Friday, October 12, 2007

JASPER: 20,915 Words



I was very busy with other obligations the past few days, so I didn't get to write as much as I had hoped. I'm still in Chapter 7, though nearly done with it. That's two more chapters, and about 4,0000 + more words.

The story took a dark turn -- I guess that's because bad things happened that are a part of the story, stuff the main character has to fight against and eventually overcome (hopefully) by the end of the novel. It's kind of sad to see that, since things were so upbeat at the beginning. Gee, I feel terrible unleashing all these nasty things on the unsuspecting! All in the name of conflict, or drama, or tragedy.

It's becoming more of a struggle to keep the focus and clarity. The story started very strong, maybe 99% final draft quality in the first three chapters. But since I haven't actually planned this one out in detail, and don't actually know what I'm doing, just winging it, inevitably I'm having to feel my way along, and that shows up more the farther I go. It's unavoidable. I'll have to edit for sure, though the prose is still stronger than it was in early drafts of my other novels.

I'm still on track with the basic plot but the story has evolved a lot -- a good sign in itself -- and that means I am asking myself a lot of questions during those times when I'm not writing. If it gets to be too much, I'll just stop and write out a simple outline and pin things down, but I'm hoping to avoid that this time around, so that I can draw more on creativity and intuition during the writing process. I guess it's an effort to counteract all the planning I've done the past couple of years, an effort to re-establish creative spontaneity, on schedule of course.

As 7 of 9 said in an episode of Star Trek Voyager(tm), one of my all-time favorite lines on television, "The fun will now commence."

Wishing others much progress with their WIP's,

Adrian

5 comments:

RomanceWriter said...

I gave you an award on my blog. It was from a meme where I needed to name five bloggers who make me smile.

RomanceWriter said...

I could relate to this part of your post-

Gee, I feel terrible unleashing all these nasty things on the unsuspecting! All in the name of conflict, or drama, or tragedy.-

because it is hard to make our characters suffer but it is also the driving force of fiction. They have to have something to overcome or else the story is flat and boring.

So I'm glad you did not hold back and let your character go through the dark, rough stuff. It will only make your novel stronger, I bet.

Adrian Swift said...

Romance Writer:

Aw, shucks! (And thanks!)

Yes, the dark things have brought out the true drama of it all. And in the darkness ... a faint glimmer of hope.

And all this for a story that started out so light-hearted!

[weeps for the innocence lost, the world turned upside down]

Wynn Bexton said...

I'm kind of marking time too and for a similar reason...my novel is getting into some seriously violent stuff and I have to think about it a bit. But I've made lots of notes and written bits and pieces of the lead-in to the events. Hopefully will get back to the serious writing tomorrow. Good luck with yours

Adrian Swift said...

Thanks for stopping by, Wynn!

Good luck with your novel. I can relate, for sure.

My major hesitation has really just been the need to edit. I've been indulging myself in that luxury rather than pressing ahead with a devil-may-care attitude (a la Nano). It also happens that the story darkened, which has struck me as particularly sad given the happiness at the outset in this story. However, I managed to go back in and add more humor and lighten things up a bit in various places where that was appropriate, so while it's still dark on the key plot points that must be for drama's sake, the overall effect is not so "down" as it was at first.

Anyway, it just takes patience, and as you say, we have lots to think about all the time. That's the nature of the circumstance.