Sunday, March 02, 2008

Just sit down and write, stupid

I’ve been trying to find the time to finish Book 2 of the Donovan Series, and it’s a battle to find a few scant minutes to put fingers to keyboard. I wish I could be more like one of my friends who basically barfs it all out in a first draft. It’s smart writing because she gets the foundation and finer points down on her hard drive. Then she goes back with a scalpel for her rewrites.

I’m jealous that I can’t plow through on my first draft. I know how vital it is to get the darn thing down because it gets crowded sloshing an entire book around in my brain for so long. But I can’t. I begin to write and before I know it, I’m noodling with the action, the dialog, the inner voice….ARGH! And this is why Book 2 remains two-thirds of the way finished.

Sorry, Kim and Erik, I love you two knuckleheads as if you were real, and I really hate leaving you two in limbo in the Amazon jungle for so long. Just don’t misbehave while I’m off having a serious sit-down with God. I’m requesting that He do something about adding a few more hours to the day. This 24-hour thing isn’t working. Or maybe we could discuss cloning…

2 comments:

Sandra Cormier said...

My first two books splattered on the page without much help from me. Of course I fine tuned it afterward, but getting the story down was the least of my troubles.

Working with my third (and fourth) is a different experience. I find myself going over old chapters again and again, tweaking them to within an inch of their lives and not writing anything new.

Maybe it's winter, maybe it's overthinking. I just hope this speed bump gets filed down soon. For both of us!

Lynn Price said...

Oh, I don't hold any hope for myself. I suck at writing smart and am doomed to write in my usual frenetic style.

I find myself going over old chapters again and again, tweaking them to within an inch of their lives and not writing anything new.

Yes! Yes! This is exactly what I do. It isn't until those earlier chaps rock that I'm willing to move on. It's like I have to see the story through a perfect camera lens. Shoot me now.