Writing update
I got 2600 words in today on the chapter five rewrite of The Willow Maiden, which feels good. I know it needs work, but it's better. It's also three pages shorter than the old draft, which I barely consulted to write the new one. I sometimes forget how hard it is to do a complete rewrite. What comes out is more like a first draft and actually less polished than the previous version, but when I've got to do major fixes as opposed to line edits, there's just no other way. Now I'm getting into the part of the chapter where I can actually incorporate some of what I've already written instead of writing completely new material. I've probably still got 6-8 more pages to finish off the scene. The next two chapters won't need complete rewrites, so I'm in not too bad shape for my TNEO submission #2. I dread to think of submission #3, but at least that isn't due until mid-June.
I'm still puzzling over a couple turns the plot could take. Will character A give character B some important information or will she withhold it? He can still choose not to trust her or not to act upon it.
This week in my writer's group craft discussion, one of the members talked about Robert Olen Butler's book From Where You Dream. I don't think I his method of "dreamstorming" a novel would completely work for me, but I really liked the ideas that too many of us write "from our heads" while the important stuff of life is in the emotions, which are experienced through the senses. He recommends keeping a sensory journal, which I've never done as such, but I do try to write down sensory impressions and use them in my writing. When reading about a place and time, you really want to experience it with all its sights, smells, sounds, etc.
In the course of needing to call up some sensory memories, I walked around hugging my Ice Bat Ugly Doll, who lives on the couch in my study. The things we weirdos do for our art.
I'm still puzzling over a couple turns the plot could take. Will character A give character B some important information or will she withhold it? He can still choose not to trust her or not to act upon it.
This week in my writer's group craft discussion, one of the members talked about Robert Olen Butler's book From Where You Dream. I don't think I his method of "dreamstorming" a novel would completely work for me, but I really liked the ideas that too many of us write "from our heads" while the important stuff of life is in the emotions, which are experienced through the senses. He recommends keeping a sensory journal, which I've never done as such, but I do try to write down sensory impressions and use them in my writing. When reading about a place and time, you really want to experience it with all its sights, smells, sounds, etc.
In the course of needing to call up some sensory memories, I walked around hugging my Ice Bat Ugly Doll, who lives on the couch in my study. The things we weirdos do for our art.