Saturday, August 3, 2013

Not loving it


A couple weeks back I shared Peter Stenson's ideas about creating a compelling story. Part of it is just forcing you to sit down at the keyboard and write. Nothing tough about that, assuming you have no other life, no other people in that life, and none of those people with demands on your time.

I've been good. Except for a few occasions, I've been writing every day. Been keeping a writing log, too, so I can prove it. With Carol Williams' marathon starting tomorrow, I set a 90-minute writing goal for one project and just to get off on the write foot, I've met or exceeded it.

The other part of Stenson's savvy words is harder to achieve. He said to give yourself over to your novel. You should live, breathe, drink you story all day long. Talk to your characters, allow yourself to think like them.

That's the place I'm not yet at. I dutifully do my 90 minutes then put them away until the next day. I've compartmentalized. These little chores around the house are stored in this box, my relationship with this person in that one, and my novel neatly packaged away over there. It's good for the rest of my life but not for my writing.

Some things I've written as Stenson suggests. The story rattles around in the brain long after the computer has been shut down. I miss that.

I was talking to Ann Dee Ellis and Cheri Pray Earl about this one time. Ann Dee loves the revision part and is not keen on the original story. I told her I felt the opposite. I like the initial laying down of the story and only put up with the revision. At least it used to. On the current project, I miss that, too.


(This article also posted at http://writetimeluck.blogspot.com )

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