A couple of weeks ago I had a crisis, of sorts, over the entire idea of writing a novel. Day after day of looking at it, agonizing over single words and phrases, I felt like I was banging my head against the keyboard (and perhaps I should be, might end up with something of at least equal quality). I ended up taking a couple of pages of free-writing to critique group which were basically all about me muttering to myself about my issues with writing this story. Only women were there that night... and they all ended up bawling. Me included.
I was a little embarrassed. I didn't even think of what I had written as emotional, but it started feeling that way when I was reading it aloud.
I decided to step back and give myself a few weeks off. Every day last week I sat down at and wrote something entirely new, entirely unrelated to anything I had ever written before. Most days I didn't even have an idea what to write. I just sat down and started typing words and tried to turn them into some sort of story. It felt good. I haven't reviewed any of it, of course. I just felt a little bit of joy at having created something new rather than frustration at having torn apart, revised, rewritten, revised, rewritten...
Of course, it's all about the revisions, right? I mean, honestly, what I have now is tons better than what I sent my poor B-I-L to read last year. And I'd like to think that I have improved it a little even since I sent it to my sister in April. But mostly, I'm still looking at a bunch of scenes that aren't entirely put together to make a story... just yet.
Anyway, I recently made a commitment to have draft three done by December. I have another reader lined up. Actually, I guess this is a renewal of the commitment I made to myself two and a half years ago... to have a submittable manuscript completed by the time bubba hubby completes law school.
The countdown is on. Now I just have to figure out how to get across the finish line.
5 comments:
Wow. I've always enjoyed your writing (from the Themestream days) and your free-writing here was wonderful. I look forward to reading the novel someday more and more.
Here's my words of encouragement, neophyte to masterwordsmith: if you care about your characters, so will others. Or, if you don't care about your characters, you're not doing it write, er, right.
I know this blog is supposed to be all about you, but I would like to ask you some advice. I have been thinking about trying write a novel (well, I think that the technical term is Creative Non-fiction or Memoir) Do you have any advice on how to go about doing this? What is your experience?
Wow! First Sarah calls me a master wordsmith and then K asks for advice! How my ego swells. Thanks for the note, Sarah.
As for advice, K... you obviously already have a way with words. I would read the works of others who are writing what you want to write and find a critique group. Sharing your story with others who are willing to give sound, constructive feedback seems to me the best way to figure out what works and what doesn't. It's also a great motivator.
Thank you for the link to the couple of pages at issue. I can see why those in attendance were crying--it's emotional stuff.
I, too, cannot wait to read the novel when it is finished.
One novel
One chapter
One character
One word
Start with the word and progress from there
One day
One week
One month
One year
One decade
Whatever it takes
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