Well, I haven't managed to write every day, as was my plan, but I have managed to write most days...well okay, at least half of them. I am in love with the current story I'm working on though, so that helps. I'm writing this one freestyle, that is without an outline. I have a general idea in my head of the plot/storyline but generally I'm just making it all up as I go.
I think the other novel I have in the hopper got stale for me because I put so much energy into outline, plot summary, and character development, that it felt old and done by the time I sat down to the nuts and bolts of writing. This time I'm just winging it, so it feels fresh every time I sit down to write.
I have to keep telling myself that the first draft is just supposed to be the exercise of getting words on the page. It's not going to be awesome...that will come with subsequent drafts and rewrites. I just need to get the story on the page so I have something to work with! That is far and away the hardest part for me. For some reason I expect the final draft to flow fully formed from my fingers on the first try. So every time I sit down to add more to the story I have to keep telling myself not to obsess about going back and rereading and tinkering with what I've already written. JUST WRITE has become my new mantra.
However, I do like how I seem to be living in the story inside my head, even when I'm not writing. New ideas are forming, the characters are evolving and I'm getting to know them and seeing how they behave and interact. Does this happen for every writer? Do you go about your daily chores and routines all the while with this other world swirling around inside your head? I've always had other stuff going on inside my head, but now that I'm focusing on these characters and this story, it's really taking on a life of its own.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I have actually never tried to write fiction, so I'm always interested in how the process works. And "just write it" is the absolutely only way I can write. I revise, I edit, and sometimes I end up writing about something very much other than what I planned, but I can't just wait for an idea, and then sit down to write, because the idea might never come.
Yes about living in your novel at the same time as real life. Makes for interesting internal conversations, right?
"the characters are evolving and I'm getting to know them and seeing how they behave and interact. Does this happen for every writer?"
Hopefully, however I find it most difficult to leave them and go back to my real world. I so often want to stay with them,to discover where they are going.
Post a Comment