How & Why I Decided to Not Write My Next Book . . .

Well, I’m back to regular blogging here… 

I made an unexpected but firm and rational decision to stop writing my next book.

There may be other books down the road; but, I need to explain myself; and, not just for regular readers of this blog…

My last book, Notes from An Alien, has been haunting me—partly because the book I won’t be writing was a “supplement” to Notes and partly because books can definitely haunt their authors…

Even though writing a book can figuratively feel like being pregnant, I’m happy to say that my decision to not write the planned book certainly does Not feel like I’ve aborted a fetus—it’s more like breaking up with a woman, on mutual terms, because the relationship was never a good fit…

Back to the haunting feelings from Notes from An Alien:

I remember the long period of research, nearly 23 years, and the 11 years during which I began to write from the thrust of the Theme while not having found the right plot—three miscarriages…

I remember, especially, the process of preparing to write Notes—a steady and empowering activity that continually provided confirmations that my Trek was bearing true…

So, the major haunting from Notes was the growing feeling (mostly unconscious) that I was on the wrong road—even, perhaps, going down a street that would end in a cul-de-sac…

When I had the full conscious awareness that I needed to stop working on the next book, I immediately probed my sense of intuition and engaged in a process that I use to check my intuitions—yep, stop writing…

The final proof that I’d made a valid decision was the clean and fresh feeling that wafted through my mind and heart—not some half-guilty reprieve from the hard work of writing—I love to write and challenges during the process merely add heat to the fire…

Another realization, after I made the decision and tested it, was that the next book was intended, specifically, to be more “popular” than Notes and lead folks to read Notes…

Well, Notes from An Alien doesn’t need another book to entice people to read it—it may not be mainstream, it may not be what most folks feel they need to read; but, it is, in itself the Message I needed to deliver—another book would have sullied the Stream, confused the impact, and begged the question…

Also, there’s already supplementary material available—“…glimpses into the depths of the book—character disclosures, about people already in the novel and those yet to be mentioned—revelations of events that happened in the Worlds of Angi but weren’t rendered in the published edition…”—on the Behind The Scenes page of this blog.

For those of you who are slaving away at writing a book, I hope I’ve given you a few ways to check yourself when you feel the task is “too much”, or the phantom of “writers’ block” assails you, or you’re down in the dumps because fleeting feelings are whispering “you have no idea what good writing is…”.

Please be kind to yourself, push through or, if necessary, set the manuscript aside for a time—or, search out some good advice—like in one particular book I mentioned in the past post, So You Think You’re A Writer…

Without an immediate book on the horizon, I can now get back to the job of blogging about Reading, Writing, and Publishing on a regular schedule—at least Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; but, very conceivably, more often :-)
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