Many of you have encouraged me in starting my new WIP, and I've been asked what my word count goal is.
I'd like to write 1,250 words per day, 5 days a week. That's really not many words a day. Easily accomplished. But I have a lot of research to do that will eat up much of my writing time. And this goal will give me a 50,000 word rough draft by the end of October. I can then flesh that out to somewhere between 80 and 100k.
And it will need fleshing out. I'm more than a little troubled by the skeleton scenes that I'm producing. In everything else I've written, full scenes have appeared. They weren't as textured as they needed to be, but they were complete scenes.
What I'm writing now is in more of an outline form. But not. It's the footprints for what action needs to take place in each scene. I guess I'll build the body later. Lots of people write like that, but I'm not one of them. This is different for me. And that's why, so very many months ago, when I started typing out scenes like this, I quit. I've lost it. I can't write anymore.
But that's not the case. At least I hope not. This is just a different book for me. First of all, it's based on a true story. I thought it would be easier to plot a book like this--the main events are already in place. Instead, I'm finding it a bit hampering. I'm a seat-of-the-pants writer. This time the story isn't mine to mold and shape as I see fit. Yes, I'm fictionalizing it, but I still don't have total freedom.
You see, the heroine was a relative of mine--my grandma's sister. She passed away more than 11 years ago. My family knows I'm planning to write her story. Everyone loved and admired this woman, so I'm feeling a bit of pressure there. I want to capture her personality, but the story I'm telling is when she was a young woman fighting for survival, and I only knew a grandmotherly figure who owned 12 cats.
So the skeleton of the story is how it has to be for now. I'll just go with it. This project has been haunting me for such a long time, it will be a relief to have all the scenes plotted in two short months. By then, I'll know this woman I'm creating a little better.
I'll check in once in a while to let you know if I'm staying on track. It's only been two days so far, but I've met my goal, plus some.
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3 comments:
Go for it! That's roughly my goal as well - to finish the first draft of the Seven Planets by the end of the year... let's keep track of each other. We can do this!
What are you writing?
I experienced something similar, the hampered creativity. I do write like you describe, with an outline and several full scenes, then skeleton scenes needing fleshed out. I work okay that way, I like to be organized. Besides, the idea for my story came in pieces, starting with the climax, ending and last major disaster.
One problem hampering my writing now is this: since I am new at writing, and since I'm a late bloomer with an obsessive-compusive nature, I've been tearing into books and lectures and whatnot about writing. Great! I love learning it all. Problem: I just realized that all the knowledge has paralyzed me. I can't write without trying to remember ALL the rules and advice and lessons I've been learning. I totally froze up and couldn't write a paragraph out of fear of breaking the rules.
AAGGH! So,knowing one doesn't become a rocket scientist or novelist overnight, I have decided to FINISH the draft and try to ignore some of the rules for now, employ ones that don't interrupt the creative flow too much. Then I'll take a break, read lots of excellent authors, and go back armed with all the great writing tools and lessons and approach all the problems. If I don't I'll stay stuck and never finish the thing!
Camille,
All I can say is: ditto
You've described exactly where I am.
The nice thing is that hearing you voice this is a real encouragement to me ... I am not alone!
Praise God.
david
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