Losing Touch With Work

I have memory problems from medication, so I'm forced to keep track of all kinds of information for easy reference (spreadsheets!), plus I reread/tweak my earlier chapters frequently as a way of remembering what I said and, therefore, what I want to say next. Sometimes I just go off on a tangent and research something that I'll eventually need to know anyway. I also take chapter-length detours just to see where the story takes me. Eventually, I get back on track.

I outline a story by writing a short paragraph of what I anticipate to happen in that chapter. Sometimes, I can only outline a few chapters to get started, then add to it as I go and things pop in my head. If I have to insert chapters because the characters created events as they developed, all the better because they are coming alive on the page. When I get frustrated because creativity is not flowing from a bottomless pit of imagination, I take a break and read someone elses book. In the end, if I lose connection with the story or find myself nodding off while writing it, I know the reader will be bored with it too. At that point, I blow something up, kill someone off, or have a vampire attack.

For me, I don't actually lose full connection with my stories, in fact even my old unfinished novels that I work shopped on here when I first became a member of tNBW are still solidly ingrained in me. My first one I'm unsure of the complete story arc, the second one that I started writing as a member on tNBW "Blood Ties" I know the ending to and may in fact complete it some day after I finish writing my current novel. I also know I should write down a brief outline of where I see each of these novels going, just in case AWS strikes me, but right now I'm so intent in finishing "The Aurora Mission" that I want to spend every moment I can in writing the last few chapters without worrying about outlining them on paper, from the ideas I have in my mind for this novel. 

I would love to try the music thing, but I love to sing and I'd be too afraid I would sing more then write if I did that. Hmmm...maybe I should have my guitar teacher start writing the soundtrack for the movie now, so I could have that as my background inspirational music - the only problem with that is I can't afford to pay him for that yet, so I guess that's out.

The one thing I do do while I'm sitting down to continue writing is review the last few chapters that I've written to make sure I'm being consistent with where I'm taking the story at that moment. My only struggle at the moment is that as I'm coming closer to my main climatic scene of the novel that I feel I'm only tuned into my main characters story arc and not so much of all my secondary characters. Is that okay? This is the first draft and I know I shouldn't allow it to worry me too much, because that worry could derail me from at least completing the novel if I allow it to grow inside me.

I've found a good way (for me, anyway) to counter writer's block.  I have a huge German-English dictionary and I open it up to a random page and finger a word.  Then I sit down ant try to write anything that uses the word, or can be attributed to the word.  It works well for me.

~Tom

This evening I decided to write a loose outline for the events leading up to the climatic event, I plan on writing in my novel. I feel reading this thread inspired me to do that, so I don't lose any of the ideas that are floating around in my mind about what's going to happen next. I'll keep you all informed how that goes for me tomorrow night, since I plan to have a long writing session tomorrow.

Oh my gosh Janet, you made me remember a time when I had been blocked in one of the stories I was writing, due to not being able to find a good way to describe a castle I wanted to describe, so I put the story away and started writing something else. Then one night while I was trying to fall asleep the ideas for that castle came to me and it wouldn't allow me to fall asleep until I got up and wrote a long note about it. The next day I sat down and wrote two more chapters in the novel I had put aside because of that creative blockage.

The lesson I learned from that experience is: Sometimes starting a different writing project can loosen your worry about what your trying to write, so the creative juices can start flowing again for the story you had put aside.

It may be that novels (not applicable to non-fiction books) written from outline are formulaic, dull, and staid. If a successful writer has found his formula to make him plenty of money from book to book using the same formula from outline from book to book, writing from outline and notes is certainly a good idea. He writes out his outline including some facts to look up, practicality of scenarios to consider, etc, , pays his staff to fill in those pesky details, fills out the rest, and turns it back to his staff to polish it off, and he has written the same money-making book over and over again. For a novice, unpublished author, writing to formula and outline may mean writing to someone else's formula. I think an author, not a TV/movie hack, to make his mark ought to allow as much "organic" growing of his work as possible. Certainly,  the advantage of putting things down in notes and very rough drafts  is to enhance retention in memory those great ideas that can flash before him in a moment of inspiration but then as easily flash out of existence.

Looking back, my first draft was absolute garbage. I bought several books on writing, from which I learned a lot of what a typical book entails (story arcs, character arcs, hero's journey, outlining, etc.). I tossed v1 without ever finishing it, although I still borrow from it. I'm treating v2 as my figure-out-how-to-write draft, including some significant, unplanned detours that weren't in my outline. I'm overdue to reorganize the outline to ensure I haven't written myself into a corner.

It's a balancing act between the amount of structure a new writer needs vs. the ability to write based on inspiration. There are good authors on both ends of the spectrum.

Dirk