WIP Update: Art Heist
Well, if you're like me, it feels like the novel I am currently working on, Art Heist, is taking forever to complete. If that's how you feel, you are not wrong. Here's the skinny.
Help! I don't know what I'm doing!
Just kidding. Mostly.
In 2018, I worked for a year at a local art gallery. My job involved part-time receptionist duties and part-time art supervision duties. I used to laugh and say I was a glorified bouncer. Since I was in charge of keeping the art safe, I used to consider ways in which people might attempt a robbery. I came up with only one idea I thought was viable. I figured that once I no longer worked for the gallery, I'd write a novel based off my time there and my heist idea.
Which, for the last four or so months, is what I have been doing. The hold up has been, I've gotten 44,000 words into the first draft and THE HEIST HASN'T HAPPENED YET. Which is kind of a problem.
Oh, there has been a lot of stuff going on. Lots of other action has taken place. I've introduced characters, created red herrings, have my hero and heroine well on the way to happily-ever-after, and there have been several moments of tension and action and other good stuff. It's just, this book doesn't want to be the book I thought it needed to be.
To be honest, this has left me struggling. For a long time I tried to persevere and knock out one grueling word after another. Then I finally had to concede that the book wasn't going to be what I thought it was going to be. This meant I needed to spend some time deciding what to do. Was I going to ditch the entire project? Was I going to start all over and lose some elements so I could refine it into my original conception? Or, was I going to let it be what it wanted to be? If so, how could I make that work?
The answer, once I accepted the situation, was a quite simple fix. The detective novel I thought I was writing is not happening. This story isn't a whodunnit with a romance added. It's a romance where a robbery happens to occur. Accepting that changed everything. It also meant I needed to change the title.
So, Art Heist has been renamed. It is now "High Art," and I figure the first draft is halfway finished. My couple, Raewyn and Kurt, are in things together -- right to the bitter end. And, for you detective fiction lovers, I can assure you the end will be bitter. For the bad guys, at least.
My new projected first draft completion date is May 24. That means, High Art should be ready for purchase in 2022!