Writing Process Thoughts
I am 31000+ words into my zombie novel. This feels significant.
While I know some of what needs to happen in the missing chapter 6 (and have JUST fleshed out the previously missing chapter 2), I have no idea what happens "next" - what's going to come after the bits I've already got onto paper.
Discovery writing is really fun - it's exciting to figure things out along as I go. The creative writing program from which I graduated emphasized character-driven narrative, regardless of genre, and that really went along with my focus anyway, I think. I tend to focus on character anyway, sometimes to the exclusion of plot entirely!
tl;dr: I'm kind of trusting that my characters will tell me what happens next.
I know there are a lot of writers on my friends list and reading list. I'm really curious how this process works for you. I LOVE process talk - it's so interesting to me. There are so many different ways that people go about this.
Another example - the standard advice is to do your rough draft and then reduce by however many percent. I can't do that - if I did that, I'd wind up with a short novella, if that. I write really skeletally, in part because I'm kind of lazy on the first go through. I actually have to go back in, add scenes (hence the need for chapters 2 and 6 to be inserted), make things more clear, add things up in a different way that makes sense on the page instead of just inside my head.
I have no idea where this novel is going to end up! I've been aiming for 60-80 thousand words. That means I'm halfway to a third there already. My mind, she is blown! Even though "already" really means "this took a large chunk of this year." *laugh*
This entry was originally posted at http://onceupon.dreamwidth.org/1278919.html.
While I know some of what needs to happen in the missing chapter 6 (and have JUST fleshed out the previously missing chapter 2), I have no idea what happens "next" - what's going to come after the bits I've already got onto paper.
Discovery writing is really fun - it's exciting to figure things out along as I go. The creative writing program from which I graduated emphasized character-driven narrative, regardless of genre, and that really went along with my focus anyway, I think. I tend to focus on character anyway, sometimes to the exclusion of plot entirely!
tl;dr: I'm kind of trusting that my characters will tell me what happens next.
I know there are a lot of writers on my friends list and reading list. I'm really curious how this process works for you. I LOVE process talk - it's so interesting to me. There are so many different ways that people go about this.
Another example - the standard advice is to do your rough draft and then reduce by however many percent. I can't do that - if I did that, I'd wind up with a short novella, if that. I write really skeletally, in part because I'm kind of lazy on the first go through. I actually have to go back in, add scenes (hence the need for chapters 2 and 6 to be inserted), make things more clear, add things up in a different way that makes sense on the page instead of just inside my head.
I have no idea where this novel is going to end up! I've been aiming for 60-80 thousand words. That means I'm halfway to a third there already. My mind, she is blown! Even though "already" really means "this took a large chunk of this year." *laugh*
This entry was originally posted at http://onceupon.dreamwidth.org/1278919.html.