I apologize in advance if this entry is not perfectly written. As I write this, I'm lying on my couch where my cat has decided that my right arm would make a cozy resting spot. I don't have the heart to move him.
My last writing session was a little more productive. I suppose I've had to retrain myself to sit down and do it and also remember what works best for me. I don't know why I didn't immediately start doing this earlier: I do have a general outline to tell me what will happen through the entire story, but that is not the only one I like to use. When I sit down to start a scene or a chapter I like to create one specifically for what I'm about to write. This one goes into more detail and includes more snippets of conversation. The reason I like to do this is pretty much the same reason why I'm trying not to edit as I go. I don't want to bog myself down with thinking up the best way to write it.
When I try to write in full paragraphs I usually will close my eyes and trying to put
myself in my characters' shoes. What are they thinking now? What might
bug them? What are they trying to do? That certainly needs to be done,
but sometimes it slows me down some and makes writing a little tougher if I start out that way,
at least for me. If I flesh out exactly what happens in a scene first
I can get it all out before I forget my ideas or get too worn down
trying to write something polished.
My dialogue in particularly
improves with this method. I write that best if I write it fast, at the speed that
the exchange might realistically happen. It gets unnatural if I slow it
down by typing out what the characters are doing physically at the
moment or the emotions they experience. Plus, this gives me the added
bonus of making my dialogue a more realistic length. Otherwise my
exchanges tend to be just a few lines long each, mainly because they
become too succinct (let's face it, none of us are very good at getting
straight to the point when we speak. It just doesn't happen.) I don't want my characters to talk in too many circles, but somehow I find balance here.
Then I write it out with more flow, connecting the bits of conversation into a larger picture, anchoring it into a physical world, adding more details. I can close my eyes and see how it should really happen... and change whatever I may realize does not work after all.
I should note that this might not be the best method for everyone to use. If I have learned anything in my time writing so far it is that everyone has their own strategies that work for them. Some people don't plan their stories at all. Some people write their best work with music that matches the mood they are trying to depict while others (me) either get horribly distracted by it or else forget there is even anything playing.
I am not done writing for the day. I've got other things to do, but I'm planning on writing a little more tonight before I go to bed.
Shortly after I decided to write this novel I talked about it with a few
of my friends. One of them told me that she had also finally decided
to do something she'd been considering for a long time: start a YouTube
channel. Well, she has put up her introductory video and I am very much
looking forward to seeing what she does with it. You can check it out
here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seWLkH8fnB4&feature=plcp&context=C3337ad1UDOEgsToPDskJEiUce3jusu3plyi3eMoZC
I think I have also figured out something else I'd like to accomplish with this blog. During the years when I was only wishing I was writing a novel I visited site after site about writing. Some were inspirational, some gave advice, some focused on writing technique and others on publishing. I am going to try to pass this information on to those who read my blog with the hope that anyone else out there wants to try to write something and either does not have the courage to try or else does not know how to start can also take this leap. My link for today will take you to a TED talk. I'm obsessed with these. This one is a presentation by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love. Since the video on the TED talk site does not seem to be working, here it is on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA
Phew. Long post and my cat is still balanced on my arm.
Words written today (so far): 938
Total word count: 2469 (1/36 of the way to 90,000!)
Monday, January 16, 2012
Friday, January 13, 2012
Day 7: Pushing through
I've read that you should just push through your first draft of a novel without worrying about double-checking facts or making sure that you are writing something polished. You should just get the story written and therefore it will be, frankly, pretty bad. The good news is that means that my book is exactly where it should be right now. Maybe I'm being over-dramatic--in fact that's very likely, but after sitting at my computer for an hour and writing something that I believe uses some pretty rookie elements... I'm not so sure I'm happy with what I've just written. I am still setting the story up for the real conflict to develop, though, and until I find a rhythm I know it will be rocky. I've got to keep pushing.
It's almost the weekend, though. I get Monday off so I'm hoping that over the extended weekend I'll be able to get out of this funk and keep writing. Normally I write much more in a given writing session, but I just don't have it in me right now.
Words written today: 516
Total word count: 1531
It's almost the weekend, though. I get Monday off so I'm hoping that over the extended weekend I'll be able to get out of this funk and keep writing. Normally I write much more in a given writing session, but I just don't have it in me right now.
