6/6/11

Rambling About Writing.

I'm feeling pretty good about myself today. 

I took a four day weekend off to celebrate my anniversary and get some writing done.  Luckily, I have plenty of vacation time.  The neighbors tried to bushwacker me by inviting me to a party.  It was a graduation/retirement.  I couldn't say no.  After an hour there I split when no one was paying attention, leaving my hubby behind to come up with a viable excuse as to where I disappeared to.   I'm not good at faking something I'm not feeling.  What they consider fun, to me is more like torture.  Hey, at least I'm honest.

While he was next door being sociable, I managed to finish reading the first 100 pages of my WIP out loud.  It was magic.  The dialogue sounded natural.

I introduced the second conflict early erasing the separation I felt existed in the story.  I also added depth to my characters as well as faults and enriched the inner struggle.  I'm liking this more and more each day.  If only I could come up with a catchy title.

This morning I was able to start edits on the next 100 pages.  My villain is about to sprout a second head, well, figuratively.  I'm about to elevate her from bad to royal bitch.  She's going to rip my hero apart just a little, push him until he's ready to break.  She's not counting on what my heroine can do.  I'm very excited to venture ahead.

It's funny.  I know how this all starts.  I know exactly how it ends.  I'm fully aware of everything that's meant to happen in between, but how it gets there, that just takes shape on its own.  I type and the words form sentences, paragraphs.  Before I'm done an entire universe is before me.  This is what non-writers fail to understand.  There is such joy involved in bringing to life a world of our making.

As I'm editing, I'm jotting down conflict, solutions, and what I would need to write a query letter and synopsis when the time comes.

I also stopped by Borders and picked up my first copy of Writer's Market.  I've browsed.  That's as far as I've gotten.  It lists agents I didn't know existed, so maybe the internet doesn't have all the information we need after all.  It lists publishing houses, has interviews with successful authors, sample queries.  There's an extensive section on social media.  I'm glad I bought it.  When I'm ready to query, it should prove rather useful.

On a second note, for any movie lover and anyone who thinks Johnny Depp is kida hot, I went to the movies on Friday and watched the new Pirates of the Caribean movie in 3D.  Having lived in Florida for most of my life, Disney World introduced me to the ride.  I was thrilled to watch the first movie, but this third one is by far my favorite.  The introduction of the mermaids was an excellent touch.  What Hollywood does with setting is amazing.

Have a great Monday!

4 comments:

  1. Ah, there's nothing like seeing your words come together & make sense, when the characters are so real they feel like lovers or best friends. I've been struggling with the opening of my novel for months now, knowing how those first lines & paragraphs influence an agent's choice to read further. I had a breakthrough over the weekend, tweaked a few things & came up with a new strategy & I finally feel good enough to start querying again. Congrats on your anniversary & the coming together of your WIP. And if you ever need a crit partner or beta, let me know. I'd love to read your stuff someday.

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  2. Thank you Nancy. I wish you the best of luck on your querying. I know the first few paragraphs can make or break you, that's probably why I've edited and reedited this manuscript. I find it most difficult to impress them with a query, to make my words work in the form of such a short blurb. Oh well, practice makes perfect.

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  3. I laughed my ass off when I read your first paragraph about leaving the party when no one was paying attention. That is me all the way. I find very few social functions interesting or fun anymore. Honestly, I'm usually sitting there with a semi-fake smile plastered on my face thinking, "This time could have been spent writing!" I feel terrible for admitting that but it is true. If I know I can't sneak off I try to find someone there who has an interesting story to tell. People love to talk about themselves. Also, it is amazing that you can create an entire universe just with your words. I have the same experience. I know all that has happened and is going to happen in my WIP but that doesn't make it any less fun to write. I'm always amazed by the things my characters do and say unexpectedly when I'm really in the flow of writing! Good luck to you in querying!

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  4. Lisa, those are my thoughts exactly...time that could be spent writing. The funny thing is that my hubby escaped 45 mins later, so that party must have been awful indeed. It's incredible how characters can say and act in unexpected ways.

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