Trying something new (or is it old?)

I've been struggling with my writing the last little bit. It felt forced and just wasn't working for me. Sitting down at my laptop and thinking, "now I will write" felt incredibly awkward. So instead, I spent some time with a blank notebook page and a pen to sketch out ideas. I tried to imagine what Mack, Wes, and Theo would experience on the road. How would it feel to be back in your home country after being away fighting? Would their be relief? Or would the shift to peace time be it's own kind of difficult? How would I describe what was going on? Both physical descriptions and in what they were talking about.

I also made some notes on things that I felt hadn't worked or that I had been too heavy handed with. My foreshadowing was screaming what was about to happen, so I went back and toned that down quite a bit. The hints are still there, but they are hints now instead of practically explaining what would occur. I've heard authors say that you shouldn't edit your first draft much, but I just couldn't leave it as it was. I did avoid the temptation to revise more than the minimum though. I wanted to make it easier for myself later, but not slow things down too much.

Part of the idea came from reading an article about Lee Child transitioning the Jack Reacher series to his younger brother Andrew. Apparently, Andrew has been involved in the series for quite some time. So much so, that the two of them almost refer to Reacher as another brother that they have. The part that caught my attention was when the article discussed how they would imagine what problems would Reacher run into and the different things he would do in response.

I remembered sitting in elementary school, being bored out of my mind, and just daydreaming while I looked out the window. I'd imagine different adventures that I could have or even made up stories. Anything to entertain myself. I think that is one of the things I'm struggling with now. Now it's so easy to just pick up my phone and turn my brain off. If I spend an hour on it, I find that I've had no new thoughts and that my brain was just in neutral. I need to allow myself to be bored and let my mind wander. Particularly around Mack and the crew. I think my writing will improve with it.

Book status

After all of that, you might wonder if I did any actual writing on the book. I did spend a few hours on it tonight. The progress bar has moved from a bit over 8% to 9.5%. It was a pretty productive night!