Words written today: 516
Total word count: 1531
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Days 5-6:
I have had a couple people let me know that they had read my blog. It's nice knowing I'm not just writing this and putting it out into nothingness. Twelve people read my my last blog entry the day I posted it, plus a few since then. Not too shabby, eh?
I've been discovering the importance of having a set schedule for writing, because I have not been doing a good job of writing consistently. Actually to say 'writing' would be a lie. I've more been trying to figure out a few issues with my plot-line. The problem is that I've hit some sort of wall already. I don't have enough momentum yet to see exactly what is going to happen next. In those first words I have written I tried to jump right into the action, writing about the events that set the whole book in motion. If that led straight to the rest of the rising action I'd be in great shape, but it doesn't exactly. In my book it does not make sense to do that, and plus I've got to establish a little more of a base first. I don't plan to have the story linger on that for long because I don't want things to move slowly. Once I can get past that I think the story will start to write itself. I hope. Cross your fingers for me!
Tonight I am going to force myself to sit down and write, not plan. I need to download one of those programs that turns off my access to the internet for a period of time to make sure I don't get distracted. Stumbleupon is henceforth my enemy.
Before I end this blog entry, I want to post a link. For those who haven't heard of him, Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon who died of pancreatic cancer in 2008. Before he died, he gave a lecture called Really Achieving your Childhood Dreams (famously known as The Last Lecture). If you are like I had been and had heard about it but not seen it, please watch it. The professor for my lab wanted me to watch it when I started my job, and I recently re-watched it with my novel in mind. It is phenomenal. Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
I've been discovering the importance of having a set schedule for writing, because I have not been doing a good job of writing consistently. Actually to say 'writing' would be a lie. I've more been trying to figure out a few issues with my plot-line. The problem is that I've hit some sort of wall already. I don't have enough momentum yet to see exactly what is going to happen next. In those first words I have written I tried to jump right into the action, writing about the events that set the whole book in motion. If that led straight to the rest of the rising action I'd be in great shape, but it doesn't exactly. In my book it does not make sense to do that, and plus I've got to establish a little more of a base first. I don't plan to have the story linger on that for long because I don't want things to move slowly. Once I can get past that I think the story will start to write itself. I hope. Cross your fingers for me!
Tonight I am going to force myself to sit down and write, not plan. I need to download one of those programs that turns off my access to the internet for a period of time to make sure I don't get distracted. Stumbleupon is henceforth my enemy.
Before I end this blog entry, I want to post a link. For those who haven't heard of him, Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon who died of pancreatic cancer in 2008. Before he died, he gave a lecture called Really Achieving your Childhood Dreams (famously known as The Last Lecture). If you are like I had been and had heard about it but not seen it, please watch it. The professor for my lab wanted me to watch it when I started my job, and I recently re-watched it with my novel in mind. It is phenomenal. Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Day 4: Starting the word count tally
Today has been an improvement over the past couple days of ruminating over what to do. I was trying to figure out a few more details, thinking that I would need a little more information on what I was doing before I could start, and I realized that I needed to jump into actually writing it. Coming up with the plot was exciting and exhilarating because I had 10 ideas flying at me at once, each competing to be the next one written down and saved. It was the honeymoon phase. After the major plot points were figured out things started to move more slowly. I wasn't sure what to do with my main character's life at home. That might not be the most exciting part of my novel, but it is certainly important and I want to find something fun to do with it so that it will be more enjoyable for other people to read.
Anyway, that had been bogging me down and I realized that I didn't need to know all that yet. I can start writing and those ideas would come to be eventually. Once the need to address those unknown parts of my story arises I'll have more context to figure out what fits. Thus, I wrote my first few pages. It's not much yet, but I broke a thousand words.
It was hard to come up with an opening paragraph, because every author is pressured to come up with a genius idea for one. It's what gives the reader a first impression and sets the tone for the novel. That's a ridiculous amount of importance for just a few sentences! I came up with a first shot at it, but who knows if I will keep it. I'm guessing it will change dramatically by the end. Once I got that first paragraph it got much easier.
I am very excited to say that I have joined writing forces with a good friend of mine. Manny, who I've known for a few years now, had told me before that she would love to write a novel as well. After I mentioned this idea to her she told me she would try to start hers as well. The great thing is that I now have someone with writing experience to swap stories with. Since I know my first drafts won't be great it is a relief to know I've got someone to show my story who understands that what I first write is not my best work.
