I used to could write without a thought of whether or not it made sense. I would get an idea for a story and would run with it, perhaps after some research or a little planning, but usually I just started writing.
What has happened is that now I keep stopping to fix something as I go. I catch myself analyzing almost every sentence. It is like I was cut with a knife once and now, every time I use a knife, I hesitate and think about every single slice of the blade, looking at how to do it from the best possible angle. Meantime, the stew meat is drying out as it waits for the carrots. Know what I mean?
I have a good on-line friend named Sophia. We will probably never meet face-to-face because she is in the UK and I am in the US. Anyway, Sophia is the complete opposite from me in terms of writing (and body type and heritage and….). She works hard on a proper outline, putting all of her creative energy into it. Her process would drive me nuts, but it works for her. (and yeah, my process drives her nuts too)
The creativity process is different for each person, each artist, each writer, each poet, etc. Each craft has its own process too. It is a wonder anyone gets anything done with all the rules and not-rules.
NaNoWriMo is coming up again. While usually I am excited and eager, I am dragging my feet this year. My first NaNo was the basics of my first book coming out in February. My second NaNo is the one I am still working on, the Simple Sarah one. I changed the character and the story line and tried it out last year. It was different enough that it truly was a new book. It stunk, but both Sarah and I grew from it.
What will I do this year? Start a Butch Girls 4? Expand one of my short stories? Run like heck and pretend November doesn’t happen this year?
Hi Paula! *waves* Melissa aka Joy here and I haven’t been here in a while. (Sorry!) but I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who is a little hesitant about this year’s Nano. I’m excited, don’t get me wrong, and I actually have a plot this year! (hooray!) But…I dunno. I’m just worried I won’t be able to pull it off, I guess. *shrug*
I don’t like how we’ve lost touch and I *will* be seeing you at local Nano events, won’t I? 😉 Take care *hugs*
At least you have a clue what you are going to do. I still haven’t. I keep mentioning it to Lorna and she just gives me this “like I know what you are talking about?” stare.
How’s Eric?
You should do something big! Like…some futuristic sci-fi epic romance or something. Wouldn’t that be fun? I can’t write sci-fi…but I think you can, can’t you? Do something tremendously big and silly…that would give you enough material to work with that you’ll reach 50k in no time! 😉
Eric’s good. His back is actually doing better…but he went to a specialist and he recommended surgery, which is both good and bad. Good because NOW he can MAYBE get help from voc. rehab. in paying for the surgery. Bad because its been confirmed by “someone who knows stuff” that he needs it, which sort of depressed him.
He’s been spending a lot of time on the site…have you checked it out? You should…but it reveals who we really are. We’re to the far left. We make Democrats look conservative. Scratch that. We make Greens look conservative. *chuckles*