Going with the flow
I've been trying to write Empty Houses. Really, I have. And it hasn't been going well. I like what I've written, but each sentence has to be pulled from me. I'm writing less than half of what I was doing during sprints in November. In short, it isn't working.
To be frank, it's pissing me off. I love this plot. I love my main character, and I have the entire novel plotted (Well, in general terms. Strict outlines make me twitchy.) So why isn't it working? I can come up with one big, glaring, oppressive reason: The Man.
I'm due to start rewrites and revisions this coming week. It's beast of a project, and it's my baby. Apparently, my brain won't let me start another novel until the first one is finished. Given my noob status with novel writing, I have to admit that my annoying brain is probably right on this one. I decided to not be a total slacker and work on a prompt given by the amazing leader of my writing group. We were asked to take a fairy tale and redo it. Give it new character, a new setting, but keep the heart of the story in place. Well, no fairy tales were really jumping to mind, so I decided to do a nursery rhyme instead. Close enough, right?
Immediately, an idea came to mind and I've been letting it fall into place for several weeks. I made a little graphic for it (because I like to do those kinds of things, and it makes projects real to me for some reason), did some necessary research, but was still procrastinating the actual writing part. Tonight, with our next meeting looming in the immediate future (tomorrow), I decided that it was time to stop being scared and write something. In about forty-five minutes, I wrote 1500 words and have a good chunk of the thing written.
The best part? I actually like it. It's not done by any means, and only a brief once over has been done in terms of editing, but I really do like it. God that feels good. So good.
So, my decision is to put off Empty Houses for now. I'm going to focus on getting The Man ready to submit (*gulp*) and on writing short stories. That's how I started, after all, and I've been neglecting them for far too long. I guess I'm just coming back home for awhile.
To be frank, it's pissing me off. I love this plot. I love my main character, and I have the entire novel plotted (Well, in general terms. Strict outlines make me twitchy.) So why isn't it working? I can come up with one big, glaring, oppressive reason: The Man.
I'm due to start rewrites and revisions this coming week. It's beast of a project, and it's my baby. Apparently, my brain won't let me start another novel until the first one is finished. Given my noob status with novel writing, I have to admit that my annoying brain is probably right on this one. I decided to not be a total slacker and work on a prompt given by the amazing leader of my writing group. We were asked to take a fairy tale and redo it. Give it new character, a new setting, but keep the heart of the story in place. Well, no fairy tales were really jumping to mind, so I decided to do a nursery rhyme instead. Close enough, right?
Immediately, an idea came to mind and I've been letting it fall into place for several weeks. I made a little graphic for it (because I like to do those kinds of things, and it makes projects real to me for some reason), did some necessary research, but was still procrastinating the actual writing part. Tonight, with our next meeting looming in the immediate future (tomorrow), I decided that it was time to stop being scared and write something. In about forty-five minutes, I wrote 1500 words and have a good chunk of the thing written.
The best part? I actually like it. It's not done by any means, and only a brief once over has been done in terms of editing, but I really do like it. God that feels good. So good.
So, my decision is to put off Empty Houses for now. I'm going to focus on getting The Man ready to submit (*gulp*) and on writing short stories. That's how I started, after all, and I've been neglecting them for far too long. I guess I'm just coming back home for awhile.