That void is upon me once again.
You know the one (or perhaps you haven’t reached that stage yet – but you will); that enforced emptiness between reviewing your current WIP and either (delete as appropriate) reviewing it again / waiting for an Agent to respond to your query.
Popular opinion is to leave a reviewed MS for between 2 to 4 weeks (longer, ideally) before looking at it again.
So, you’ve just emerged from a protracted writing / reviewing flurry and you’re still carrying all that creative momentum. It’s rather like lifting a moving bicycle off the ground. You’ve stopped the frame, but the wheels are still spinning.
But what do you do now? Do you;
Start a brand new project?
Start the sequel, even if the original isn’t yet fully formed?
Read (outside your own genre, naturally)?
Begin something constuctive?
Or just chill out and bury yourself under a pile of books?
Ideally, I’d love to just take myself off to the Bahamas for a month and chill before re-embarking on my writing marathon, but sadly, I’ll have to investigate more practical avenues…
For me, my sequel ‘Vengance of Angels’ has been simmering on the back burner for far too long now, on hold whilst ‘A Construct of Angels’ was being fettled over and over.
The truth is, I’m impatient to crack on with it. So, like a restrained greyhound who’s seen the rabbit circling the track one too many times, I’m ready to do a Usain Bolt. ‘Vengance of Angels’ is rolling again, one year on whilst the Twelfth Draft of ‘A Construct of Angels’ rests.
Although there is my fourth Twilight video I have yet to finish making…
Decisions, decisions.
What have you done to fill the void?
Did you just kick off your writing shoes (writing shoes? Now that’s a question for another post) or do you avoid all distraction and open a new Word Document to maintain your momentum?
Andrew Toynbee's very own Blog 
Aug 24, 2012 @ 05:42:01
For many writers, there is no such thing as a void. We’re either writing ideas and thoughts, or we’re writing in the case of editing, or we’re starting yet another story. The list is surely endless.
Whether you should start up another story or take a break is entirely up to you. However, you should consider giving your creative mind a short break after finishing one novel-sized project, even if it’s only to consider some of the lesser ideas in your novel. Along the same note, it’s also wise to do some reading, or some more writing, depending on the speed at which your creative wheels are spinning.
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Aug 24, 2012 @ 13:25:02
I’ve been working on this particular novel-sized project non-stop since about August 2009, so a break would be very welcome. However, my Muse would be checking her fob watch (she’s old fashioned like that) and hinting that I’m wasting valuable writing time. I might just send her on a nice holiday to give me a little breathing space – time to get the creative juices fermenting…
And don’t worry about the reading bit. I always have three books on the go at any one time.
🙂
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Aug 23, 2012 @ 20:38:12
It appears I am at the same point as you. As a matter of fact I just finished the last round of edits this morning after I took the screaming meanies to school. Now I’m researching ebook sites to start submitting again. Any suggetions for sites would be most helpful. Until I get a good flow of soon to be rejections out…lol I will be back to looking at what I’ve done so far on the sequel…of course I could just go back to the other story I started as well……I know, I know….I’m a mess 🙂 Great post, can’t wait to see a sneak peak of “Vengance of Angels”! Write on my friend…..write on!
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