The evening before Thanksgiving I went to talk with a novel writing class about being a published novelist, basically telling them my story as well as general information about the publishing industry, things that I know and take for granted (like that there are only a few big publishing houses left, even fewer distribution channels, etc.)
Thanksgiving was lovely. I spent a lot of time goofing off, and about 30 minutes writing the novel. I made pumpkin pie (starting with raw pumpkin, instead of canned.) Dinner was with a group of friends. The food was great, as was the company. I came home a bit early though, as I really wanted some time on my own. I managed a few hundred words on the short story, and went to bed early, sleeping a long time.
Today I went to the tea shop. I was planning on writing about 2000 words of chapter nine, then doing the other 2000 tomorrow. But I kept missing this or that — I’d write a little, then realize I’d skipped a scene, would write the scene, then have to pick up again where I’d left off or I’d be lost. And then, after the last big rewrite, I was so close to finishing. . .I just finished. Total word count for the day — about 4000 words.
Ow.
There’s a reason why my hand/arm/shoulder hurts. 22 hand written pages. I’m actually very, very pleased with the chapter.
In this chapter, there’s a great siege at a city. Now, the Heroes(TM) don’t want the city to fall. I felt like my choices were:
A) The city walls stand, but only through great personal sacrifice (and possible death) of another character
B) The city walls fall, but someone makes great personal sacrifice (and possible death) to make it all okay (or there’s a rescue at the end — see LoTR, TTT)
C) The city walls fall and everything is fucked
A & B felt very cliched to me. C didn’t fit right with this place in the novel — while it would cause the characters much pain and suffering, which is good, it was still too much at this point. And what pain and suffering would have been felt would have been uneven — not felt as deeply by some of the characters as by others.
And then, I figured out another choice:
D) Something unexpected occurs, which in retrospect makes perfect sense, and so the Heroes(TM) win the battle but their personal situation is suddenly much, much worse
You can probably guess which choice I took.
After I finished writing I went for a nice, long, four mile walk at training speed (a few of you know just how fast that is.) It felt wonderful. And helped with the above mentioned pain.
Tonight, I prepare the paper that I’ll use for marbling tomorrow. Tomorrow — well — I have to decide what I’m doing tomorrow. I’m excited about the next chapter. I know much of the first scene of the chapter, as well as the end of the chapter. And I’m going to have so much fun coming up with the rest of it.
However, I also want to write that story.
I’ve been composing this story directly on the computer. It’s been driving me crazy. I hate it, hate doing it. I keep rewriting, adding to what’s there instead of moving ahead. It’s ugly, and clunky, and there’s very little of the atmosphere that this story needs.
What I need to do is to start the story over, from scratch. I need to stop trying to force the story into what I think it should be and let the story be what it wants to be — which is probably a 6000 words story instead of the 3000 words I keep trying to make it. I need to just let it flow. I need to take a day or two and sit down and just write the thing.
However, this means I need to take time off from the novel. I’d told myself that I only needed to finish chapter nine this weekend. Now, I’ve done that. So do I switch over and write the story Saturday and Sunday? Or do I write (and finish) chapter ten this weekend, then let it sit while I write the story? Or do I write chapter ten this weekend, type up chapter ten next week, and write the story next weekend while I stew on what should happen next in the novel.
I’ll decide what I’m doing tomorrow, actually.
Now — onto the paper marbling!
Tomorrow.