Returning to my novella
I have returned to the book I wrote for Writing Month 2025.
Deep in the Heart of Texas was a passion project. I wanted to show some real dynamics that I had observed over the past decade I've spent in Texas public schools. I really like the world - Baydale is love letter to Texas as much as it is a condemnation. I love my characters: Griffin and Claire are fun POVs to write - the relentless cynicism of one and the defiant optimism of the other as they both navigate different phases of identity formation.
And I really love the plot: it's part fluffy romance, part education policy, part political commentary. I have no idea if anyone else would ever want to read it, but it is a project for me.
What I didn't love was my pacing. When I am writing, I usually have a specific scene in mind that I am working toward as my next 'goal post'. My desire to get there sometimes overrides my watching of the pace and, thus, I'll trample over the set up, which inevitably makes the scene mediocre. Not bad, just mediocre.
I made that error with this book by reaching the romantic climax too early. I hit this point about 40k words in - in the later half of Act 2. I realized this, but committed to push through because you don't stop during Writing Month - you write to the goal. I made my 50k goal, but only just, and I am much less enamored with the romantic aspect in this final ~12k words.
This jumping the gun piled up problems quickly in the narrative, and killed my own personal momentum and desire to continue:
- I love slow burn romance. Almost agonizingly slow burn. Not because of miscommunication, but because circumstances irritate your social anxiety and so instead you yearn.
- The non-romance plot (a facet of the culture war occurring in Texas classrooms) was beginning to grow in importance in the final act. The romance plot fell to the wayside as there was significantly less drama.
- I didn't get to explore the forced proximity angle as much as I wanted. Griffin and Claire teach a class together. Being in that situation with simmering feels has so much social performance.
I decided on a snap decision to go back and re-write the scene that changed their relationship from 'will they/won't they' to 'dating'. Instead that scene ends with uncertainty. I'm currently working my way forward, a few paragraphs at a time, and changing writing around this new change. I'm still working at a lackadaisical speed - but I'm typically rewriting a scene about once every couple of days. I'm sure this will get more difficult as I catch up to where I left off.
So, I plan to continue to make updates - maybe about once or twice a month, just to keep myself accountable.
I'll also be going back and add the new tag to my old WritingMonth2025 posts, just to keep everything connected.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far~