The Debriefing
I just finished a short story drill that I moved to the Rising Gorge site. It really doesn't matter too much where the pieces end up, but I still like to pretend.
While engaged in my normal morning pursuit of overthinking stuff, I reviewed the writing drills I've been doing on these blogs and while I'm more or less satisfied that I have been able to break through the paralysis that has been my biggest obstacle to writing by practicing every day (in every way), I'm concerned that I haven't gotten back to the second book. I posit that while I'm getting better at writing, as opposed to not writing, I'm not getting anywhere in writing character-based stuff, which is, of course, the essence of the novel.
So, today I begin striving to include at least one character based piece every day in my writing drill. This means, instead of writing some meandering diatribe about what I think is wrong with cellophane covered sandwiches in vending machines, especially in hospitals, or whatever it is that I fixate virulently upon during my stream-of-consciousness writing drill, I will write an ultra-short story involving at least one fictional character and a plot of some ilk. I furthermore promise to work on concise, provocative descriptions of the surroundings and feelings that my guinea-pigs end up intersecting in.
They don't have to be very long, but they should be at least fully-formed enough to be able to survive on their own. As a matter of fact, the shorter the better, as far as I'm concerned.
When you think about this little endeavor, it's really very exciting. If I can do this, then I should be in a much better position to execute a larger collection of plots, ie- the novel.
Wahoo and zippedy-dee! I can't wait to get started.
Yours truly,
More later,
While engaged in my normal morning pursuit of overthinking stuff, I reviewed the writing drills I've been doing on these blogs and while I'm more or less satisfied that I have been able to break through the paralysis that has been my biggest obstacle to writing by practicing every day (in every way), I'm concerned that I haven't gotten back to the second book. I posit that while I'm getting better at writing, as opposed to not writing, I'm not getting anywhere in writing character-based stuff, which is, of course, the essence of the novel.
So, today I begin striving to include at least one character based piece every day in my writing drill. This means, instead of writing some meandering diatribe about what I think is wrong with cellophane covered sandwiches in vending machines, especially in hospitals, or whatever it is that I fixate virulently upon during my stream-of-consciousness writing drill, I will write an ultra-short story involving at least one fictional character and a plot of some ilk. I furthermore promise to work on concise, provocative descriptions of the surroundings and feelings that my guinea-pigs end up intersecting in.
They don't have to be very long, but they should be at least fully-formed enough to be able to survive on their own. As a matter of fact, the shorter the better, as far as I'm concerned.
When you think about this little endeavor, it's really very exciting. If I can do this, then I should be in a much better position to execute a larger collection of plots, ie- the novel.
Wahoo and zippedy-dee! I can't wait to get started.
Yours truly,
More later,
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