I do plan to eventually try to join some sort of writing group around campus. I need to take advantages of the other resources available on campus here while I've still got them. I just don't think I'll feel ready for that until I've got a bigger chunk of this written. We'll see.
Total Word Count: 1015
Anyway, that had been bogging me down and I realized that I didn't need to know all that yet. I can start writing and those ideas would come to be eventually. Once the need to address those unknown parts of my story arises I'll have more context to figure out what fits. Thus, I wrote my first few pages. It's not much yet, but I broke a thousand words.
It was hard to come up with an opening paragraph, because every author is pressured to come up with a genius idea for one. It's what gives the reader a first impression and sets the tone for the novel. That's a ridiculous amount of importance for just a few sentences! I came up with a first shot at it, but who knows if I will keep it. I'm guessing it will change dramatically by the end. Once I got that first paragraph it got much easier.
I am very excited to say that I have joined writing forces with a good friend of mine. Manny, who I've known for a few years now, had told me before that she would love to write a novel as well. After I mentioned this idea to her she told me she would try to start hers as well. The great thing is that I now have someone with writing experience to swap stories with. Since I know my first drafts won't be great it is a relief to know I've got someone to show my story who understands that what I first write is not my best work.
I do plan to eventually try to join some sort of writing group around campus. I need to take advantages of the other resources available on campus here while I've still got them. I just don't think I'll feel ready for that until I've got a bigger chunk of this written. We'll see.
Total Word Count: 1015
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Days 2-3: Character profiles
I hadn't originally planned to tell anyone about this blog, but I did. I was hoping that if people knew what I was working on it'd help motivate me to work, but I do get embarrassed about my writing, I admit. Usually I'm pretty secretive that I'm even writing at all. The response has already made me bashful. Thank you everyone for your encouragement. I hope you all like my blog.
Yesterday and today I have done a little work creating some character profiles. It's easier for me to see if I've got both enough information and enough unique details to make a character feel real if I have it all written out, rather than writing from the seat of my pants. I try to make sure I know how the character responds to stress, what their quirks and mannerisms are, and their histories. I also write down the information on how I visualize them in my head: eye color, hair, distinguishing features. I'm hoping to get more information about them hammered out than I will actually use because I want a firm grasp on who they are. It will make everything much more consistent and (hopefully) believable. Odds are, though, that I won't be including nearly as much information as I'll have about them in the novel.
I've also started reading Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card (author of the Ender's Game books). I do feel like I'm pretty good at creating characters, but I really want to make sure I've got them down. Hence the book. The characters are easily one of the most important parts of a book, in my opinion, because their personality and characteristics usually determine where the plot goes. You may want your main character to elope with someone, but realistically they might not do it if they're family-oriented and have a little sibling back home. Plus, I've never carried through with a book who didn't have a character that I could believe and root for.
One of my main characters is a little elusive for some reason. I can't quick lock down how I envision him. I think it is because nothing I've though up yet quite fits. I've got enough, though for most of my other major characters, or at least enough to get started. I'm getting antsy and really want to start writing, so I don't think I'll let myself wait much longer. I don't want to get stuck in the planning because things are going to change as I go according to what feels right anyway. I'm hoping that as soon as I'm comfortable with that one male character that I will feel ready to start.
Before I call it quits for the day, I'd like to acknowledge my grandmother. She is a major reason why I have decided to start writing this. Back when I was taking creative writing classes and writing short stories she gave me some of the best critiques as well as encouragements. She was the one who made me feel like I have the potential to write this, and made me see what a waste it would be not to do something with my love for writing. Thank you, Grandma.
Yesterday and today I have done a little work creating some character profiles. It's easier for me to see if I've got both enough information and enough unique details to make a character feel real if I have it all written out, rather than writing from the seat of my pants. I try to make sure I know how the character responds to stress, what their quirks and mannerisms are, and their histories. I also write down the information on how I visualize them in my head: eye color, hair, distinguishing features. I'm hoping to get more information about them hammered out than I will actually use because I want a firm grasp on who they are. It will make everything much more consistent and (hopefully) believable. Odds are, though, that I won't be including nearly as much information as I'll have about them in the novel.
