IWSG: Let It Go

Today's IWSG post is about worrying.  Not about being worrisome, which is part of a writer's job around mundanes, because having others be concerned about our sanity just goes with the territory. But no, this is about getting past all the worries that come with this profession.

I'd love to just say "STOP IT!" and end the entry there, but sadly, nothing is that easy.

Here's the thing: the book I'm working on is an interplanar adventure.  I've written interplanar adventures before.  I have three different versions of an interplanar adventure book, all of which failed in different ways.  Believe me when I say how badly I wanted that book to work - I think I have a longer plotting file for the various versions of that book than any other plot document.  But I just couldn't make the story be what I wanted it to be.

The first version also would have run into copyright issues due to one character wielding The Power of Rock and my inclusion of actual song lyrics, but that's different.

Naturally, some of the same worries crept up on me when I was soon to start my current book.  This book is a completely new story, but I couldn't help thinking that it would fail as well.  I've also heard that interplanar adventures don't sell, which is exactly the sort of thing I shouldn't be thinking about before I even start the damn thing.

The solution to this came, of all places, from a Disney song.  (Yes, I'm sure many of you guessed it as soon as you saw this entry's title.)  I actually heard the titular song on the radio the Thursday before I started my writing vacation, and I just kind of sat there in my cube, realizing it was exactly what I needed to hear.

I've blogged before about how important music is to my writing.  I have CDs for plotting and writing and editing each book, and the music helps me get into the right mindset for each project.  But I also have a pre-writing song for each book.  "Let It Go" became that for this book because of one specific verse:

It's time to see what I can do, to test the limits and break through,

No right, no wrong, no rules for me - I'm free.

That, right there, is what I needed.  To approach the new book as an experiment, to see what happens, to just sit down and write it and not worry about anything else.

And seeing as how I'm about to enter Act III after working on the thing for only a week and a half, I can say it's working incredibly well.

Next entry: on writing a wargolem.