I’m writing the current book from a very short outline, mainly just a few characters, the setting, and the basic conflict, so I’m having to figure out a lot of stuff as I go along. This is fun, but it’s also dangerous, at least for me, because I have a tendency to think of something, go “Oh, that’s cool”, and write it without thinking it through. This often results in overcomplication, as I mentioned yesterday. It also sometimes results in prose that’s just vamping while I try to think of what should happen next, and I have to go back and take it out later. Today, though, I figured out the structure of the rest of the book and started making notes at the end of the pages I’ve already written. I do that on almost every book, think of something that needs to happen later and make a note about it right there at the end of the file so I can’t forget it. Now that I know how the plot needs to break down the rest of the way, I hope that the book will roll right along.
Today’s page count: 15. I had some non-writing issues to deal with, too.
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2 comments:
I always sneer when people say writing what we do is easy because it's formulaic. If that's true I wish somebody'd send the the formula right quick. I've been having migraines because for a month and a half I've been pitching pages on a book I can't yet master. Your words were encouraging.
The problem is that any formulas for genre fiction only have to do with how the books are structured in the most general sense. There aren't any formulas for making plots make sense or characters live and breathe.
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