Monday 29 October 2007

not too much to report...

Despite making heavy weather of it, I've managed to maintain my thousand words a day. Just. I'm not saying how much use a lot of the words are, but at least I'm laying stuff down to be edited... and if my WIP is supposed to be 70K words in total, I've actually done a quarter of that already!!!

Now this would be good news if anything of note had actually happened in the book yet, but it's another of my slow builders/starters and as yet, it's only really meandering along. I'm still at the stage where I think, how the blue blazes is this book going to be long enough? But I always think that, and I mostly reach some sort of tipping point before long where worrying whether I'm going to make the word count switches to... omigod, how am I going to get it all in??? I've a fair bit of a way to go with this one before that happens though.

This, I think, is one of the problems with pantsing. Which is what I mostly do nowadays. I used to write very detailed synopsis/outlines and send them to my editor. These were far longer than a synopsis ought to be, but not as long as a detailed chapter outline usually is... but I managed them somehow, even though synopsis writing is the work of the devil. But lately, I've just stopped doing them... which makes for a much more scary writing experience!

But, I was thinking about some plot bits in the bathroom this morning - again - and I'm wondering if I should make a plan for the rest of the book, based on these notes and a bunch of other stuff I've got jotted in my notebook...

Do you think I should? Would it make me fret less about the way this book is going? Or not going?

p.s. thanks to a blogging buddy, I found a great new site for procrastinating! It's just another excuse for me not writing, but at least this is in a good cause and it builds your vocab too! :)

FREE RICE

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"But I always think that, and I mostly reach some sort of tipping point before long where worrying whether I'm going to make the word count switches to... omigod, how am I going to get it all in???"

I'm like that too. I get way too panicked about word count.
And I blame pantsing too. I've always been a pantser. I don't think I'd no where to start if I tried to plot.

Have a great Monday!

Melissa Blue said...

"even though synopsis writing is the work of the devil. "

Oh, I can agree.Writing synopsis is an art form. All those dang details you have to fit into 2 pages. Then deciding if you left anything out, or what you can take out and still get the gist of your story. Did I put in enough characterization. Conflict? Does the resolution make sense in such a condensed form.

Why can't an editor just read the whole book and then tell me they are not interested.*whine*

It's a necessary evil much like those yearly pap smears and maybe just as painful.

Kim Knox said...

I'm a Planster - a mix of plotter and panster. I start with a rough plot and find the detail in the writing. When I get to the awfulness that is the middle( I writing hate the middle of a story, it's so *hard* :-( ), more detailed plotting gets me through it.

A yayay on getting your 1k a day out.

Kim

Keziah Fenton said...

Some books I've plotted; on others I've flown through by the seat of my pants. Some books have been a combination. Usually my first draft is a pants, the second draft is plotted to make sure I'm not missing anything.
Thanks for the encouragement on the Sweating Challenge. All the support helps.
I'm going to run my dog along the canal, and think about my characters so that I can move to the next layer.
Congrats on reaching your daily goal. You know it adds up. The story will be brilliant in the end.