Re: Doing the Narrative Drains

Patricia C. Wrede wrote:

> There Is No One True Way.

I remember that! I have always kept it in my mind as one of your most sensible and reassuring pieces of advice. Kipling, man, Kipling. :)

So yes, I completely agree that it would be foolish to beat myself up over having a different writing method than Wiesner or Ingermanson or anybody else who promises to offer writers a Highly Efficient System. But I did think there could be value in trying a different method to see if it worked for me, or whether I could use parts of it to improve my existing method. And I think that part of things hasn't gone wholly to waste -- I can appreciate the value of a good outline, and now I know how to come up with one without ruining the joy of writing the novel itself.

> Some of us *require* a good, solid foundation, not a rough-crap-draft, > in order to move on. I tend to be one. If you are, too, then *of
> course* you're getting stuck -- it's *because* your backbrain isn't
> happy with what you already have. And if my experience is anything to
> go by, it will eventually sieze up completely and refuse to let you
> move forward until you fix whatever it thinks is wrong.

This sounds... exactly right. Wow. Yes. I think I just needed somebody to come along and say, "You know what? This doesn't mean you fail at exercising the discipline needed to be a professional writer. It's okay not to finish that first draft before starting to polish, and it's *not* going to necessarily make you less productive in the long run to do it that way."

*takes deep breath* Okay. Okay.

And the idea of a week off sounds glorious. Yes i said yes I will yes. Starting right now, amen. *throws away calendar with wordcount goals on it*

The consoling thing is that I very much doubt I'll have to toss out anything I've written already, as far as the plot's concerned. I really don't think it's a plot issue that's interfering with my backbrain: I am a little stumbled by the daunting prospect of having to blather about wormholes and temporal rifts in this section, but it's not like I don't have a friend who's an astrophysicist to help me knock the dents out of my explanations in the final draft.

I think I definitely need to spend more time getting a handle on those secondary characters, though, and the best place to begin is, as you said, NOT writing about them and just letting my imagination go to work. As for my frustration over the prose, I'm sure that can be alleviated by letting myself polish and revise to my little heart's content... once I've taken that much-needed break.

Now for some tea. Tea is called for, definitely.

Thank you.
--
RJA
.

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