Bounce House

Being sick is such a drag. I've spent the past week or so curled up in bed with a stack of books, napping off-and-on and hoping the constant supply of cough drops and cold medicine will be enough to exorcise the snot demon in my chest.

I'm feeling loads better today, though, so that's good.

In the writing-o-sphere, between enjoying well-crafted tales from others, my brain's been doing a lot of thinking about the final third of my own WiP. I'm still mired in the beginning of chapter four, but I've been itching to bounce around out of order, which is something I've never done before. Yesterday I sat down and churned out over a thousand words for a scene that I haven't even gotten set up yet in the main document. It's toward the end. It's not anything I have many notes about. It just...happened.

And I have to say, it was a lot of fun.

I've always been the type of writer who keeps copious notes, reference images, scribbles, and timelines. It's how I keep my thoughts organized long enough to get them down in what sometimes resembles a cohesive story format. I've never, however, used those notes to write my scenes out of their proper order. It's always been a possibility, since I'm usually so organized with my writing thoughts, but not anything I've ever played around with. I've actually gone out of my way to avoid bouncing around, because the thought of going out of order has always made me feel awkward. Stories go in order, and writing them out of order is weird, or so my brain has always insisted.

Thing is, now that I've written some scenes out of order, I can't say I'm so against it anymore. I've got the notes to keep everything straight, and forcing myself into writing the next scene in chapter four hasn't panned out very well thus far. Playing around with the later political intrigue, arranged marriage, and bloody battles has been more entertaining and productive than plowing through the task of getting my main characters from the safety of their home and into the strange new place.

Slowly but surely, I'm letting myself write what feels natural and fun rather than forcing myself to stick to the rigidity of the linear timeline. It's getting me writing more often than one a week or so, and that can only be a good thing, yeah?

'Til next time,
J.

Pinned Down

It's oh-so-easy to get distracted when sitting down to write, as many writers know. The carpets suddenly need steam cleaning. The dishes need to be scrubbed. Laundry...there's always laundry. Which reminds me, I really ought to wash some clothes so Husband Guy has clean pants...but I digress. Point is, it's easy to get distracted while writing.

I, personally, have developed two distractions that masquerade as productivity, and I blame Mires for both of them. Making lengthy WiP playlists on Spotify and compiling various and sundry inspiration boards on Pinterest have been my pastimes of choice over the past little while now. It's damn nifty, and adds an interesting dimension to my plotting, but I've had to exercise caution so I don't wind up doing nothing but making playlists and boards when there's writing to do.

Even though they've functioned as distractions some days, though, I've found them incredibly helpful in cementing ideas. Particularly when it comes to pinning.

I currently have sixteen different boards all devoted to one project. It seems kind of excessive at times, but I don't feel as if it's been a waste of time. All the major characters have gotten individual boards. On those I've been putting actor photos, cool quotes that apply, and things like that. I've got a board for miscellaneous images that apply to the story in general, and I've got a board for setting porn. My personal favorites are the boards devoted to specific relationships, for images that fit more than one character. There are a couple romantic relationships on there, but I've also got a board for images relating to the relationship between my main characters, who are brother and sister and definitely not Lannisters.

It's not only been a lot of fun to do, I also feel like it's helped me organize my thoughts in a way my notes haven't been able to. There's a lot of cool artwork and graphics out there, and pinning pictures that speak of determination and strength help me get into a character's head a lot more than writing, "determined and strong" in my notebook. 

It does sometimes suck me in to the point where I neglect actually writing, but more often than not it gets me into the mood to explore my characters and settings and put the story on paper so I can read it and share it and love it. 

And isn't that the best kind of "distraction"?

'Til next time,

J.

Let it Grow, Let it Grow

So lately I've been having a lot of late-night hang-out sessions with my best-friend, writer-buddy, downstairs-neighbor Mires, and the two of us have done a bit of joint brainstorming. We've tried to prod each other into taking down notes and actually writing, and in the process we've both learned some new things about our stories and our characters. With Mires' help, I've sat down and had a long think about the direction my own current WiP is going, and the direction it's since taken has actually kind of startled me.

I've had these characters in my head for a good five years now, and the first incarnation of their story came out of my very first year participating in NaNoWriMo, back in 2010. I abandoned the project after getting kind of muddy in my first attempts at entering the world of publishing, but it grabbed on and didn't let go until I finally came back to it. I've gone through so many different ideas with this story that what it is now is similar but definitely not the same. It's grown. It's grown a lot. Just when I didn't think it could grow in scope any more than it already has, Mires and I had one of those brainstorming sessions.

The ideas we both presented got my thoughts spinning in new directions, and now that I'm faced with the necessity to write all of this down and consider it, it's daunting. I had a solid direction with this story for years, even if it's taken me a while to come back to it, but now I'm faced with adding in all these new, fresh ideas that I've fallen in love with. It's kind of scary. It's so tempting to take those cool new ideas and lock them in a box, because rewriting the same old story is comfortable.

I can't let myself do that, though. I have to let this story grow, because if I try to stifle it, it's not going to go anywhere. It's going to get caught in an infinite loop of rewriting the same story and never being satisfied, because I'll deny it the fresh air it needs to grow into something strong and powerful.

So.

It's not back to the drawing board, per se, but I've got a lot of notetaking in front of me. Timelines, history notes, character profiles, subtle political tones, all of that has got to be documented before I can take it and play with it on cards and white boards and eventually the manuscript.

It's daunting, but I can't deny my excitement.

Revisions never bothered me anyway...

'Til next time,
J.