Tuesday, June 12, 2012

What I'm Getting Up To - WritingLife-wize

It isn't quite half-way through the month and I have been steaming through Good Enough. I've got over 17 thou and I only planned to do 25 in the BuNoWriMo  (Burrowers Novel Writing Month). Most folks are doing the regular 50 thousand but I wanted to do some revision work on The Rock Walker. Here's the thing - it is too damn fun writing a story I know nothing about yet. I've been revising for soooooo long and I think I'm going to just let this one take over my head. At least for June.
I'm not exactly sure what sort of book it is. It isn't a mystery and it might have a bit of woo-woo in it but I don't think it is a paranormal which I'm not all that interested in. It might be YA which will mean I have to go rejig the beginning but that's okay, I'm most certainly going to have to do that anyway.
For those of you who don't write, or aren't pantsers (the term used for people who do not outline but write by the seat of their pants) this might sound pretty harum scarum. Maybe.
I write to find out the story - so the first draft is me talking to me - like this  What is going on here? Why did they go visit a palm-reader? What about the younger daughter has the fortune teller thinking she's special? What's going to happen when they get to Sante Fe?   So that's one voice - perhaps my voice of reason. The other one is saying things like  Because that's what you do when one of your daughters is having a shit fit - you distract her with weirdness. And I don't know what the deal with her is yet but it is interesting by god. I think the younger daughter is going to get in a heap of trouble once they hit Sante Fe. Like that.
So there are all these layers and I just try to get it down as it arises. At some point - say the forty thousand word point I will have to decide things like whether it is YA - otherwise there will be too much language to change.

On another front I have begun this fun little discipline without saying much (yes, I know, most unlike me). I have been posting on facebook a photo of mine and a poem that arises when I look at it. It has been all kinds of delight both in the doing and the responses. Again, it is such a pleasure to write - just write. Ah...
Okay, Gwen is here and I'm going to get a couple thousand done today AND some gardening as it is nice so ta ta!

4 comments:

Liza said...

This does sound like fun. I'm panstering it on my new project, but feel myself stalling out early. I'm not sure I'm connected enough to the story to dig for what happens. We'll see. I'm only at 4K words though, so perhaps there is hope yet. Enjoy your day in the garden.

L. Diane Wolfe said...

I'd scare myself if I tackled writing a story without any idea of the ending or storyline.

Anonymous said...

Jan - I admire pantsers - I really do. I'm an outline gal myself, but I love the freshness and spontaneity that can come from pantsering.

Jan Morrison said...

So far got one thousand done. But will be here all afternoon. Taking the step-son out tonight for Mexican food - he turned 19 last week and this is our first chance to fete him.
Liza - don't give up! Go earlier or later in your story and see what happens. Or give someone else a voice.
Oh Diane - I would give up if I knew what happened. I will probably know pretty soon where I want them all to end up but how they get there - if I know I won't write it!
Margot - and I love the straightforwardness and clarity that I imagine outlining would give me. I'd also like to have naturally curly hair and a trust fund but hey!