Trying to be Positive

Being optimistic about things is hard for me. Unfortunately I tend to be pessimistic and cynical by nature, although not nearly as much as I once was (thankfully!).

Anyway, I am trying my best to apply this to my writing. If I focus too much on the negative, it takes the desire away. And I don’t want that to happen!

Of course there are times when I may be too frustrated or upset about continuing my book. For example, the whole name change thing was highly discouraging, but I wanted desperately to fix it and focused on that. I believe I may have decided on Kaiyo’s new name: it will be Naomi. I think it’s a good representation of my character; not only was it a common enough name used in Victorian times, but I’ve also heard it’s a Japanese name as well. So what better name to choose for my character who is part of two cultures? It may not mean “forgiveness” like I wanted, but that’s ok; I believe the story is going in a slightly different direction.

Another frustrating moment came yesterday when I began thinking about the actual story catalyst. I couldn’t quite figure how to word a short blurb about it, and that made me think that there’s a great deal of re-focusing to do. I then decided to try and edit my chapter that’s up for critique soon (I need to have it posted by next Thursday) and I realized I pretty much have to write the entire chapter again. Not a big deal though; I’ve had to do that for the past three. Oh well; it was written during NaNo last year; I’m certain most are going to need to be re-done.

I’m not giving up though. I’ve invested too much time in this story to be deterred or to trunk it. I just have to keep the creative juices flowing and hope that it will all be cohesive at some point.