Sunday, July 18, 2010

Writing!

Wordcount: 10,581

So, I'm writing. I'm trying to hold myself to 1600 words per day like I did during NaNoWriMo. Writing with a completed outline is interestingly different from writing without one. I still have moments where I don't know what to write, or I'm not sure whether the decisions I make are the right ones, but at least I know that if I accomplish the basic points, I can reach the end of the story.

I'm starting to understand what writers mean about first drafts being crappy (this is every writer's favorite piece of advice to new writers). There are some parts where I know that what I'm writing is crappy, but I know that I have to write it anyway or I'll never develop the part of the overall vision that will tell me how to make it un-crappy. I have to make myself let go and promise to notice the crappiness when I go back for revisions.

I'm also pleasantly surprised to find there are still mysteries in the story, even though I've theoretically worked it all out. Not big mysteries, thank goodness--not the kind that stop me in my tracks. Just the kind that happen when some little detail or ancillary character whispers to me, I could be important later. This is a good feeling. I feel like if I'm careful to make the world rich enough, the answers I need when I hit big questions later on will already be waiting for me.

The thing I still feel pretty nervous about is the setting. A really cool setting can take a so-so story and make it completely enchanting. My setting doesn't feel really cool to me yet--it feels like a basic rehash of the standard generic medieval-flavored setting. A D&D campaign could happen here without even needing a special rulebook. I do have some ideas for how to make the setting cooler...but I'm also having trouble finding ways to reveal the coolness, which means there's a risk that the characters and story aren't actually being shaped by the setting the way they should be. So, gotta work on that.

2 comments:

  1. setting-wise, I'm a fan of interesting biotic features and/or weather patterns.

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  2. You're doing it, that's what counts! way to go!

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