Then I ignored it for three and a half months.
It's not like I've been doing NO writing. I edited my first MS a bit. And figured out a way to edit it some more as soon as the agents who have it all reject its current form. (So frustrating! Hurry up and reject me already! Unless you don't want to....) I also spent countless hours forcing myself to daydream about what the heck the antagonist in WIP2 could possibly want.
Then, last month, I edited the first chapter for the Publication Primer class at LDStorymakers, coming in May. And my wonderful friend Susan made me realize that my MC didn't have a strong enough motivation. (Stupid wonderful friends, anyway.) So I rewrote MC's back-story a bit. Then a bit more.
And now I need to rewrite quite a bit of the first 50,000 words before I can possibly know what has to happen next. Because the new back-story screws all sorts of things up. In a good way. Unless you're averse to editing. Which I'm not. Really. (Beats writing the first draft!)
Because heaven knows I really ought to be doing SOMETHING with this WIP. Or move on to the other story idea that's been percolating for a few months. (But heaven also knows that I have no idea what anyone wants in that story yet.)
At least I have my butt in the chair and my fingers on the keys.
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| I rode the pony, too, but my pic made me "look" fat. And, yes, it appears we're missing a saddle. Saddles are overrated. |
I ALWAYS have trouble finding the motivation to write, so you're miles ahead of me :) Just keep that butt in that chair and I'm sure you'll figure everything out ...
ReplyDeleteAnd if I don't, I have wonderful friends like you who will point it out!
DeleteI'm excited to get back to my NaNo novel, but I promised myself I would whip Scion into shape before I do anything else. As you may have noticed in the group, I'm still slogging through rewrites on Scion. It's tough, complicated, a real chore (I mean so much fun!)
ReplyDeleteI keep motivated by reminding myself of the big reveals in my novels. I'm proud of them and I believe other folks will find them exciting. I just have to get the middle bits on par with them.
-- david j.
Big reveals are the fun part, aren't they?
DeleteOh! You're not talking about stalling out with that story I SO want to read more of, are you? No!
ReplyDeleteAre you a linear writer, sequential? I tend to be. I have a hard time moving ahead and writing scenes I want and then filling in the blanks. But some people can do that.
No, I'm not stalling. I just have to rewrite a lot of it before I can finish the first draft.
DeleteI try to plan benchmarks and freewrite between them, but this one is giving me trouble. I'm not sure which benchmark should come next. Hopefully I'll figure it out as I rewrite...
Hey, I'm doing Publication Primer too! Maybe we will see each other there. I'm working through what I wrote for NaNo too and I realized that I'm not nearly a good enough free writer for it to work for me like I tried to make it work. Argh.
ReplyDeleteFreewriting ALWAYS means more editing. You can do the work on the front end or the back end, but the work itself is inevitable.
DeleteApparently, Elana Johnson's group got emailed today. I'm so excited to find out who my group leader is! And who's in my group! Aaaaahhhh!
No, but only as long as I have a clear idea of exactly what it is I want or need to write about. It's the idea generator that has me all bent out of shape. You're lucky to have so many ideas brewing!
ReplyDelete