Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Missed the Mark!



Well, this past week I did not make ANY progress on my new novel! I will save the weekly update for next week! I think that's the first time in the months since I started setting specific weekly goals that I didn't get anything accomplished. I'll allow it. I had some significant other things going on in the past week that really demanded my full attention front and center, mentally and emotionally, and there was a significant temporary change to my schedule that also screwed with my body clock, so I wasn't quite feeling the way I usually do.

I'll just overlook this one "hiccup" in the progress and bravely resume the effort during this week.

I did manage to update the TIPS & TRICKS blog and also to edit and restore earlier postings on the WELCOME TO MY WORLD blog. At least I did accomplish something, even if those items are not as important as continuing to make progress on my writing. I can see where other writers comment that it's important to write, to write something, anything, just to keep writing. It keeps the wheels in motion. Not writing anything at all would make it much harder to start writing again after a break from it.

So, I'll renew last week's goals of adding two additional chapters and continuing to look for ways to make the difficult aspects of this new novel easier to deal with. I'll spend some time reflecting on the overall story and my purpose for it, and trying to put the challenging story events and heavy undercurrents into a fresh perspective in light of the overall intention for the work. I think I can make some headway there with a renewed effort.

I know I haven't posted anything at all concerning what this new story is actually ABOUT. I was going to post a back-cover blurb, as I did for THE REFLECTING STONE, but have decided to hold off on that for the time being. I am not sure whether the story will mutate on me in some way, and I'm still waiting to see where exactly I'll come down on it in terms of perspective. I have it fully in mind, planned out, but there is much that can happen in the writing to change the focus, if I allow it. It's quite a fascinating story and for all the planning I very much feel this is one where I have to get out of the way and let my subconscious do its work.

I am reminded of the following quote, which another writer used in his or her signature line in online forums:

"Your intuition knows what it wants to write, so get out of the way."
-- Ray Bradbury

Adrian

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hello Adrian,

An old writing mentor of mine used to tell me... "Sue, get in sync!" By which he meant that I was trying too hard to force things, not going deep enough within and letting things flow.

And I'm glad to see you cutting yourself some slack. There are times when we have to set writing aside in order to take care of other things. I've heard it said too, that often writers forget to have a life outside the worlds they create in their stories. But if we do that... we soon find that the writing becomes stale and lackluster because we don't have anything new and fresh to bring to it. Just a thought.

Aloha,
Sue