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.
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