Nov
18
2008
Shortly before National Novel Writing Month began, I decided to find out what writing 3000 words in one day would be like. I planned to write that much each day for the first three days, and wanted to see if it was really possible.
It turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. I didn’t bother with plot or characters. I just sat down to do free writing about the act of writing. It didn’t matter whether the result was garbage or genius. The doing was the important thing. So I did it, and put it away without even looking at it. The idea was to give it long enough to be completely unfamiliar and then see if there are any gems to be dug out. Continue Reading »
Nov
08
2008
I planned to write about the pains and pleasures of National Novel Writing Month, but reality took hold of me, and I dropped out just short of 9,000 words. For the first time out of three tries, I had a plot — a real plot with a beginning, a middle and an end. So what happened?
Just as I was about to reach 9,000 I found myself so bored that I couldn’t force myself to go on. I don’t normally write fiction, and I’m used to rounding off a topic in 700 words or less, but neither of those facts were part of the problem. Suddenly, I realized that the novel I was writing wasn’t the one I wanted to write. But doing the necessary rethinking and restructuring would take weeks, and the research for some of the background would add to that. So everything came to a screeching halt.
I don’t regret it, though. Every time I try something new and either find out that I’ve screwed it up completely, or that it’s the wrong thing for me to be doing, I learn something of value. In my three attempts at NaNo, I’ve discovered that I’m not really cut out to write fiction. I could slog away at it and probably get fairly good at it, but at what cost? A novel consumes time and energy that could be bringing me the smaller but regular rewards that come from essay and article writing.
But there’s an idea and a cast of characters that keeps nagging at me and wants to see the light of day, so maybe it will happen when the time is right. I’d like to think that I have one novel in me and that it could be a really good one. Time will tell.
Oct
26
2008
The real work is in the setting up and eventual transfer of some posts from my writing blog on Blogspot. Other than that, some of what will appear here is my usual sporadic, slightly warped views on writing. The focus, for the next month, will be on the insanity that is NaNoWriMo. No excerpts forthcoming. After that, there’s unlikely to be any focus except the always fresh, exciting, and frustrating subject of writing.
I know there are thousands of blogs about writing, some of them good, some great, and some pretty lousy. We’ll just have to wait and see how this one turns out. Of course, that’s really a matter of taste and it’s impossible to please all of the people all of the time. I’ll settle for pleasing some people some of the time, and I hope those will be the ones who like to explore new pathways, new ideas, and new sources of inspiration.
