Long session tonight - I had to find my way and it took some time. When this happens I just push on, rather than get stuck on a scene. I've learned I'll work it out later - that's what second drafts are for. The same goes for finding just the right word, the right sentence, etc.
Writing Thought:
Forge ahead. Blaze the trail, and pave the road next time you pass through.
The thing is, after 1,000 words, I wanted to quit. It was late on a Friday night and I was wanted to hang out with my friends and kick back. It's something I've done before many times: forced myself to walk away from a room full of the people I love being around to get my words done for the day.
The question is: How bad to you want it? If you're walking away day after day without finishing what you set out to do, then the answer is "not enough".
This is generally how I give myself pep talks, by the way.
Writing Thought:
If I had skipped out today, would that last 1,000 words have come? Or would the magic been left there, deep in the ground, undiscovered, because I was tried of digging?
Had me a nap, so I ended up getting my words down from 5am to 9am. Have to be careful not to lose a day when that happens.
I read the same books over and over. It's embarrassing how many times I've read some things.
Anyway, re-reading Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Destruction of the Endless paints, sculpts, writes poems, and cooks...and he's terrible at them all. It's because they all involve creation, and he's the personification of destruction.
Did I know that once, and forget it, or did I just see it for the first time?
Either way, I'm not doing that thing were I am inserting texture where it may not be. Gaiman meant to do that, I'm sure. Unlike many things from my youth, Sandman holds up really well. I still remember reading the first issues at my friend's house in 8th grade.
The Graveyard Book was pretty good, and I felt a real joy for him when he won the Newberry. I like Gaiman to the point where his strengths far outweigh his weaknesses. The man loves the hero's journey. Neverwhere, American Gods, Anansi Boys, etc. all deal with the main character discovering their origins and finding their inner power. I'm not knocking it...I do the same thing in A Monstrous War with Ithurial Styx. However, I'd love to see him write the next step. What happens to Shadow or Nobody once they know who they are? That I care shows he creates strong characters.
There is no denying the influence he had on me. American Gods might be my favorite book. If you like fantasy, especially urban fantasy and you haven't read it, read it.
Writing Thought:
Again, things I did not foresee keep happening. It's one of the things that makes me feel like a real writer, when the story creates its own twists and turns. The danger is too many tangents and hurting the pacing.
Worked, did my taxes, then sat down to write. I didn't want to - I wanted to goof off and play video games, but hey, books don't write themselves.
I'm finding myself looking back at the first book to make sure I don't contradict myself or copy the same phrase (especially descriptions) twice. When there are several of these, that's going to be a pain. Then again, I'm going to have an ear to ear grin every time I reach for the stack of books.
Also, there is the issue of re-capping, re-describing, etc., things encountered in the first book. How much is too much? How much is not enough? Hopefully when I get an agent and an editor they'll be able to clue me in. Looking forward to that.
In other news, sometimes I know where I want to go, but I don't know how I'm going to get there. That's when it's nice to have a world at my fingertips. I check my maps, trace the route, and look at what the characters will cross paths with. Then I think about how they will react to what they encounter.
It's a very organic process that feels spontaneous and darn good...a balance between outlining and natural growth.
The map is not the land.
Still, this would have been really hard, had I not built Orb slowly over a long period of time.
2,000 more in the bank.
More heavy stuff tonight. I'm not a time-waster in these books. Man, does this one move. I want that to be one of the things I am known for: when you pick up one of my books you know that a lot is going to happen.
I had a goal in mind tonight - a big scene, and I was presently surprised when I discovered that the events had more texture, more meaning to them than I had first planned. An outline is just an outline. A map is not the land.
Today's thought:
You'll have big scenes in your mind. Scenes you've been planning for a while, that have been building and gaining gravity, and you'll want to do them justice. Don't let it intimidate you. Writing scared is bad. Don't get in the ring with your mind on survival. Get in the ring to win.
