Due to health issues in my family, problems at home, added job responsibilities, and the end of our school's grading period, it's been about three weeks since I've been able to write word one on School Spirit.
As life intervenes, writers must certainly learn to forgive themselves for not getting to the keyboard and realize that, at times, there are issues that are justifiably more important than writing 200 plus papers of a novel manuscript that may never see the light of a Barnes and Noble bookshelf. We often feel guilty, nevertheless. All of the aforementioned issues, however, were clearly pressing and unavoidable. As a result, the book-on-spec was temporarily put on hold.
The good news is that I came out of the gate with such a strong burst that, even having missed three weeks, I'm probably still up-to-speed and will meet my goal of a first draft by the end of May, end of June at the latest. I am currently hovering around 122 pages and I figure the story will take just over 200 pages to complete. It shouldn't be that difficult to crank out another 80-90 pages in the next month or so, even if it is the climax/finale of the whole book.
Today, for the first time in nearly a month, I sat down and surpassed my daily goal of 500 words per session. I figure I came in somewhere around 700. Good enough for the first day back.
I might have missed an inning or two, but I'm still in the game.
That's a metaphor.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
LOSING THREADS
I am hovering around 115 pages and now that I'm well into the machinations of plot, the story is dashing along at a swift clip, but I've noticed something interesting. As I try to tie the plot points together and as the story picks up momentum, I've started to lose certain threads that I started with that I intended to use to give the novel some voice and tone.
It's been awhile, for example, since I've mentioned The Beatles. I've also neglected to bring up Alison's cello playing for quite some time. I've written one scene with Drew's therapist, but nothing since. I haven't touched on Ben's ability with technology, namely computers, lately, and I'm afraid that I'll forget to say something important. Or that I'll lose the threads that make the book interesting while I'm trying to make the book have "events."
But what I'm deathly afraid of is of killing the pace with unnecessary breaks in the plot to go on diversions about computers, therapists, or classic rock and roll bands. The key must be to lay in just the right detail or a quick reference here and there to make the reader feel you haven't forgotten the thread, but that it needn't kill the action to be important or to be mentioned. I guess that's the finesse and art of writing fiction.
It's also, I suspect, what second drafts are for.
It's been awhile, for example, since I've mentioned The Beatles. I've also neglected to bring up Alison's cello playing for quite some time. I've written one scene with Drew's therapist, but nothing since. I haven't touched on Ben's ability with technology, namely computers, lately, and I'm afraid that I'll forget to say something important. Or that I'll lose the threads that make the book interesting while I'm trying to make the book have "events."
But what I'm deathly afraid of is of killing the pace with unnecessary breaks in the plot to go on diversions about computers, therapists, or classic rock and roll bands. The key must be to lay in just the right detail or a quick reference here and there to make the reader feel you haven't forgotten the thread, but that it needn't kill the action to be important or to be mentioned. I guess that's the finesse and art of writing fiction.
It's also, I suspect, what second drafts are for.
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