Always Be Workshopping
Writer: William Gray
As an author, one of the many things I’ve struggled with since beginning this journey is time. There’s simply not enough of it to go around—when you’re raising a family, working full-time, trying to build a brand, and attempting to bring your already-published work to the public’s attention, how on Earth do you find time to write?
The truth is more brutal than most would like to admit: sometimes, you don’t.
There are days that I go without writing a single word. I know—it’s the equivalent of blasphemy if you’re a writer. It’s not that I do nothing on those days. I’m constantly building my brand via Twitter, I’m interacting with potential readers, and I’m trying to find new and inventive ways to reach a new audience. Some days I simply have to prioritize, and as much as it pains me, I have to leave my word processor untouched.
Here’s the real beauty, though. Even on days that I can’t find enough minutes in the day to lay down a single word, I still work on my writing in progress. I would even go as far as to argue that those days when I don’t write are the most important. I’ll get to that in a moment.
It started with my debut novel, The Man Behind the Door. Back then, I always found time to write daily, which was amazing. I would put down anywhere from 1000 to 2000 words regularly, sometimes even more. That feels crazy to say now, but it was a passion project. Despite all that time, I still spent hours a day workshopping my ideas.
Basically, any free moment I got but I couldn’t actually write, I turned ideas over in my head. I just looked at a scene from every angle, played it out as many ways as I could imagine, and saw how it fit into both the overarching plot as well as the theme of my work.
I still do this to this day because I feel that it is the best way to figure out if what you’ve got is actually good. I can’t tell you how many scenes and plotlines I’ve changed or abandoned due to this, and for the better. Imagine your plot is a balloon with tiny pinprick holes in it—you wouldn’t know until you filled it up with air, right? That doesn’t sound too bad until you spend the time to blow it up (write it) and then realize too late that there’s a (plot) hole. I know it’s a terrible, terrible metaphor, but it’s also accurate.
I imagine that what I do is the equivalent of taking that balloon, putting it under a magnifying glass, and stretching it so I can see those tiny holes. As ridiculous as that sounds, it really works.
There was a point where I had an idea for a third book, and I was so excited about it. I wrote the prologue, and man, did that thing rule. I got through Chapter One, and that feeling held. I started Chapter Two and—
Dead on arrival. Something was wrong, in the same way characters in books always know that something isn’t right. Rather than forcing it, I put it under the microscope. I started turning it over and thinking about it and really ripping it to shreds. I didn’t give up on my third novel—I simply gave the idea the time it needed to grow.
And boy, did it grow. Despite not putting a single word down for over seven months, I never stopped workshopping it. Even as I did the same for my current writing in progress, I always made sure to return to it periodically. Now, I have an idea that grew from the soil of that original story, and is so much more incredible than what I had before.
So, when you don’t have time to write, workshop it. Keep the flame burning and figure out how to make the story even better when you get back to the blank page. I promise you that you’ll be happy you did.
About the Writer:
A lifelong reader, William set out in 2018 to tell his father’s story through the lens of fiction. The outcome is The Man Behind the Door, which he self-published in 2022, and focuses on grief, trauma, and addiction with a ghost story spin. His next novel, The Devil Within Us All, is inspired by those who abuse their power to manipulate and bring out the worst in others. When he isn’t writing, he spends as much time as he can with his family while working full time as a pharmacy technician.
Writer’s website: williamfgrayfiction.com