One of the things I enjoy most about reading my friend Christina's blog are her writing updates. She always has a ton of projects going at once and she has the ability to flip from one to the other depending on which muse is visiting her (or which type of chocolate she has consumed!). Reading about her progress or how she's gotten stymied by a certain chapter or character or plot point reminds me that writing is not always a naturally linear process.
Just because I have written all of my books that way doesn't mean that this book or that story will follow the same path. Every book, every story is unique and sometimes you find the kernels of it in different ways or at different times. Let's face it, novels take a long time to write and you have to love your characters and story enough to spend a lot of time with them. Sometimes you fall out of love and sometimes you find someone new and sometimes you simply lose interest. The best surprises are those that make you re-imagine your story or character in a new way. Those are exciting moments that I live for, that I write for.
Now, on the flip side...Facebook/Twitter writing updates depress me. When I read that someone has hit a particular mark of X number of words for that day or he or she has finished X draft or X copy edits or what have you, I feel my shoulders slump. Why is that, I wonder. It's not a competitive issue at all. I have completed 8 novels and 10 short stories and I typically write between 1K and 2K words per day.
I think it's contextual. Reading Christina's progress, because she goes into greater depth and reveals her own personal feelings about her writing, her ups and downs, her happiness and disappointment, connects me more to her writing than a simple Facebook status update.
And this in turn reminds me that, more than anything else, we need a personal connection to character and story.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
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7 comments:
8 novels and 10 short stories is amazing. I'm always told my short stories look like they belong to larger stories, so I think I need to learn the art of telling a short story. The only time I twitter my word count is if I amaze myself and sometimes I do. :)
Christina, I love good short stories. There is a definite art to them and I really respect the authors who are talented in that form. It's wicked hard.
I know what you mean. Maybe because in a blog you can get more a feel of the process. I love reading Charles Gramlich's Razored Zen, too as he goes through his process. Plus, Christina is just so much FUN!
And that reminds me I should do more writing updates. I kind of left them behind cuz I didn't feel like I was going anywhere.
And, if you're looking for more creative writing updates, you might enjoy reading my friend, Shayde. I love her writing. One day she needs her brain and spirit to be published somewhere: http://storydrops.blogspot.com/
Rachel, do you do word count for updates or is it more of a draft thing? Because I write really long and then cut, it's more of a draft number than a page or word count for me. Thanks for the tips!
For me it's the draft. I try to keep track of word count, but I get too bogged down. I use word count as kind of a basis for where I'm at in something. Like I've gotta 12,000 word novella that I think is a good story as is, but keeps getting kicked back. Well, I do hint at a love story without ever doing anything about it. So, if I add the love story, it's going to be another 3,000 words. But I just keep that in my head. I don't keep track of that while I'm writing. If that makes any sense. And I pay attention to word count when it comes to submissions.
Maybe we're just more right brained and don't deal with the numbers as well.
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