Of Writing and RVing
Lotus and I are just back from a three-week RV trip that took us from New England to Kentucky, down to Georgia, back up through Virginia, on to Pennsylvania where we picked up Buzz and his buddy from skateboard camp, and headed home. Can you guess that I didn't want to go home? That I wanted to continue my journey? That I was in seventh heaven and didn't want to return to my unsatisfying, low-paying job and my still-not-unpacked house?
A few months back I started novel #3. A mystery-thriller. Then life got nuts, the plot grew complicated, and I couldn't focus. Novel #1, which I love, but which is unpublishable, sits. Novel #2 is 3/4 done, but I can't figure out how to tie up the loose ends. It's more of a character driven story with a suspense plot thrown in. I haven't written in months.
Along comes an idea for novel #4. Different plot, different setting, different characters, but explores the ideas of novel #1. I write a page. Then two. And I don't like it, at least not the way it's coming out on the page. I mull over different ideas on how to begin, where in the story to start, how not to info dump. I sit. I think. I rewrite. I still don't like it.
Sat down with a new author's novel, someone I haven't read before. Read the prologue and the first page of chapter 1. I am bummed. The writing is beautiful and flawless and certainly draws the reader in from the first word. ACK!
But I will write my novel. I won't worry too much about the first draft. I'll get the ideas down on paper. Then I'll see if I can rewrite and polish. A well-written book is seamless, flawless, and looks like it would be so easy to write. NOT!! I know this. I've written a novel before. I've drastically improved my craft since then. But I need to write. I need to block out the distractions of life. Ha! The only way to learn to write is to write.
So, write on!
A few months back I started novel #3. A mystery-thriller. Then life got nuts, the plot grew complicated, and I couldn't focus. Novel #1, which I love, but which is unpublishable, sits. Novel #2 is 3/4 done, but I can't figure out how to tie up the loose ends. It's more of a character driven story with a suspense plot thrown in. I haven't written in months.
Along comes an idea for novel #4. Different plot, different setting, different characters, but explores the ideas of novel #1. I write a page. Then two. And I don't like it, at least not the way it's coming out on the page. I mull over different ideas on how to begin, where in the story to start, how not to info dump. I sit. I think. I rewrite. I still don't like it.
Sat down with a new author's novel, someone I haven't read before. Read the prologue and the first page of chapter 1. I am bummed. The writing is beautiful and flawless and certainly draws the reader in from the first word. ACK!
But I will write my novel. I won't worry too much about the first draft. I'll get the ideas down on paper. Then I'll see if I can rewrite and polish. A well-written book is seamless, flawless, and looks like it would be so easy to write. NOT!! I know this. I've written a novel before. I've drastically improved my craft since then. But I need to write. I need to block out the distractions of life. Ha! The only way to learn to write is to write.
So, write on!
posted by Zany Mom at 8:59 AM
1 Comments:
I found your blog looking for single moms who "RV'd". In regards to your struggle, I think all writers (like all artists) are more critical of their work than anyone else. The hardest part of writing a novel is getting it done and THEN being happy with what you have written. Keep working at it and you will finish! If it were easy we would all be novelists! ;O)
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