Where did January go? Anybody seen it?
I got some good writing done yesterday, spread out in bits here and there, I wound up doing about 4K. When I write first drafts, I have the basic idea of where I am going and I have ideas of what should happen along the way. But in between, I quite often just…write. I let the words just come out as they want to. Most of the time the result is good for the novel. Other times, I seem to have just wandered off and gotten really off track. But every one gives me an idea for the novel, whether I use it or not.
Butch Girls is a great case in point. It was my NaNo project, done with heavy emphasis on the word count and light attention to the story line. As a result, there are huge chunks of ‘stuff’ I am cutting out. Which means I need to fill those places in. This time through, however, I am doing a much better job of keeping my wandering down to a minimum.
Until last night.
I was in several word wars and, frustrated with the pieces to of the puzzle, I decided to just write and see what happens. What happened was way off track but actually turned out to be just what I needed. Kelly is a tough broad. She is mentally strong and solid which at first was looking to be a problem. If she is so damn strong, how come she’s spent the past two years in mourning? Easy! Most people who are mentally strong and solid have ideas that are pretty much locked into cement. They build a base to stand on and go from there. Kelly got it into her head that Anna is St. Anna, not Anna the bitch. As time goes on, little cracks start to form in her cemented view and she feels anger coming to the surface more and more. Then, on the second anniversary of Anna’s death, she feels that rage just explode out of her – and she beats up her kitchen wall. As a result, her left hand is all busted up (she’s a lefty).
Kaitana and I discussed it and she suggested that perhaps Kelly needed that external pain to reflect and release the internal pain. Her mind needed that kind of tap on the shoulder. More like a two by four upside her head.
I let it sit over night and I am about to go re-read it to see how it feels.