Progress and letting go

My own darling child* has been out in the world for a month now. I thought it would be difficult to let Alison go as she lived in my head for year. But once she/it was published she was gone. I think there may even come a time when I read Alison and am surprised at what I find. I’ve been letting go of a lot of things this year. It’s difficult but it’s making me a better writer and a better person.

I’m currently working on Beautiful Abomination which is a very different book. It’s based on something I wrote several years ago and then abandoned. This time around it’s less dark than previously and the characters aren’t all awful, horrible, people. Despite this it’s still a challenge to write. The themes are confronting, though I don’t know if that will translate as strongly into the readers experience as I feel it during my writing. I suspect it may get harder as I move from one storyline to another. I am writing the three view points separately and I started with the safest. However, I am making good progress, in my month of writing I’ve already passed 5,000 words which is a lot for me (Alison was just under 14,000 words).

*That’s an Austen reference