Tuesday, April 5, 2016

The Jumping Off Point

"What happened to the blog?" You asked some time ago.

Relevancy Drives the Process

Besides the obvious answer (I got busy with something else), the part in the last post about revising the outline to make it more personal and relevant took sudden and almost immediate control over the story development. I know, that's a big shocker! I shrugged off writing the blog one day so I could rewrite the outline, and then I completely forgot about it.
An urgency to write about a very different outline tugged at the core of my being. Not wanting to give up the original outline, but unable to ignore the new one, I squished the outlines together like shuffling two stacks of playing cards. Then I reworked it until the pieces became cohesive. Asking a series of critical questions about how each element could fit together helped this merge. And then one day, a new, stronger creature emerged.

Writing a First Draft

Another day near the end of summer, I moved the story folder over, and I started writing. I feared the words would not come after all of that planning, and I did have to break through the crust, but it was somewhat like driving. I knew where I wanted to go (thank you, outline!) and building momentum from free-writing and then writing according to a minimum daily goal pushed me forward into the beyond. I had not forgotten how to write. That fall I joined NANOWRIMO, which pushed me further to crank out words, and, in the afterglow of NANOWRIMO, months later I nearly finished a first draft. It took a trip to the actual setting for a week to finish in a flurry of hair-pulling, tears/laughter, and OMG, it's done. Since I had granted myself that work-vacation week before I started back to a different job, I think you can guess the inevitable (I got busy). However, I did print the draft and mark up sentence-level edits during that time.

Preparing to Write the Second Draft

I set aside the first draft because of life situation, but I discovered the power of digesting the work over time. I have a fresh eye and a sensitivity to what a reader might think about the draft. I can edit with something closer to honest detachment.
And now, I once again have a little time to commit to writing fiction. There will be more to come... indeed, there will be more to come.