Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Yes, yes, the writing...


As promised, I'm delivering my writing update post. This week I turned a bit of a corner in the novel writing. Up to date I feel as if I've been flailing about haphazardly writing sections of the novel as inspiration hits. I have begun 11 different chapters (out of the 15 planned) and have thusfar not finished one of them. I wanted to make sure I got down my thoughts about each section as they came--and I know some writers work in this way--but I was starting to feel overwhelmed by the growing mass of unorganized writing. I spent the last two weeks sorting through what I'd written, tossing some of it, revising other parts, and typing up all the handwritten parts. I now have it in one folder on my mac with each chapter labeled properly (I'm nothing if not organized). I decided this week I would buckle down and start from the beginning of the novel allowing no digression from "the writing plan." Of course I digressed immediately yesterday, as is my way. I'm very organized, but I'm also a procrastining chaotic writer. (Very interesting combination as the husband can tell you.) I found two sections that I hadn't typed up yet because they had been marked as "rewrite/keep?" meaning I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep them, and if so they needed rewriting (always fun). As I reread them, I realized they were jewels worth the rewriting. I completed the rewrites yesterday, and to my delight I decided one of them made a perfect ending, which I've been vacillating on for ages. So all wasn't lost for the plan yet, which brings me to today, the new official "start from the beginning" day. My first chapter is my favorite so far, and it is the only chapter that anyone has read, so I had a really hard time trying to fill it out. It really needs more detail, but it was hard to know where to begin. After deliberating for awhile, I finally got the creative juices flowing after taking Drew for a long walk, but on the whole I didn't get a lot written today. I plan on working a little more this evening to finish what I started, but tomorrow is another day.

Tonight we watch The Departed.

2 comments:

Kristen @ frostingandfroth.com said...

Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy! PLEASE say this means I get to read another section soon! Yes?

AAAAHHHH! You're a writer, girlie!!!

Joseph R. Ruthruff said...

It's exciting to hear the progress you've made on the writing. Even if you haven't finished a section, having started 11 of 15 is fantastic. Keep us posted? (Particularly Kris, since she's one of your readers. ;))