Well, I might as well just come out with it: I’m pushing back my finishing date for Project Pea. Again.

Sometimes, it seems like this WIP has been nothing but headaches. I can’t seem to get a firm grasp on it, like it just keeps slipping through my fingers. I keep wanting to get frustrated but I try not to because I know it won’t help.

Writing a full-length novel is a process, and it’s one I haven’t been through in a little while. This book may be giving me a lot of trouble, but I’m convinced it’s because the end product is going to be amazing.

The reason why I’m pushing the date back is actually good news, though. See, originally, I was supposed to finish by the end of June. Then, I decided to try a new style of storytelling and so I had to start over, pushing my date back to the end of July. Now, my finishing date is mid-August, which really isn’t too far off of where I wanted to be.

You all know that I’m a pantser. I can’t write detailed outlines to save my life, and it’s even worse when I’m writing my own books rather than my clients’. But when I just kept pounding into this book and not getting anywhere, I knew I had to try something.

That “something” ended up being a storyboard template. At first I imagined myself drawing a key scene for every chapter, but I quickly realised that it would take too long and I’d get too discouraged by my lacking artistic skills. Instead, I just used the place where the picture should go as a place to write headings. And I don’t know what it was, but something about that template just made my brain explode with ideas.

That, and I finally figured out the core theme of my book.

It had been dancing around me since the beginning. I knew it was there, but I just couldn’t quite see it clearly. I’d been hoping and praying that something would come to me that would tie the book together, that I would finally be able to see what had been there all along.

And out of nowhere, it hit me. Of course! It was love.

So simple, and yet so powerful. I saw instantly how themes of love echoed all throughout my book. I was instantly reminded of 1 Corinthians 13:7 – “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” And from that came the concrete theme: no matter how bad things get, love endures.

So yeah, maybe I feel a little discouraged that my completion of Project Pea is getting pushed back again due to all the new ideas I need to incorporate. But this time, I was actually able to come up with a solid plan and a theme to tie it all together. I truly believe that by mid-August I’ll have a full rough draft on my hands – but I’ll keep you updated!

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