Week Twenty Seven: Parented!
Monday, September 16, 2013 at 9:20AM in Week 27 Between this and last week's story (or excerpt, I guess), I seem to be 1,290 words into a fantasy novel I had outlined about a month ago but then sat on. The great surprise is how much I enjoy writing a scene here and another scene there, rather than starting at the start and working my way through. I'm someone who has to watch movies and their sequels in the order they were intended. I'll never read the end of a book before I begin it (not to name names, Breda).
But for some reason none of that applies here. Maybe it's because I have so much reverence for story that I'm terrified of writing a bad one, but if I can just sit down and tell myself Today, the merchant talks to Garith about parenting and taking responsibility... and also he's kinda drunk, it feels more like playing than work. I know some (or many) of the details will change later, but for now I'm just exploring character. And building something, scene by scene.
So the time has come, ladies and gents. I'm gonna try to write a book. I'm setting myself a deadline of October 31st for the rough draft (~90,000 words). Too ambitious? I defy your caution.
Please wish me luck (and lots and lots of impulse control).
Meanwhile, did this week's prompt do anything for your own writing?
Reader Comments (5)
Good luck! I think that's pretty ambitious, but I look forward to tracking your progress. I've also been having some luck with the "just do a scene" approach. But I've reached a point now where my brain is out of scenes and things are rather jumbled, so I'm having to go back and shuffle/revise/rethink. Still, I probably have 8000 words more than I would have otherwise.
It is probably too ambitious, but you know what they say: Shoot for the stars, and even if you miss, you'll still... uh... burn up in the atmosphere.
8,000 words is a solid showing! Well done. Have you tried listing the scenes you have (on notecards or whatever) and arranging them in different ways? It usually becomes clear to me what's missing, and then OUTLINE! occurs.
I'm in exactly that phase now, although I'm using Word instead of actual cards. Maybe I'll print them out, break out the scissors, and Anne Lamott it up.
Do it! Pink-handled ones work best.
Can I recommend Scrivener too? You can rearrange the scenes without all that pesky literal or word-processing cutting and pasting.
And, Brandon, hell yes, write this thing! Hurry up so I can read it.