Rabea Scholz's Blog, page 2

956

Good start today, and I still like what I’m getting. Still can’t see a lot of plot or external conflict, but I’m getting a better feel of Liya and Mariany. Conflicted people, torn between different ethics and needs. I’m not entirely clear on what they are, but there is emotion, and their dialogues are full of tension. I like that.

3,329

I may have had enough for the day. I can’t seem to see very well anymore.

0 words yesterday

I just fell asleep. Just like that. No idea how it happened. I’d even set my alarm at 1am to get some words in, but somehow… well, perhaps I’m not the role-model of discipline that sometimes I think I am.

Today, though! 2,179 words written so far and I’m not going to give up for a while yet. Liya is having yet another conversation, this time with Joryanda, and this story seems to consist mainly of characters sitting at tables and talking instead of doing something interesting… but, that is what revision is for. Though it would be nice to know what my plot is.

3,221 words

… for the day, and now I really can’t write anymore. Finished that journal entry, though, which makes me happy. No idea what scene to write tomorrow, but I’ll think of something while falling asleep. What a fantastic writing day it’s been! I live for days like those.

Lost track…

… of how many words I’m at for the day because they are spread out across two or three scenes, but I’ll check a final time before I sleep. I’m really tired, but got a very nice journal entry for Joryanda. I hear her voice very clearly, learn things about her I didn’t know. I don’t know what’s going on with my Muse, but I’ll just say thank you and take it. She’s having SUCH a good time! And so am I. Life is beautiful when I’m writing like this.

1,452 words

Mariany and Liya are sharing cookies in a basement. Love their humour, the way they are so different and yet connect. No idea where this is going yet, but I like the words I’m getting. They come easily and have lots of FEEL in them. Which is what matters most at this stage, really. I can fix up THINK in revision.

787 words before work

Not bad. That leaves only about 1,000 for the daily goal, but hopefully I’ll be able to do more. Liya and Mariany just met, and I love the way their dialogues flow. I could write dialogue with the two of them all day. There’s a nice contrast between them. But now, to work. I have kids to teach.

4,442 words for the day!

And with that, I’m going to bed. It’s nearly midnight, and I have to be up at 5 am. Alarm clock ringing at 4.30. =/  But — what a great writing day it was! And I’m loving Yana as a character. Not sure what she is up to, if she’s really old and wise or if she knows something… but I’m sure I will find out. Tomorrow, it’s Mariany time. I’m looking forward to that!

The dreaded middle

It’s finally here, and knowing that it would come doesn’t make it any easier. Three days before the beginning of NaNoWriMo, I’ve hit the dreaded middle of my novel. The point where I hate all my characters, I don’t know where this story is going, I don’t know how I thought it was a good idea, and I don’t remember why I ever thought I could be a writer. Or that I had anything interesting to say. Incidentally, I still like Naheli’s Sacrifice, but I guess it has to be, then, the only great story I had in me. I’m guessing most writers know this feeling.

The good thing is, this isn’t my first novel, and this isn’t the first time I’ve hit this point in my writing. I was semi-prepared for it, and I have some strategies to pull myself out of it. My logical mind knows that this is a normal part of writing, that I’ve come through it before, and that it’s a matter of persistence and careful examination of the story now. Why did I come to a halt here? What problem is there that my Muse has spotted but I haven’t? Knowing that I’ve been here before, and that this is fixable, will stop me from giving up and throwing this story away.

What I’ve done so far is a read-through of my manuscript so far and a collection of all the story points that seem valuable and important to me. I’ve also found that my main character has reached a point where her initial compelling need won’t carry her anymore, so I need to look at that and figure out how her needs have changed and what she wants right now. These are some starting points. Then of course there’s Holly Lisle’s brilliant writing course How To Think Sideways (I’ll never stop talking about that one), which contains a chapter exactly on this problem, so I’ll be going back to that and reading up on her advice. I know it’s helped me before.

The interesting thing is that a very clear split of Feeling and Thinking occurs here. The first half of a novel, for me, belongs mostly to the feeling part of my brain (although I’m such a structured person that probably a lot of thinking goes into it without me noticing), but this middle is thinking business. Most importantly, it’s now the thinking part’s task to convince the feeling part that we can do this. That it’s okay to stall, to falter, and that we’ll stand up again and see this novel through to the end. That it may take some time, but we’ll find the right path and we’ll turn this story into something we are happy with, even if it takes a long revision.

I kept a writing diary while I wrote Naheli’s Sacrifice, and it’s funny to read in retrospect. Having published Naheli and being so happy with the result, it’s easy to forget that it was a piece of work, too. I wasn’t by far happy all of my writing days. I messed up the ending horribly in the first draft. I had a story in shambles before I went into revision. And some days, I hated the story and Naheli and Thilkhan and their stupid island.

Then I revised it and I ended up loving it.

Keeping a diary like that makes it easier, coming to this point now with Darklight Rest. Once you have pushed your way through one, two, or several novels, you don’t encounter every problem for the first time. Of course there are always new ones, but some are familiar, and even if you don’t have the one-fits-all solution, it’s a comfort to know that you have fixed it before. I’ll fix it this time around, too.

NaNoWriMo starts in three days, and I’ll be ready to write on Tuesday. I don’t know how at the moment, but I will be writing. This part of a novel requires persistence, and that’s something I’m good at. So, off to diagnosing the problem.

Ever hit the middle of a novel and stalled out? Tell me about it!

Learning Dvorak can save your writing

In 2011, I participated in Milwordy, a challenge to write 1,000,000 words in a year. For those of you who know NaNoWriMo, that’s about one and a half times the NaNo amount, every month, for twelve months in a row — so nothing to sneeze at. I had just come out of NaNo 2010 and was so caught up in the rush of writing that I desperately wanted to continue.

I came out of that year with six overly wordy first drafts for novels, several short stories, some journaling, and lots of bits and pieces that never amounted to much. But what a fantastic year I had! I was writing like in a trance, in one big rush, and it was brilliant.

I recently found my writing diary from that year and remembered the big crisis I had in the middle of it. Writing a million words in a year means an average of 2,700+ words a day, every day. Inspiration wasn’t the problem. I had story ideas, I had lots of free time, I loved it. I threw myself in head first and wrote, wrote, wrote. Didn’t talk about anything else but writing, either. I was probably annoying.