It was my first day drafting in a while. Coming back after four months off wasn't too bad. For the last two months I've been re-writing, which is much different from writing a first draft. Re-writing is more craft than creation.
Things were a little rusty, but they still worked. It was a good day. I'm happy with the pages. Nice to know I still got it. There's always this fear that some day I am going to sit down and nothing is going to happen.
There is a little more horror in this one. It's not intentional, and it doesn't change who the audience is. Fantasy is a great genre. You can have mystery, horror, romance, etc., under its back drop. Such freedom.
Today's writing thought:
Writing verse is hard. As Conan said, "I have no tongue for it."
But if used sparingly, it has a real weight to it.
I'd like to write two novels a year, and I think its an attainable goal. I wrote my first in six months (including the 10 week resting period between 1st and 2nd drafts) and didn't feel rushed at all. Of course while writing it I worked full time. I did, however, give up going to the gym. I just couldn't juggle all three. (When I go to the gym, I get sucked in. I'm there for 3 hours, and with driving and showering, that's 4 hours. Hopefully with summer here I can do smaller workouts around the house. You can tell the book was my baby...I look a little pregnant from the pounds I put on making it.)
So tomorrow marks six months from when I started writing A Monstrous War. It's time to start the second one.
Except I cheated, it's already being written.
Firstly, I know where the characters are going (development and geography) and what happens (including the ending, can't stress that enough). I have pages and pages of outline and notes. These are a haphazard blend of plot points, conversations, and little world building nuggets. I built it slowly. As I wrote the first one, I had the outline for the second one open (and the third to be honest), and whenever something didn't fit into the first (the first is a lean machine, baby), I'd toss it in the second. Of course, the second runs on all cylinders, so if it mucks up the engine, it gets tossed again.
Secondly...
Okay, so I told myself that I was going to take a break, as to not burn myself out. But the day after I had printed the (ugly) first draft for the chosen reviewers, I was drying the dishes and POW, the first sentence of the second book came into my head.
[Quick aside. I think first sentences are very important, as are last sentences. They don't have to be a bolt of inspiration - you can craft them - but they have to be solid. I felt a tremendous pressure for the first sentence of my first novel to be great. And I rather like it.]
I set down my dishes and ran to the laptop. I was just going to jot down what was in my head and stop when the tank ran out. I had moved my table to the living room and wrote looking at the Christmas tree. It was quite the little moment.
5,000 words later I had written two rather kick ass chapters. The next day I got up and wrote 4,000 more that were also solid. And it moved at a sick pace, giving answers, character development, and my first romance type scene ever (which I am strangely happy with, future blog post noted). Its everything a publisher wants in the first 50 pages. Too bad I had a write a whole first book to set them up.
The next day I wrote the worst 1,000 words of my life (and I'm counting the story I wrote in 7th grade that was a cross between Batman and King Arthur. At least that had honest energy). It was painful. I tried to gut it out to 2,000 words, but I realized that I was going to delete those 1,000 one day anyway. I got up from the laptop and said DONE and walked away from drafting for four months. Don't get me wrong, if lightning struck, I'd sit down and bottle it, but I wasn't making it.
And when you don't try to make it, good luck folks.
Lastly, it's been "cooking" in my head. I'm a slow stewer. That's my process...things just drift around, connections form, and a feeling builds. I guess that feeling is close to tone, or maybe style. Sometimes I get the two confused (not formally trained here people).
So tomorrow (by that I mean Sunday...night person.) it's back to 2,000 words a day. And I have to tell you, I'm looking forward to it. I've been missing the process. It's weird, I don't love it when its happening. Let me be honest and say I don't sit there with a huge grin on my face, slamming keys like Dracula at a pipe organ. It runs the gambit, from airy inspiration to a dry grind. But every time I get up from the chair I feel great.
What happens to this blog?
It becomes a day by day log of how the draft is going. I'm going to try to keep it short (take grain of salt now).
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go delete 1,000 words.
