An Update for a Thursday
After a good night/day of sleep I feel human once more.
Writing: I've been a little more active again over at CC critiquing and receiving some crits on earlier chapters. Most of the crits I'm receiving are nits so that's good. Think I'm almost THERE with those.
I flashed last weekend over at www.libertyhallwriters.org I think that was the beginning of the dream sequence of this week as the prompt was a line from a Springsteen song about dreams. My story wasn't great but the last two flashes have included bits of real life mixed in with a very fantastical story. It's a different way of bringing reality into my fiction and realizing I can do that with a little effort, I think it can make a good story. I wasn't thrilled with my effort but for a ninety minute effort, it's a start of something.
My editing client sent over her draft of chapter two. I spent some time on that editing commenting and writing for that. It's a mishmash (what I'm doing for her). It's almost ghost writing but not.
Thoughts on writing real: I've noticed a lot of friends are writing fictionalized autobiographies both online and in real life. They struggle with this. My general feeling is that they can't separate themselves enough to make it a story. It has to be the toughest kind of writing. Always in their mind they are thinking that's not how it really happened. If you're trying to do this, I suggest writing it NOT real. Use the reality to bare-bones it and then add conflict and description to make it MORE than real. It's just my opinion of course, but after seeing people struggle with this, I'm offering my two cents.
Reading: I'm still reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Dreams. Her language and characterization are so compellingly delightful and it makes me want to write my own adventures because I have had some with other cultures. The thing is, I don't want to get trapped into the above, so perhaps in the next year or so I'll delve into my own story fictionalized and better than real.
This week I've edited a couple more chapters on WWS and about to get into doing a couple more. My goal is to start querying this by summer. I've got a good feel for what I want this novel to be now, so I'm going to finish this draft and send it out.
Writing: I've been a little more active again over at CC critiquing and receiving some crits on earlier chapters. Most of the crits I'm receiving are nits so that's good. Think I'm almost THERE with those.
I flashed last weekend over at www.libertyhallwriters.org I think that was the beginning of the dream sequence of this week as the prompt was a line from a Springsteen song about dreams. My story wasn't great but the last two flashes have included bits of real life mixed in with a very fantastical story. It's a different way of bringing reality into my fiction and realizing I can do that with a little effort, I think it can make a good story. I wasn't thrilled with my effort but for a ninety minute effort, it's a start of something.
My editing client sent over her draft of chapter two. I spent some time on that editing commenting and writing for that. It's a mishmash (what I'm doing for her). It's almost ghost writing but not.
Thoughts on writing real: I've noticed a lot of friends are writing fictionalized autobiographies both online and in real life. They struggle with this. My general feeling is that they can't separate themselves enough to make it a story. It has to be the toughest kind of writing. Always in their mind they are thinking that's not how it really happened. If you're trying to do this, I suggest writing it NOT real. Use the reality to bare-bones it and then add conflict and description to make it MORE than real. It's just my opinion of course, but after seeing people struggle with this, I'm offering my two cents.
Reading: I'm still reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Dreams. Her language and characterization are so compellingly delightful and it makes me want to write my own adventures because I have had some with other cultures. The thing is, I don't want to get trapped into the above, so perhaps in the next year or so I'll delve into my own story fictionalized and better than real.
This week I've edited a couple more chapters on WWS and about to get into doing a couple more. My goal is to start querying this by summer. I've got a good feel for what I want this novel to be now, so I'm going to finish this draft and send it out.