Out Of Order

I wrote a scene out of order. The world didn't explode. Yet.

Yesterday I went to Barnes and Noble to pick up some research books for the D&D series. It's amazing to me how many different topics I need to read about for one setting. Deb says it's a "groovy" setting. I like it, but might have chosen differently had I known. No, that's not true. I do really like the setting.

The characters are becoming a lot more real to me as I go. I guess that's the nature of the game since the same thing happened with HM. It's one of the things that's so much fun about writing for me. Like making new friends.

One Scene at a Time

Yesterday I picked up a magazine on yoga and another on herbal and holistic medicine. I haven't been able to find one on aromatherapy that is published in the US. There are some from Australian and UK, but they are expensive. Maybe I'll see if an inexpensive book on the subject. Must be one.

D&D is moving slowly, but moving. I don't seem to be able to write more than one scene at a time. What's strange is that I find myself wanting to write them out of order. I haven't so far, but I might get a little crazy and try it. I think it would make for a choppy book that needs much more revision. But it's going to need revision anyway.

Have any of you tried writing out of order? Does it help or hinder?

Preparation

Yesterday I figured out why I was having trouble getting beyond the first few pages of D&D. Lack of preparation. I did my spa research. (And in a future post I'll talk about just how much I'd like to visit a few.) I did my character sketches for the main characters. I know who gets murdered and whodunnit. So what was missing?

My scene outline. I know a lot of writers just wing it. Or they can plot out mentally and be okay working from that. I have to have an outline in writing. It's not detailed to begin with, but I have to know where my "turns" are, as Jenny calls them. And it's nice to have a list of scenes I know I'll need. So yesterday I wrote the outline and made a list of scenes. I know I'll be adding as I go, but just having the basics down let me relax enough to prewrite two scenes.

Are there certain things you need to do before you can begin? Or can you freestyle all the way through?

Artist's Way Check-in, Week 10

It's amazing that I'm this close to the end. I've realized that it's a program I'll probably be doing in some form from now on.

Week 10 is Recovering a Sense of Self-Protection. I'm looking at the things that I tend to let interfere with my writing. Sometimes it feels like everything. I have been reminded of a question I came across in another book. "How does it serve you?" The book was about a woman's quest for self-discovery. She suffered from several chronic illnesses. When she talked to a healer, he asked her, "How does your disease serve you?" Her first reaction was anger. Naturally. Then she thought about it. She got a lot of sympathy from family and friends. She had a ready excuse for not participating in things. Etc.

I had forgotten about that question. Now I have a Post-It on my workstation. When I complain about something (or someone) infringing on my writing time, I'll ask myself the question.

Do you have something or someone who eats up your writing time? How does it serve you to allow it?

More Conflict!

I am very close to finishing the first draft of HM. Almost too close. At the rate I'm going, it will be less than 200 pages long. However, I suddenly realized yesterday that I still need to add more conflict. The good news it that I know exactly where to add it. This time I will finish it as is and go back and add a little later--just prior to letting people read it.

I did not have my revelation during Morning Pages, which I am continuing to write daily, but not long after finishing them. Connection? Possibly. I am just happy to have had it. I think the more conflict, the better.

I think it's interesting studying one's own process or processes in some cases. The Writing Nag posted the other day about writing being like sculpting. You start with a large block of marble and chip away the extraneous. Someone commented that they write skinny first drafts and add on as they revise so they thought the analogy did not apply to them. I, obviously, build as I go. I know Deb does, too. Deb responded that the sculpting analogy applies if you look at it as working in clay rather than marble. Sometimes you add on, sometimes you scrape away.

Is your writing process more like sculpting in marble or clay? Or is it more like painting a picture, with daubs of paint layering one on top of the other?

The Refresh of Shame

...as John calls it.

I know I've been absent for a while. That's how I've felt. Absent from my writing. And it is very frustrating after the rush of creativity in November. There should have been momentum, but everything came to a dead halt in December. Work has been much busier with the end of the year, but it doesn't account for all of it.

Jenny posted about another metaphor for "filling the well". Her grape metaphor comes close. But I feel more like a balloon that's been deflated. Not a slow leak either. It's like someone just let go. Maybe they let go mid-month last month. The creative burst was me flying around the room.

The dogs are here right now so I'm pretty distracted still. Maybe I should just wait and be conventional. Start again in January. That's what a new year is for, yes? I got a couple award-winning mysteries for Christmas. Sounds like a good week to just read. Maybe that will put some more air in me.

A Good Walk

Yesterday morning, before I started cooking for Thanksgiving, I went for a walk around the neighborhood. It was well below freezing, but beautiful. Clear blue skies with Canada Geese flying in formation. Neighbors also out walking, smiling and saying, "Good morning."

