A.M. Jenkins's Blog, page 20

Still very busy, but once in a while I think about the ne...

Still very busy, but once in a while I think about the new ms. Yesterday while out with Tyson I figured out a bunch of stuff I want to explore re. conflicts between personalities. Also some situations/flashpoints. I also think I'm going to go back and add a character into the first chapter/scene, which means switching from all internal narration to some dialogue. I'm thinking this will present my MC as more fully rounded from the get-go, but we'll see. Dunno when I'll have a chance to do any ...

No time to work on my own stuff, but I did glance at the ...

No time to work on my own stuff, but I did glance at the first scene of the new ms last night, just to see how it reads. I was wondering exactly what I'm going to need to figure out as far as voice in my head vs. voice on the page, because it's already clear to me that this is going to take some juggling. Transcribing dialect straight to the paper is usually not a great idea because it trips up the reader's eyes. What we hear in our head is not how other people are going to read it. Often a g...

I was very bad a few days ago, because I worked a little ...

I was very bad a few days ago, because I worked a little on my own stuff as a break from the other writing-related projects I need to get done. Sometimes you think so much about one thing that it wears a groove into your brain and you have to switch gears to clear your head out so you can come back to your task with fresh energy. I should have switched to one of the other writing-related projects; that would have been the responsible thing to do.

Instead I opened a new file and started in on t...

Suddenly swamped. Multiple projects, overlapping deadline...

Suddenly swamped. Multiple projects, overlapping deadlines, and everything has to be carefully handled with full attention. Yow.

Two things seem pretty clear to me today.One, I'd better ...

Two things seem pretty clear to me today.

One, I'd better be vigilant about keeping up with whatever writing tasks need to be done, whether they're mine or someone else's, or I'm going to be in deep sh*t very quickly--like, within a week. And once I get vigilant, I have to stay that way during the periods when I have multiple writing tasks pending. I can't afford to put things off, because there are going to be too many in the queue, all with people waiting to hear back from me.

Two, my WIP rea...

I've been working on my own writing about every other day...

I've been working on my own writing about every other day. Sometimes it's just an hour or two crammed into everything else that has to be done, but that's fine because I've got a lot of little pieces that I can pull up at any given moment. Yesterday I started a tiny new piece of another section from the difficult middle, writing it from within scene from the first time.*

Hmm, just checked. I spent over two hours getting a very rough draft of 203 new words. That sounds pretty pathetic. But it's...

I didn't do a very good job of forcing myself to stay on ...

I didn't do a very good job of forcing myself to stay on that problem spot yesterday, but today I bore down and got through most of it. That's not to say it works. Just like I thought, it makes the emotional story veer off on a tangent, and I don't know how to bring it back. But anyway, I got the basics of the first problem part down. The thing is, I know this is going to happen two more times--I'll insert a specific tragic event that has to go in there, and it'll shift the story away from i...

I have been working on my former GN this week, just haven...

I have been working on my former GN this week, just haven't posted. Today I am determined to write out some of a certain part I keep dodging. I keep writing around that part because my time is so cut up, and also when I sit down to work interruptions can pop in at any moment, so what's the point in getting deeply into something that's difficult? But today I have no excuse. It must be done.

Been working with other writers on their WIPs, and thinking about their stuff is sparking writing parts o...

Worked a lot today on the latest round of changes. I'm sp...

Worked a lot today on the latest round of changes. I'm splitting up the three traumatic events that have been clogging up the middle, and moving them farther apart. I'm still on the first one, but as I work I'm darting around, picking up threads and pieces that need to be adjusted or shifted to another place in the story, and getting those balls rolling, too. So I actually touched on the second event, and also on some things that happen after that. Am still also fine-tuning exactly where the ...

Yesterday I worked on the former GN most of the day. At t...

Yesterday I worked on the former GN most of the day. At the moment, however, I can't even remember what I did to it. All I know is that near the end of my writing time, I started reading over parts that don't need to be worked on at the moment, tweaking and generally getting into a nonproductive mindset where I know what feeling I meant to get across and therefore assume that it is indeed coming across in the writing. That's like sitting around patting yourself on the back for deeds that have...