Wednesday, May 20, 2009

WIP Wednesday #3

This WIP Wednesday revolves mainly around my Write-Your-A$$-Off Saturday, because it was a glorious day! Progress was made! Not that I haven’t been writing otherwise, because I have, but in spurts. And on Saturday, I told myself that laundry, that reading, that cleaning and dishes and vacuuming, and all the other things that I do to procrastinate could wait. I walked the four blocks to Panera, found a working outlet and a corner, opened up my boyfriend’s laptop (mine is still laid up with viruses galore), and dove right in. I took a short half-hour break but otherwise I got four and a half hours of solid writing in!! I need to do this more often.

I’ll be honest here. For the most part, I write every day, but not always on my novel, and, as of late, I’ve felt like my novel progress has slowed to a crawl. Rewriting huge chunks of the novel and changing the point-of-view from 3rd to 1st has re-energized me, but I still felt like I needed to make more progress. (Unfortunately, thinking and working things through in my head, just doesn’t count). And so Write-Your-A$$-Off Day rolled around, and I thought this was the perfect time to get moving and make some real, substantial progress. And that I did!

Even though I’ve been telling myself that I need to focus on the middle and the ending of the novel, the beginning taunted me. So I spent my Saturday reworking and rewriting Chapters 1 through 3. Chapter 1 especially, because the opening scene just didn’t feel like enough of a hook, and I felt like I was giving too much away in the rest of the chapter. After over an hour of reworking Chapter 1, I ended up cutting 700 words (or nearly half of the first chapter) and the entire opening scene changed. Progress!

First person is also working out splendidly. Anne’s personality is beginning to really shine through, and I’m realizing how much more I like her now that I hear/see her more in the writing. Her motivations are also coming across more than ever before.

Also, just because I focused on the novel’s beginning on Write-Your-A$$-Off-Day doesn’t mean I’ve been ignoring the rest of my novel. I’ve been reworking Chapter 6 and 7, when Anne time-travels and spends her first extended period of time in the French Revolution and inside the head of Charlotte. I’m encountering new questions: how does Anne’s thoughts impact Charlotte? Is it really Anne’s actions? Does she feel like she’s rewriting history? All these questions – and more – are creating some interesting developments that will affect the rest of the novel. And this, if I do say so myself, is pretty exciting.

So back to it!

Life is going to be pretty busy in the next few days; for one, I’ll be up north in Michigan over Memorial Day weekend (meaning, I’ll be without email/Internet). Then again, Michigan is where I always feel the most inspired, so even while I’ll be on vacay with some friends, expect another progress report next Wednesday! Oh wait - I’m volunteer teaching next Wednesday, right after work… so, hmm, maybe next week will call for a WIP Thursday? We shall see!

If you want to join in on WIP Wednesday, check out Kate's blog here.

1 comment:

Kate Karyus Quinn said...

Yeah and congrats on your progress! I love the idea of having one day where you just let everything else go and focus on writing! And Panera's is an excellent place to set-up shop for it!