More arduosity
Last night I didn't feel like writing, but it was a different I-don't-feel-like-writing feeling than I've had before. Previously, it's been 'I suck and this piece sucks and I should just go watch TV and not add any more suckiness to the world.' Last night it was more like, 'I totally did lots of work on the piece, and it was great, and I should relax and not work on it now because I deserve a day off.' But you're not allowed to do that, so while I did get started a bit later on account of I had to watch the latest episode of Lie to Me on the interwebs, I did pull up the doc and get to work anyway.
Wednesday night I took adjectives out of the first three pages. Last night, I got to a page that doesn't have many adjectives because it has a ton of dialogue. I didn't like the dialogue. The First Five Pages has about five chapters on dialogue, which I didn't review ahead of time, but I know I committed many dialogue sins, so I got down to it. I still took out adjectives, which led to axing entire paragraphs, but I also changed the characters' lines a lot. I think the conversation makes more sense now, and flows better, so that's good.
It's slow going, though. I have 16 pages, single spaced, and about 7,000 words. After a couple of hours last night I'd gotten through page 8. It was a tad frustrating, that. I guess I still expect the process to be fast, like, here's a short story, BAM! Here's another one, BOOM! But alas, not so much. I wrote the draft quickly, and allowed myself a lot of leeway in order to do so, and now the going back and fixing is taking time. I still think that's a good way to go; if I let myself get stuck on silly things like plot points making sense and characters sounding like real people I wouldn't have gotten past page 4.
The habit is getting more habitual tho', and it is easier to sit and write for a while. Daniel Pinkwater has an essay about how he trained himself to write. He decided to practice sitting at his desk for two hours, and didn't allow himself to do anything BUT write. If he didn't write, he still had to sit there. I'm trying to adopt that method too. It's going ok. (I sometimes check Facebook or gmail real quick-like in the middle of writey time.)
My biggest fear about this story is that when I'm done with it, it'll be missing story basics: someone who wants something, encounters an obstacle, and takes action to get past the obstacle. However, I like it enough that I'm not going to worry about it. If I get done and that's the case, I'll put it away and go on to the next.
Wednesday night I took adjectives out of the first three pages. Last night, I got to a page that doesn't have many adjectives because it has a ton of dialogue. I didn't like the dialogue. The First Five Pages has about five chapters on dialogue, which I didn't review ahead of time, but I know I committed many dialogue sins, so I got down to it. I still took out adjectives, which led to axing entire paragraphs, but I also changed the characters' lines a lot. I think the conversation makes more sense now, and flows better, so that's good.
It's slow going, though. I have 16 pages, single spaced, and about 7,000 words. After a couple of hours last night I'd gotten through page 8. It was a tad frustrating, that. I guess I still expect the process to be fast, like, here's a short story, BAM! Here's another one, BOOM! But alas, not so much. I wrote the draft quickly, and allowed myself a lot of leeway in order to do so, and now the going back and fixing is taking time. I still think that's a good way to go; if I let myself get stuck on silly things like plot points making sense and characters sounding like real people I wouldn't have gotten past page 4.
The habit is getting more habitual tho', and it is easier to sit and write for a while. Daniel Pinkwater has an essay about how he trained himself to write. He decided to practice sitting at his desk for two hours, and didn't allow himself to do anything BUT write. If he didn't write, he still had to sit there. I'm trying to adopt that method too. It's going ok. (I sometimes check Facebook or gmail real quick-like in the middle of writey time.)
My biggest fear about this story is that when I'm done with it, it'll be missing story basics: someone who wants something, encounters an obstacle, and takes action to get past the obstacle. However, I like it enough that I'm not going to worry about it. If I get done and that's the case, I'll put it away and go on to the next.
posted by walkinhomefromthethriftstore at 5:22 AM
2 Comments:
like most things, the more you do those exercises, the more you will unconsciously do them the first time around. it’ll get easier. keep at it.
Wait, are you saying if I do something over and over, I'll get better at it? Through some kind of repeatable process of some kind? Well that's just crazy talk!
Post a Comment
<< Home