Cathar Fortress, by Duncan Harris

Today I’m starting over.

Again.

For the third time, actually. To try and scale the fortress walls and rescue the prisoner that is my YA supernatural novel The Shaded.

Yes, the first two attempts stalled, and the thousands of words left behind on those 100+ pages often felt like they were being squeezed from a brain that had turned into stone.

And yet after several months of distance and maybe a little amnesia, newfound enthusiasm for the project has inspired me to pull it all apart and put it back together in an exceptional way to make it finally come alive.  

I’m scared, sure, but still tenacious, and today I gird myself for battle by looking to Liam Neeson’s character in the movie “The Grey,” (a surprisingly poignant film that I highly recommend) for inspiration:

“Once more into the fray. Into the last good fight I’ll ever know. Live and die on this day. Live and die on this day.”

Okay, it might be a bit overwrought to compare the plight of the last survivor of a plane crash about to fight an Alpha male wolf with a writer in insulated booties tackling the blank page, but hey, when we writers aren’t busy being neurotic we’re playing dress-up in our melodrama. Or something like that.

But hey, self-doubt and fear can be just a vicious to a writer as a pack of hungry wolves, and where old Liam had a knife and his Irish grit, I’ve got my imagination and bullheadedness. Will it carry me through?

I’m an optimist, so yes, I believe it will.

But I could still use some help, fellow creators out there. Tell me about the projects that kicked you to the curb a few times before you ultimately struck back and conquered. Share your hard fought success stories.