I've also started reading Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card (author of the Ender's Game books). I do feel like I'm pretty good at creating characters, but I really want to make sure I've got them down. Hence the book. The characters are easily one of the most important parts of a book, in my opinion, because their personality and characteristics usually determine where the plot goes. You may want your main character to elope with someone, but realistically they might not do it if they're family-oriented and have a little sibling back home. Plus, I've never carried through with a book who didn't have a character that I could believe and root for.
One of my main characters is a little elusive for some reason. I can't quick lock down how I envision him. I think it is because nothing I've though up yet quite fits. I've got enough, though for most of my other major characters, or at least enough to get started. I'm getting antsy and really want to start writing, so I don't think I'll let myself wait much longer. I don't want to get stuck in the planning because things are going to change as I go according to what feels right anyway. I'm hoping that as soon as I'm comfortable with that one male character that I will feel ready to start.
Before I call it quits for the day, I'd like to acknowledge my grandmother. She is a major reason why I have decided to start writing this. Back when I was taking creative writing classes and writing short stories she gave me some of the best critiques as well as encouragements. She was the one who made me feel like I have the potential to write this, and made me see what a waste it would be not to do something with my love for writing. Thank you, Grandma.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Day 1: Outlining
Starting off, I know this isn't technically Day1 for me since I have already put a decent amount of thought into this novel I want to write. I figure that since this is my first day really working with a strong intent to see this through, this works just as well as my Day 1.
I was going to do a little more research for my first day of work, but I decided I needed a better idea of the specific questions I would have to answer, first. Plus, I figured I needed something a little more exciting to get me going. That is why I spent about 2 and a half hours writing up an outline. I find that my plots are much better when I plan it out a little ahead of time. It gives me the opportunity to have details show up at one point of the story and then pop up later with a twist. Without it, I couldn't make my stories nearly as complex. That is not to say that I am going to stick to it. In fact, I am counting on myself diverting from it a few times and changing it around. If I have a certain inspiration or if I realize that a character would act differently than I originally planned, I don't want to be stuck to a perfectly defined path. My outline is more a loose idea of my path.
My outline right now is 2,945 words long, and I feel like it's got all the main points I want to hit and the feelings I want to convey at certain points of the plot. It makes me feel pretty good looking at that number, because I know there are things that will end up in the novel that I have not thought of yet. Without those unknown plot details, I could have a lengthy-enough novel if I were to multiply that by 30. Although a novel is traditionally thought to be at least 60,000 words long, I'd like to hit 80-90,000. I'd like to think I could hit that range.
An unexpected benefit to this outlining: normally, I think my writing suffers from not having enough characters. I would like to think that my characters are real enough, but I usually am a little lazy with creating others. Through writing this outline, not only was I hit with inspiration for plots I had not thought about before, but I thought of relevant ways to bring in a few other characters. Now I just have to find ways to keep them from making simple brief appearances.
I'm cautiously optimistic as of right now. If I can keep this momentum up, I will be in really good shape to make my resolution.
I was going to do a little more research for my first day of work, but I decided I needed a better idea of the specific questions I would have to answer, first. Plus, I figured I needed something a little more exciting to get me going. That is why I spent about 2 and a half hours writing up an outline. I find that my plots are much better when I plan it out a little ahead of time. It gives me the opportunity to have details show up at one point of the story and then pop up later with a twist. Without it, I couldn't make my stories nearly as complex. That is not to say that I am going to stick to it. In fact, I am counting on myself diverting from it a few times and changing it around. If I have a certain inspiration or if I realize that a character would act differently than I originally planned, I don't want to be stuck to a perfectly defined path. My outline is more a loose idea of my path.
My outline right now is 2,945 words long, and I feel like it's got all the main points I want to hit and the feelings I want to convey at certain points of the plot. It makes me feel pretty good looking at that number, because I know there are things that will end up in the novel that I have not thought of yet. Without those unknown plot details, I could have a lengthy-enough novel if I were to multiply that by 30. Although a novel is traditionally thought to be at least 60,000 words long, I'd like to hit 80-90,000. I'd like to think I could hit that range.
An unexpected benefit to this outlining: normally, I think my writing suffers from not having enough characters. I would like to think that my characters are real enough, but I usually am a little lazy with creating others. Through writing this outline, not only was I hit with inspiration for plots I had not thought about before, but I thought of relevant ways to bring in a few other characters. Now I just have to find ways to keep them from making simple brief appearances.
I'm cautiously optimistic as of right now. If I can keep this momentum up, I will be in really good shape to make my resolution.
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