Words About Writing

I completed Nanowrimo, and had the bones of a manuscript at the end of it. Yay! This time, instead of setting it aside immediately, I wanted to read through it to fill in any holes before setting it aside for a while. I'm not even a third of the way through, and got hung up on one scene for the last two days. I just couldn't figure out the fix. Today, I went to my writing group - was the only one there, actually, which was kind of nice - and wrote new dialog for that scene. JUST dialog. It's easier for me to see the scene that way, and I can add setting and actions after I drop it into the manuscript.  I'm pretty proud that I thought of that! I had copied the whole scene into a new text page to re-work it, but now that I have this new dialog, I can delete that text page, start over with the dialog, and then pull from the original text any descriptions that I want to keep. It's a breakthrough. I now know that I can do this with any tricky scene.

Of course, I'm doing Nanowrimo again. I decided which of my various story options appealed the most, and it's going pretty well so far (one week in). That is to say, I'm staying on top of the word count. At my writing group the other day, I read out the bit I'd written for their prompt, and got some good feedback: great atmosphere, "I could really see it"... with one negative, "I wish I could sense what she's feeling." Now, as I'm writing a new book, I realize that I'm still writing without feeling. I'm generally pretty proud of my dialog, and some of my descriptions are pretty good. (I do get hung up on the layout of my interiors, but that can be fixed in editing.)  I think I see what's happening as I write it, but I don't feel it. I might need to kick up my process a bit. One thing I'm SO happy about this time around is my support network. Namely, my spouse. Always supportive - a writer, also, but not participating this ...

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! 

I want to write. I know the only thing is to write. Want to write? Do it! Just sit down and do it. Period. At my Writers' Group this morning, I got some good feedback on a section I read out loud. So I came home motivated to sit and work on that scene. But it's hot, and I'm uncomfortable, and it's distracting. No. That's an excuse. If I want to write, I need to just do it. If I really want to write, to have written, to be a Writer, then the temperature shouldn't matter. The fact that I'm out of coffee shouldn't matter. The work conference call coming up in 3 hours shouldn't matter.  I'm here, now. At my computer, ready to write. I need to write. Writer's Block does not exist. I will write, and I will write well.

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...

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted. I finished that edit and moved on to beginning the edit of my November WIP. I admit, I forgot what I had already done until I got into my first review! So far, I haven't actually changed anything. I followed the suggestion of "read and summarize" as a way to see if the story I wrote matched the one I had set out to write. I'm not sure what value that action is supposed to carry, but for me, reading straight through without any changes helped me see some scenes that seem to be out of order, or are repetitive. I made notes. As for my "bugaboos"... I go through this every time. And it's Time. The Time-line, specifically. In an effort to make sure things are happening realistically, I need to be sure that the timing fits together. For this WIP, certain chapters are full of a dense couple days of action, while others might cover a longer period of time. And the season changes during the course o...

I'm excited about this step, so must document it. I don't seem to have written about the Nanowrimo Youtube series I watched on streamlining the editing process. It was in 4 parts (or three?), and really helped me focus each step. I started while mid-edit for that last editing project, so it was hard to fit the steps they provided into my Scrivener drafts. (The presenters used a program called Fictionary.) With my recent Nanowrimo draft, I have decided to set it up now in such a way to make the 3 step editing process easier later. And I love it. I did a quick review of the Scrivener tutorial to figure out the best way to set this up. I'm in there, using the Meta-data options to highlight the path of each scene, so I'll be able to see at a glance what needs to be done. Next step (starting today), I'm going to add key words and reference tabs to make it easier to link up different scenes. Part of the hassle of editing, I've found, is when a change in one scene affe...