As I walked I tried to prewrite on HM. I couldn't. "But what's next?" Then I realized that I'm doing a "next" scene right now. It's time to rewrite the rejiggered first part in order to be able to "next". It was a good feeling. Because it means that I feel like HM is now in the right shape. Working on a new scene would, at best, be distracting from the task at hand. At worst, it would be a wasted effort because it might not fit with the newly reformed front part. I'm not so structured that I don't think I could find a new, and improved, tangent while I retype.

I thought I was in a bad place right now with HM. But not so. It's where it needs to be. It was a very good walk.

Scenes

I spent yesterday afternoon listing scenes for HM then arranging and rearranging. It looks like it won't be as spare as I feared for a while. I have a lot going on Sloan and Shannon and a few things with Caleb and Jenny. Instead of introducing a suspect and then dismissing him or her and introducing the next, I have them all jumbled up now.

Overall a productive weekend without gaining any wordcount. I can live with that. For now.

Working For The Weekend

I printed out HM last night on green paper. I'm trying Jenny's method of different colors of paper for different drafts. It's a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. Tomorrow I will pull it apart, rearrange it and start the retyping process. The plan is to do that quickly enough that I can add some more pages before the end of the month.

We usually get an extra day or two around a holiday. The boss likes to have a skeleton crew in case a customer calls in so we to have to alternate. Deb's asking for Wednesday since her sister will be out of town. That will probably mean I get the Monday after Thanksgiving. Either way is nice and gives me an extra day to write. And with the Monday, I won't be worrying about cleaning for company or precooking anything.

Weekends are nice. Long weekends are wonderful. Extra long weekends are heaven.

Tangles

My new subplots and tightening of the timeline, while positive changes, now have me totally confused about which day is which and who was interviewed when. I was going to start another book, but I just can't bring myself to do that before I finish this one. At least a first draft. Writing in circles doesn't appeal to me either. I think I need to stop, print out what I have and get it in order. I will be retyping it in order to keep track of the plot. Then I can continue.

Depending on how long that takes, I may be done with NaNoWriMo for this year. I am more interested in finishing HM and doing it right than in doing it quickly. Even if quickly would have been nice.

Writing Without Actually Writing

Deb just left my office. She was giving me grief about not updating the blog more often. Of course, she hit the proverbial nail when she suggested that when I'm don't write, I don't blog. I haven't been writing. Well, I haven't been getting words on paper. But I have been thinking about stories. How do I quantify that?

Here are some of the things I've been working out for HM:

--Sloan's relationship with Jenny. When does he acknowledge that she's more than his daughter's godmother?
--How much should the blizzard impact the story?
--Do I need to deal with Caleb's position being an elected one?
--How many deputies would he realistically have?
--What does the area around the quilt shop look like?

For D&D:

--Where does their money come from?
--How many employees are there?
--What kind of licensing do they need?
--What are the packages they offer?

For TOO (The Other One--I don't have a name yet):

--Should it be on a real street in Pueblo or should I make one up?
--What is the name of the shop?
--I can see the protagonist but don't know her name yet.
--What is she retired from that would give her enough money to open this shop?

When I spell it out like that, it looks like I have been working. I don't have answers to everything yet, but at least I know the questions. And with the boss out today, I may be able to answer some of the questions. Or put words on paper and really feel like I've accomplished something.

Unexpected Results

On Monday I thought that I would be lucky to get through 25 pages of revisions. I am well past that already. What happened? I wish I knew. I just seemed to get in the zone, and things started to flow. Fingers crossed that it continues. I'm always afraid that once I realize the writing is easy, it won't be any more.

Have you been able to identify what can put you in the zone? Or is it something different every time?

Process Improvement

A few years ago I worked at MCI/Worldcom. Back before The Big Layoff of 2002. I was part of group whose responsibility was to improve processes. Specifically invoicing processes, but we also were asked to help with many other kinds of processes.

Shane's very funny, and amazingly accurate, post did save a lot of time and effort for Deb and me. So, I will agree to write one article and see not only how much time it takes, but what impact it has on my other writing. Then I'll decide if I want to become a columnist.

Thanks for cutting to the chase, Shane! And for a good laugh yesterday.

Getting to The End

Interesting First Monday last night. There was some great discussion about Deb's book, which I've read and like, but have a hard time with all the characters at the beginning. Then we moved on to our usual format.

Deb and Jenny spent a lot of time trying to figure out how the Harry Potter series will end. I guess I'll have to read the books one of these days. The movies are okay. I'm not sure why I've resisted reading them so much. Maybe it's all the hype around them.

Someone asked me about HM. I told them about the problems I'm having with just wanting to end it even though it's far too short. Shane asked if it wouldn't be okay to write the beginning, then the end, then the middle. I don't see why not.

I think that's what I'm going to do. I have a five-day weekend to put it in practice. Maybe that will be my process. Maybe not. But I feel like I need to experiment and the first book is the place to do that.