Added another 400 words to chapter one, plus a ton of rewriting. I am very pleased with what I’ve done, how the novel is progressing again.
I took myself out to breakfast this morning and spent a lot of time journalling about the novel. (FYI — I really think this place could become a Sunday morning habit.)
I spent this morning how I used to spend most of my mornings — deep in thought about the novel. It was fairly easy to take a break when I did, back in August, to stop paying attention to this world I had inside of me, to these voices and characters. I would still have the occasional thought about the novel, but it wasn’t an all consuming thing. Now, these novel thoughts have come back. Seriously — it’s all I can think about in the mornings, in the afternoons, in the evenings. I keep opening up the file that contains the novel, going through what I’ve written, doing more edits and adjustments.
This morning I had a long, hard look at the timeline. I knew I was summarizing, flashing back too often, and repeating stuff as well. I figured out what I need to do instead, how to make the novel more linear, what I needed to shift around, some of the scenes that I need to add, how those scenes should be structured, from whose POV they should be had, the point of those new scenes, how to make them filled with tension, as well as essential to the novel.
I don’t know where these thoughts went when I was taking a break. I know that I distracted myself with the rennovations (which are still going on, BTW — but more pictures to come soon. Might possibly be finished with the kitchen by next weekend — keep your fingers crossed!) I think that the ideas I had about the kitchen and the bathroom, the sort of brainstorming I was doing for them, required some of the same creativity that the novel requires. But in the mornings when I was focused on the kitchen, it was much more of a planning list of “do this, then do this, then I need to do this, and don’t forget about this,” etc. I tend to be a very detail oriented person, and I believe that focusing on those details have helped make the kitchen rennovation a success.
But that’s not the same as creating, as writing fiction. So I don’t know where all that creativity that I now feel flowing again was hiding. Maybe I just needed a break, needed to refill my well, for it to flow again.
I’m also aware that my creativity isn’t overflowing, not yet. It’s like I’m still only 3/4s full of ideas. The words aren’t flowing, not like they used to. I think in part this is just a lack of practice — my writing muscles and my creative thinking muscles are atrophied. I haven’t used them enough recently. Partly I think it’s because I’m still rennovating. I have a lot to do today. I still have kitchen details that are tugging at my attention.
But I also think part of it is that I’m just not ready for the full-on creative binge/obsession thing that happens when I’m deeply into writing. There’s still too much RL shit going on. Like for example, my friend Richard Greenwell died this week. I haven’t seen him for a long while, but we had continued to exchange irregular emails. I will miss him. And last weekend was the one-year anniversary of my mom’s death.
So the writing continues. I’m still amazed by it. Quietly in awe that it’s come back, though on the other hand, I was never too worried about it. I didn’t fret that I had writer’s block or something. (I really feel for those people who do come down with it — I can’t imagine how horrible it must be.) I can’t not write — and this break just kind of proved that to myself again. Which is another good thing.
Hope that all of you are having a wonderful, lovely lazy weekend!
::random smooches and hugs::
obadiah
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JeremyT
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