Words About Writing

Well, another creative activity took over a lot of my time, but I have been writing. I've been editing, and now that it's October, I'm considering whether or not to do Nanowrimo again this year. I enjoy it. I enjoy the rhythm of writing that it creates. Also, I've done it several years consecutively, so it feels like a November tradition.  The problem is I don't have a story burning to be written. So I've done some of the Nanowrimo Prep 101 ideas, attended some write-ins, and have some ideas going. I'm still unsure of them. I'll probably do it. There is one story that sparks my imagination over the others. More like, a character and an obstacle. I still don't really have a plot yet.  I may need to sit with my three top ideas and do a bigger brainstorm for plot before committing. It's almost November, so I should get on that! 

Again with the long hiatus from blogging! First, it was because all was going according to plan. I followed a three-step edit process, making notes that change the overall story, then per chapter or scene, and finally noting lines that needed to be fixed. Then I traveled for a while and struggled to get back into the routine of writing and editing. Now I'm back, with a new focus. Still in the WIP from Nanowrimo 2022, but I realized that regardless of all the notes I had made, the overall "feel" of the book was wrong. It was too straightforward. This book should make the reader cringe. I want it to be spooky as hell. It's not my strong suit. A few days ago I saved the whole thing under a new title, so I can do a massive overhaul of it without obliterating the original in case this version turns out worse. Then I deleted a bunch of scenes that seem superfluous or too light. There are a few changes that will need to be made to the story line, so I've begun working th...

Has it been a month? Shame on me! I finished the Scene Edit for this WIP, and have started on the Line Edit. This is a slow process. It's rewarding - perfecting the words - but time consuming and difficult. This is when I really see/read/hear what has or hasn't worked. Some days, when I feel stuck in a scene, the easy choice is to set it aside for a while and come back later. But that really doesn't help. I've found that it's best to stay in the hard scene, make changes, and then on the re-read later, maybe make more changes. That doesn't mean I don't ever give in to the urge to "set it aside", but I know that's not how I'll make progress. It's important to remind myself that this is important to me. Does that sound strange? If it's important, I shouldn't have to remind myself that it is, right? You'd think so, but right now the value of my work doesn't have a price tag. I think that's why it's easy to forget tha...

I'm reading a book of the genre I believe I will ultimately be published in, and not loving it. There are few protagonists in this genre that I have found I identify with. I guess that's why I write. But it occurred to me after watching something on TV that maybe my personal bias is getting in my way. I tried envisioning the protagonist as a different race, or from a different upbringing, with different social mores bred into her from the get-go, that kind of thing. And it's better. She still drives me crazy with her bad decisions, and piling one bad thing on top of the other, but I get that it may be relatable to people. It made me realize I might be pinning my "mature adult" perspective on my own 20-something protagonist. I'll tackle that in the editing. (I'm surely close to done by now!) That's in my reading. In my writing, just today I added a tiny incident with a minor character - who wasn't even a character before, just a known entity. I was ...