Internal Thoughts While Writing

"Internal thoughts" may in fact be redundant, but I like the way it sounds so I'm going to keep it. All thoughts originate internally though...

Whatever.

The thing I really want to talk about is the thoughts I've been thinking while writing this new book. It's called Familiar Strangers and I estimate that I'm about halfway done with it. I'd like to be finished with it by the middle of July so I can work on another idea that's been taking up residency in my head, and since I've finally hit my stride I think this goal is likely possible. But there is this thing that always happens once I hit my stride and the words are flowing and the characters' story lines are coming together and that thing is this: I start to doubt myself.

Weird, right? Like, when everything seems to be clicking is absolutely NOT when I should start to doubt myself -- but that's exactly when I start to doubt myself. I always get too much in my own head and think, Are readers going to like this? Or, Is the action too character-driven? Or, Will readers be bored during this chapter?

Sometimes when this happens, I put the work in progress aside and make art instead.

Usually when this happens, I write through the doubt and finish the book, and when I go back to read it and experience my work in its entirety, I'm almost always very pleased with what I've produced. So that's what I'm planning to do with this novel: Keep writing until it's finished, put it aside for a few days or a week, and then go back to read the whole thing to catch any glaring plot holes. I'll get into the nitty-gritty editing way down the road as I'll inevitably want to take a break first (to work on another completely different book).

Back to the whole concept of internal thoughts, though? Familiar Strangers follows six different characters and all of them have a lot of internal dialogues and it's been really fun because they're all WRITERS! Cool, right?

Okay. You can plan to read this one in 2026, probably. I'm off to write another chapter.

I don't have a picture to accompany this post, so you can have the first page of chapter one. Read it if you want to. If there are mistakes, that's because I haven't edited it yet AT ALL.