In other worlds my writing has progressed into THE ARC. Yeah, after ten+ years of writing album reviews of WhatzUp I've decided to at least take a swipe at writing The All American Novel! I'm committed to at least finishing the beast, good or bad. I checked out the materials from the Write-A-Novel-In-A-Month people and they were helpful, although mine has stretched on for over two months (with many more to come, but at least I'll still have a family when I'm done) with only 10,000 of the required 50,000 words completed. Plus I just started what would be considered part two of the suggested three-part classic structure. Since my chapters have grown increasingly longer I expect that when I edit I'll go back and expand the first few chapters so that the three parts are more equal in size. Also new today is the completed plot snapping into focus. What? Start writing a novel without knowing the full plot? That's that I used to think too. The Novel/Month people suggest starting to write with only a plot concept but I needed a bit more and so spent some time coming up with situations and characters and a general idea of what what going to happen but it's always pleasantly surprising when you start a chapter and a new idea crops up that throws things for a loop. And so you just hold on and enjoy the ride.
But for now the goal is to boldly plow forth, ignoring the urge to go back and edit or even read what I've written. The idea is just to get the story told and later I'll get technical and critical and fix stuff and add those cool foreshadowing/interlocking plot ideas that I love. Yeah, it's a fresh concept that until now I had failed to grasp, instead going back and getting bogged down in editing the thousand words I had just written to the point that I no longer felt inspired to write.
Speaking of being no longer inspired to write, this blog post tires me so.
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You spilled the beans!
ReplyDeleteAnd the gravy!
ReplyDeleteCheck out my blog-pal Tappity Tappity sometime. He's a writer. I like eggs.
ReplyDeleteYessum, I read his blog and even have the bloke linked. Don't like his hair color, though. I suggest he go red.
ReplyDelete10,000 words. Is that a lot?
ReplyDeleteI've got about 103 words in my Mediocre Regional Novel (a few steps below Great American), but I expect to finish by 2012. Is the Novel in a Month book real? It sounds helpful.
So does actually sitting down and writing, but that's a lot of work.
Studies have shown that sitting down and writing is the single biggest reason why novels get completed. Jumping up and yelling "YAHTZEE!" is a close second.
ReplyDelete