You know when your friends get preggy and suddenly facebook is littered with murky scan pics that could just as easily be elephants or aliens? Well I’m proud to share MY latest in utero pic with you …
Everyone… meet Finding Mia…
She is 1/8th of the size she’ll be when fully grown. Much development has to happen before she can be born, but the potential to make readers laugh and cry… it’s all in there. 🙂
Pregnancy analogies aside – this is book #2’s plotting box. I wrote book #1 as a pantser. I literally made it up as I went along. Since then, I’ve added a third child (real flesh & blood person-child) to my brood and life is a whole lot more complicated. This means that the luxury of sitting down to write for a few hours without interuption is a fondly remembered fantasy. Now? I snatch half hours if and when I can.
This plotting box came about as the result of sheer frustration at my lack of progress. In a typical half hour gap, I would have to reread the last section I wrote to orientate myself in the story. Then I would need to think about what should be happening next. THEN I would be able to start writing. For the last five minutes. At which point I would generally think why bother? and go make tea. Not exactly a recipe for success.
I fell over this blog post by Rachel Aaron, author of the Eli Monpress novels, in which she explains how she went from writing 2000 to 10 000 words a day. Just a teensy bit mind-blowing, wouldn’t you say? I am nowhere near that yet, but she is incredibly inspiring. One of the basics is knowing what you are going to write before you actually sit down to do it. This box is my key to that.
So now I have a plan. It is by no-means complete. I’ve left a lot of room for my characters to do their own thing, as all good characters should. But I have a backbone, a spine on which to build and grow my beautiful story. So now, when I get a gap, I grab the next card and within seconds I’m ready to write. Isn’t it great?
Tell me about your process? What works for you?
Congratulations, expectant writer! ^-^
I love Rachel Aaron (and Eli Monpress; a lot). I’m still a good distance away from anything like 10,000 words a day, but with a lot of help from an outline (part freestyle, part chapter-by-chapter) that lays out what’s coming next with the plot, I’ve been able to average about 2,000 a day on my current project. Of course, that’s mostly to do with my not having many time commitments beyond writing, right now. My words-per-hour ratio would probably make me cringe.
Hehe! As long as this preggy thing doesn’t affect my waistline! x
This sounds so encouraging; thanks for giving us the skinny. -Nikki
Thank you Nikki. I am on my way over to you to see what you’ve been up to. I’ve been a bit out of this world for a bit. 🙂
Reblogged this on EditorEtc and commented:
Quite the creative thinker here! Live the analogy. Look forward to her progress.
I definitely agree having a backbone in which to build on is important. It saves editing headaches down the road. 🙂
True. Somehow a spine makes everything hang together. 🙂
I see you liked Graeme’s post on mybroom, I did too. It prompted me to write this: I agree. We are born again into a living hope. God gave His Son for us to be reconcilled to him through His precious blood. And with a Biblical understanding of God’s hatred of sin, His wrath and justice we can begin to get a measure of the depth and extent of God’s amazing grace that he demonstrated through His son who knew no sin, but became sin so that we may have God’s righeousness. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now am found was blind but now I see. Amen.
Couldn’t agree more! 😀
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