Writing prompt

Today’s writing prompt was, “This is not about. . .” The robber baron of the neighborhood (Ester’s Park is a name that I’m taking for a spin, currently) made his grand appearance today. He owns the fourplex that old Mrs. Stewart lives in (she of the French poodle with the odd buck teeth named after Freddie Mercury), as well as Patty, she who exchanged her life for Madelaine’s, and one other person who hasn’t made an appearance yet. He’s quite jolly, old Hudson. I like him quite well.

Today I didn’t really have a destination when I started writing — it’s Saturday, so I could write as long as I pleased (with only minor interruptions from the kitty.) When the ending showed up I realized I did have a story. It would require major tweaking of the first part — more in tone than in events — but mostly it was there, complete.

When I first started out writing, I learned that if I didn’t have a pretty good idea of where I was going before I started writing, I would never be able to finish a story. However, with these prompts, I’ve found that I don’t always have to have that ending in mind. While I’ve enjoyed the process of discovery, I still find that at least a third of the time if I don’t have an ending before I start, I don’t find one. It’s been good to discover that I can write an ending on the fly, as it were, at least some of the time.

I went through my notebooks today — I’ve written ten stories, so far, about this neighborhood. I’ve written five pieces/scenes of the Alice and Tom story. And I’ve written one other story, the faux fairytale, that could be shaped into something saleable, at some point.

When I started the writing prompts, I told myself that I only had to do them for a month. Today’s the 22nd — a month will be up on the 26th. While they’ve been fun, and a great way to limber up my writing muscles, as well as build back up some discipline, I’m considering what I should do come the 26th. I know I “should” get back to the novel. I do love some of what’s there already. I feel as though I need to rewrite huge chunks of it as well. However, the writing prompts are more for generating new material, not rewriting existing stuff.

A part of me would like to try using the writing prompts to generate new material for the novel. Just take whatever it is that shows up that day for the prompt and adapt it to whatever I’m writing in the novel. I’m actually quite taken with this idea. The problem is getting through the rewrites until I’m at a point where I can start generating new material again. I think, though, that even if I do use these for the novel, some mornings I’d still have to write whatever or whoever else showed up.

One of the things that I’ve discovered recently is an itching desire to finish things. All the writing prompts are more or less exercises. They’re good for being exercises, but all of them need work to be fiction that I’d show to anyone. So I’ve decided to do the same sort of disciplined thing in the evenings. Every night, for a timed 30 minutes, I am going to work on rewriting — either the novel or the stories. I don’t have to do any more than that, though I can if I want to. The problem isn’t so much my social life (though that is a concern some nights.) It’s more a question of energy. I think I used to have nearly boundless energy. But since my body went haywire, I find I’m exhausted at night — I can’t concentrate, can’t read. Even watching TV takes too much energy. So I’m going to try the 30 minutes of finishing, I’m going to commit to doing it every night, but I’m not going to kick myself too hard if I can’t do it some nights.

I hope that ya’ll are having a lovely weekend. The weather is *gorgeous* here today. I went and took a nice walk — and now, I think it’s time for a nap.