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I miss my laptop. Very much. I won't hear a word on its status until it is back, since it was under warranty and there were no charges for fixing it so no need to consult me...so it could be another week before it returns. Ghetto computer at home is super cranky, and though a laptop, has to be attached to a separate monitor in order to use. Can't drag that out of the house, I don't think. Therefore, I am stuck at home if I need to use it.
So...
Tonight after work, I'm going to go to B&N. I'm trying something. I have a super-basic outline for Stage, but I have decided to expand it considerably before digging in and writing the full first draft. Nick and I talk about outlines...his beta has suggested he employ the method...so I thought what the heck, since Nano has pretty much gone to dust for me (AGAIN, though this time because of my laptop going belly-up, not blaming my mental state of the last four days, no sir not at all) I'm going to pull up and give a serious go to the outline method.
Red and HIWTMI were both written without outlines. Both sold. Words--also no outline, but it is not delivered yet. Red and Words are both crazy-long. What my goal is, is to write Stage in under 100,000 words, between 80-90,000. Just about right for a YA fantasy I think (Sartorias--I may need to bend your ear on that one!). In any case, 250,000 words (Red and Words) is not gonna fly if I do indeed end up finding Stage would settle nicely into YA.
I will be working only on Stage from now until the first draft is done. I am a total loser at doing more than one thing at a time. Total Loser. Having a good story waiting in the wings (Andy's Plastic Wrap--lol) will be hard to deal with but with my track record...let's just say I will be a Total Total Loser if I don't keep it in those wings. (I am enormously excited about the story though).
As for me and all things fanfic and canon? Well. Yeah. Whatever.
I am relistening (yet again) to Stephen King's ON WRITING. And as always happens when I listen to this, and get to the part where as a high schooler he got a gig writing for the local paper (to keep him out of writerly trouble--he was such a bad boy), I get smacked upside the head with the best advice ever. Not from King, but from his boss at the paper, Bob Gould (who is probably long gone, and I've expanded on it a bit as King elaborated it some):
When you are writing a story, your job is to tell the story to yourself. Just you, no one else. When you are rewriting a story, your job is to take out all that is extra, doesn't matter anymore, and then share it.
In other words, you write it first for yourself with the door closed, making it yours and yours alone(!!), then once it is done, and ready to share, it belongs to everyone else. Then, and only then, will you and the story be ready for outside opinions, thoughts, etc.
Why I find this so hard to stick to, I don't know. Or yes, maybe I do know...I fear the loneliness of writing alone, I think. And yet, I know that is realy stupid, because I don't give my characters the chance to come alive, and keep me company. I should never know lonely when I am immersed in my world, you know? I know that! I think that is part of why I reached out to fanfic again for the gratification (all the wrong reasons in other words)...but that's not the answer, not for me. That's been proved to me, really quite dramatically, this week.
I know what makes me happy--bringing my own characters, my own story, MY world to life.
C
Writing with the door closed.
So...
Tonight after work, I'm going to go to B&N. I'm trying something. I have a super-basic outline for Stage, but I have decided to expand it considerably before digging in and writing the full first draft. Nick and I talk about outlines...his beta has suggested he employ the method...so I thought what the heck, since Nano has pretty much gone to dust for me (AGAIN, though this time because of my laptop going belly-up, not blaming my mental state of the last four days, no sir not at all) I'm going to pull up and give a serious go to the outline method.
Red and HIWTMI were both written without outlines. Both sold. Words--also no outline, but it is not delivered yet. Red and Words are both crazy-long. What my goal is, is to write Stage in under 100,000 words, between 80-90,000. Just about right for a YA fantasy I think (Sartorias--I may need to bend your ear on that one!). In any case, 250,000 words (Red and Words) is not gonna fly if I do indeed end up finding Stage would settle nicely into YA.
I will be working only on Stage from now until the first draft is done. I am a total loser at doing more than one thing at a time. Total Loser. Having a good story waiting in the wings (Andy's Plastic Wrap--lol) will be hard to deal with but with my track record...let's just say I will be a Total Total Loser if I don't keep it in those wings. (I am enormously excited about the story though).
As for me and all things fanfic and canon? Well. Yeah. Whatever.
I am relistening (yet again) to Stephen King's ON WRITING. And as always happens when I listen to this, and get to the part where as a high schooler he got a gig writing for the local paper (to keep him out of writerly trouble--he was such a bad boy), I get smacked upside the head with the best advice ever. Not from King, but from his boss at the paper, Bob Gould (who is probably long gone, and I've expanded on it a bit as King elaborated it some):
When you are writing a story, your job is to tell the story to yourself. Just you, no one else. When you are rewriting a story, your job is to take out all that is extra, doesn't matter anymore, and then share it.
In other words, you write it first for yourself with the door closed, making it yours and yours alone(!!), then once it is done, and ready to share, it belongs to everyone else. Then, and only then, will you and the story be ready for outside opinions, thoughts, etc.
Why I find this so hard to stick to, I don't know. Or yes, maybe I do know...I fear the loneliness of writing alone, I think. And yet, I know that is realy stupid, because I don't give my characters the chance to come alive, and keep me company. I should never know lonely when I am immersed in my world, you know? I know that! I think that is part of why I reached out to fanfic again for the gratification (all the wrong reasons in other words)...but that's not the answer, not for me. That's been proved to me, really quite dramatically, this week.
I know what makes me happy--bringing my own characters, my own story, MY world to life.
C
Writing with the door closed.
