I want to apologize right off the bat for not getting a blog out last week. After Mother’s Day, we had some family travel that essentially ate my week. We’re back on schedule now, though. Thanks for coming back.
EDIT: And then I was a day later after that! I’m really trying to get back on pace here. Bear with me.
Drawing from the Well
Now, we’re making some progress. Or, at least it feels like it. Since this is over the course of two weeks, I guess it’s not as great as it feels. Either way, progress is progress. Since my last post, I’ve knocked out just shy of ten thousand words to break the 80k mark, which feels great. We’re past the Midpoint on the third arc and making headway. Soon, I’ll reach the tipping point on this arc and the words will flow like water.
Scenes: 132/230
Words: 80,152/~139,000 (57.39%. As that estimated word count creeps up, I feel more confident that we’re approaching accuracy. It’s still a ways off, though.)
Filling the Well
This was a great pair of reading weeks. I chewed through NINE books this week. Granted, none of them were print or electronic, everything was an audiobook, but still! I finished Soulstar and then the entire Divergent series including the boxed set of Four. That series was good. I see some of the similarities with the Hunger Games, but the biggest one was just the genre and audience: YA Post-Apocalyptic. It was interesting and creative and kept getting deeper and wider with each book, which I love. Big thumbs up.
Bonus: I’m SIX books ahead of pace now. That feels really good. I’d love to blow past my goal this year so I would feel comfortable increasing it next year.
Now, I start Recluce. I tried Imager by L.E. Modesitt Jr. a couple of years ago and just couldn’t get into it. The climax of the first book kept me going to pick up the second book but I just couldn’t get stuck in after that. Recluce is having some of the same tendencies, which makes sense since it’s the same author, but I’m hoping that it picks up in a way that will grip me. I’ll keep you posted.
43/100 for #ProjectBookworm2022
Well Chat
So here’s the real crux of the matter, right? We’ve talked about different ways to approach writing, but how do you discover where you land, how you write best, and what actually works?
Short Answer: Experimentation.
There’s obviously more to it than this. To experiment, you have to have WAYS to experiment. That takes research or, as I lovingly call it, education. There are COUNTLESS sources available to teach you about ways to write and edit. Here are some of my favorites:
K.M. Weiland
Jenna Moreci
Meg LaTorre
Sacha Black
There’s obviously lots of others and a lot of these focus on how a planner works. There are definitely other channels out there that have tips for pantsing. I would expect a lot of it to focus on efficient editing. Reading and listening to tips isn’t enough, though. You have to try stuff out.
That’s what I did. I looked at what worked for different authors and some stuff jumped out immediately as things that wouldn’t work for me. The rest, which looked promising, I started folding into my own process. I discovered yWriter from K.M. Weiland. She taught me basics and details of the three act structure too. I’ve learned lots of do’s and don’ts from Jenna Moreci. I learned finer details of both of the latter points from Meg LaTorre; she also has multiple checklists available on her website. And Sacha Black has a unique take on a lot of things (check out her podcast here).
After all that incorporation (which took place over time), I started using them to write books. As I worked through my planning and writing process, I found parts that worked but needed tweaking and parts that were redundant or unnecessary. So, over the years, I have trimmed and adjusted to find the way that works for me.
It’s like clothes. You try out different items that look good. Some won’t fit. Some won’t work well together. Some will just feel wrong. So you keep trying on different clothes until you find the perfect outfit.
And then the next day (the next book, in this case), you start the process again, though not from scratch. Every book I’ve written has followed a different path. Every new project has seen me adjusting the process for the current and future process. I keep trying different outfits and I keep landing on sets that work for now but aren’t exactly right for later.
That’s how you find out who you are as a writer. It’s a bit of work and never really ends. But finding yourself in your writing process is so rewarding.
Next week, we’re going to get a little vulnerable. I’ll get into a little more detail about who I am as a writer, how I’ve arrived here, and where I think I’m headed. Have a great week!
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG