had a hard time finishing “The Fourth Reich” - not because I didn’t know the ending, but because I found it hard to write the story. Yet, it’s done, which is good, and I learned something from it.

 

According to my bullet journal, which is reliable, I wrote (or rather rewrote) the first two chapters of “The Fourth Reich” on the 29th of March. Also according to my bullet journal, I wrote the last three chapter of the story on the 7th of July. For a twenty-eight-chapter novel, this is a long time, at least for me. In between the first and the last chapter, I plotted a host of new stories, including a lot of erotica, three fan fictions, and some more stories to eventually release. I wrote a Johannes Cabal fan fiction without Johannes Cabal in five short stories, trying out a new book structure I then used in plotting more stories. I wrote two of my erotica and started a few more. So, no, I wasn’t just writing that story and rewriting chapters to make them better all the time. Neither was I not doing anything worthwhile with my time. Yet, a little over three months for twenty-eight chapters. I usually write about two chapters a day and eight to ten chapters a week when all goes well. Twenty-eight chapters should be done in about a month.

 

The reason why these twenty-eight chapters took me so long to write is that I was leaving my comfort zone with this book. The topic of “The Fourth Reich” is that the Nazis made it to world domination on the second try, using genetically enhanced soldiers and diseases brewed in a laboratory (the idea was conceived before Covid-19 became a pandemic). With this topic, I didn’t want a tone that was too light. Yet, I’m not usually a fan of grimdark stories and have no tendency to write them. I try to balance out the severe with the much more light-hearted in my stories. There’s nothing truly light-hearted in “The Fourth Reich”. I start with a torture scene and I finish with a carefully-hopeful look into the future.

That’s why I needed breaks in the writing. That’s why I wrote some shorter stories in between and did a lot of plotting. That’s why it took me a little above three months to finish a story I could theoretically have finished in under four full weeks.

 

What did I learn from it? First of all, that grimdark is outside of my comfort zone, but I knew that to a degree already. In addition to that, I learned that it pays to come back to what challenges you and continue with it, even if you need to take breaks in between. I have finished “The Fourth Reich”. It will be released in May next year and I am proud of my work with it. It was worth stepping out of my comfort zone for.

 

The breaks themselves weren’t wasted time, either. I wrote other stories, trying out a new structure for future books. I managed to rework and re-plot a story I wanted to write and make it much better. DI Colin Rook was meant to meet the Countess of Blood, a powerful vampire, in the first novella I’d plotted, right after learning the supernatural exists. Now he’s facing off against her in the last of six short stories, after gaining experience throughout five other cases.

I plotted other stories, including two more books with Gabrielle, one of them a novel, the other utilizing the new structure with loosely-connected short stories. There’s two more books for Isadora coming up and John Stanton will get a third set of cases. The second collection of cases for the Eye is plotted as well. I have more stand-alone stories coming up, too. Even a tribute to Fantomas is in the line-up and might turn into another series (it’s not Fantomas, it’s the Phantom and there’s a lot of differences, okay?).

Sometimes the idea of having to write more of that story you’re struggling with might actually motivate you to get other things done.

 

When you find a project challenges you - a story you want to write, a picture you want to paint, or something else -, hang in there. If you need to take a break from the project, that doesn’t mean you have to abandon it completely. Some authors took years working on one book, taking breaks, doing other stuff. It’s okay to need some distance for a while, sometimes distance helps you see why you struggle.

Do I want to repeat that experience any time soon? No, definitely not. Am I going to write more stories that are out of my comfort zone? Yes, most likely. “Spirit Master”, which is still in a plotting stage, will no doubt be more grimdark than my usual stuff, too. Yet, it will be one more time I do that, so it should be easier. The first was “Heart of Ice”, the first story of “The Loki Files Volume 1”, where I have depicted signs of depression during a time when I was still struggling with the remainders of a burn-out (which is a very mild form of depression). “Heart of Ice” was much harder to write than the following five stories - and not because it was the first time I worked with those characters. The second time was “The Fourth Reich” which did challenge me, but which is written now as well.

My next project on the list is “The Haunting of Winterthorne Hall” and this one will not be grimdark at all. It’s a take on the genre of Gothic Romance, but without too much angst in it. It’s more of a Regency version of Scooby Doo without a dog, honestly, so I’m looking forward to writing it. Other projects that will follow soon also won’t give me much grief, so I can get them done more easily and will certainly not be forced to take several breaks to finish them.

“Fallen Angel”, already plotted, goes into grimdark territory and is going to be more on the gory side, but it’s not going to be written for a while now and it’s a short-story collection, so I can take breaks between the stories and do something else if I need to. Besides, it’s going to be more over-the-top and there will be some lighter parts for balance, too.

 

Hang in there. It’s the only advice I can give you for challenging projects. When a project forces you out of your comfort zone, hang in there. Allow yourself a break every now and then, but don’t give up on it. The harder it is to get things done, the more rewarding it is once you can say ‘this is finished and I’m proud of it.’