Writing a Novel Part VI: Finding Focus

Written by John Edward Betancourt

So when we last left this series, the process of fully writing my novel was underway. I had a first chapter coming together, and my confidence was soaring. After all, this was it, I was doing it and moving toward my dream at a breakneck pace and couldn't help but keep thinking how much fun this was and how easy this whole process was going to be...and that was my first mistake. I've talked in the past about how to some this work seems like a breeze and writing a novel is as easy as making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and unfortunately, I gave in to that silly idea.

I honestly thought I would sit down and blast out twenty or thirty pages a night after the day job, and on my days off, wake up early and blast out another fifty before settling in to edit and refine what I already put down upon the page and well...it was never like that. As it turned out getting home from the day job and working on the book took some serious focus on my part since I was already tired and while I was indeed able to get some work done on my days off, I discovered that one of the greatest enemies to the creative process one can ever face, are the vast amounts of distractions surrounding you.  

After all, I wanted relaxation time after work so television or a video game would take precedence here and there and on my days off, there was plenty to do around the house, so needless to say, it didn't take long before Fallen Angel found itself sliding into the back of my mind and well, that concerned me. I didn't put in all this prep work and effort to let something like this fade into the realm of being a fun hobby on the side. I wanted this and I wanted to see it come to life, but it was clear I wasn't focused and decided it was high time to carve out some time to work on the story and get this project back on track. 

I decided the best way to get the creative juices flowing again so to speak was to be rid of all the distractions and perhaps immerse myself in a place that was conducive to writing and what better a place to write than where Stephen King himself penned something famous? So without a thought, I burned a couple of vacation days and booked myself a room at The Stanley Hotel and once I got over the sheer awesomeness of being at this iconic place, I found myself able to settle in and get some work done and good work at that. The words flowed easily all of a sudden and that simple weekend adventure left me wondering what would happen if I had more time away from home without distraction. 

So, with plenty of vacation time in the bank, I booked a room at the now defunct Hotel VQ. It was a nice little hotel at the time next to Sports Authority Field at Mile High and being right off of the highway, I had a perfect view of Downtown Denver to inspire since the book is set in my home town as is and man, what a wonderful week that turned out to be. I was cooking, the words were continuing to appear on the page, I was happy with the result and when all was said and done, I had a third of the novel completed just like that.

Being able to get that kind of work done gave me some serious confidence that I could do this after all and upon returning home from my little writing sabbatical, I had a newfound focus and made a conscious choice to find time to write. The story was in my blood now, in my mind and I needed to see this thing through and well, I thought it would be easy street from here on out, but this was merely a peak in a process of peaks and valleys and unfortunately, the greatest challenge that every single writer out there has to face was waiting for me on the horizon and that's where we will pick up, next time.