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My current Work in Progress, WIP, is stuck with me not having added any new text to the project in about two weeks. This is usually an indication that if a project is not dead then it is in critical condition and scarcely alive in the Intensive Care Unit.

It has been a very long time since a novel sized project of mine has crashed and burned without reaching a completed manuscript and even far longer since one has crashed so early in the process. Having an unfinished manuscript is a bit of an embarrassment and something that ignites guilt and a little depression, prompting motivation to get the thing some forward momentum. But I think before I do that, I need to understand why it stalled and how I can recover this aircraft before it discovers that its altimeter has reached an AGL of zero.

The novel before this one, my gay, 80s, San Diego-centric, ghost story, written sans outline, was a great variation from my usual authorial practice and I am very happy with the results. (Even if to date I haven’t found an agent that shares that opinion.) I started this next project also without an outline and between that lack and the nature of the story, large spread out with what I hope to be a collection of important characters but lacking a single point of view carrying it through, I think those factors are why it is struggling.

So, my recovery plan right now is to stop work on the manuscript itself and revert to an outline. Make sure I know the various characters that are exploring the multiple themes of the novel and then resume writing. If that fails then it would be best to move on to a new project, something, perhaps, less ambitious.