Invisible Men and Location, Location, Location
I’m thinking I need to rethink my approach here, and actually utilize my blog. I wasn’t sure what would be of interest, and I’ve been writing heavy and focused. I’ve been putting all my attention and flurry into BOOK TWO, which is why there’s been no colossal updates like:
Hey there. I’m writing!
Me again! Writing lots!
Happy (fill in the blank)! Writing’s going fairly well!
But it’s the times when it doesn’t go well, or as planned, that I think I should journey over to here, and give some insight. When you read the completed book, you can remember the struggle and laugh, or be surprised, or agree with my choices, or sob at me for them. But you’ll have been part of the road.
There has actually been a lot to share, it just didn’t occur to me that I should. Actually. Share. I follow a lot of authors on Instagram and Twitter, and love the story behind the story. I love the glimpses into their lives and the insight into them as people. Again, didn’t occur to me to share, or moments were over so quick, it no longer seemed relevant. I also started taking part in daily, month long, themed writer challenges I found by accident on Instagram. It was a lot of fun, a little work, and usually challenging. It brought a lot of different-angled insight into BOOK TWO and all the characters, introduced me to some more Indie authors and their great books, and was just all around a good thing to be part of.
With the sudden Obvious-Thing-I-Don’t-Want-To-Mention, I needed a bit of a break and reset, so this month, no new challenges. I am just writing. I am going to meet my goals and get Number Two finished this year. This is a must. Last fall, I decided to share with my writers group and began to read from the middle. There was much needed positive feedback, but for me, the scene kept transforming and lengthening, and it felt like I was never going to reach its end. It wrote smooth and perfect, don't misunderstand, and I'm really pleased and proud, but it just wouldn't end! And it's what occurs immediately prior to the Big Central Event……I was getting antsy and impatient.
Well, Sunday, I reached my biggest writing goal for Book Two: the Big Central Event! Mr. Him is visible again! So much changed from when I first wrote it- which was back during Red’s first draft. Actually, I knew this scene before I knew the entire rest of the story. It was the vision I had that sparked everything else. It was such a raw thing: two people confronting each other in a forest, and there’s hurt and anger and fear. But threading through everything is an insane amount of love. More profound than love. I felt everything Lira felt, and it was monstrously heavy and heartbreaking. WTH could have caused this confrontation between two people like them? That question is what birthed Red. So, this scene is pivotal and personally important. It is what began it all.
A lot has occurred between Red and now. There’s new people, there’s been a lot of healing and friendships, and power dynamics have shifted. Lira has changed. The afters of this scene have improved and chronologically rearranged, and I’m returning to this point with a much deeper knowledge of Mr. Him and what he’s been up to, what he’s been struggling with prior to deciding that now is the time to finally make himself re-known.
I was very disappointed to find that what I had written was not as gripping and emotional as I remember. WTactualH?? I rewrote it, and still, it felt flat. I had always seen them in the trees. It morphed into a symbolic way to play against the first time they were together, when all was rosy and golden and warm. Trees have always been part of her security, and she doesn’t feel safe anymore. Now she feels like they’re trapping her, they’ve become that hallway of trees that deposits her and dead-ends. This is what the location was supposed to portray.
Then too, originally, he kinda ambushes her. Not kinda, he does. For the last few years I've been struggling with this fact. I wanted her alone and unsuspecting, I wanted this tense and gripping and private- yep- raw and emotional exchange. I had written his greeting as a kiss, one of those abrupt, no warning things the movies tell us are romantic and passionate. I wanted her to be reminded of what kissing him feels like, to jumpstart a rewire in her thinking. But you know what, a couple years ago, I was kissed like that, and it actually pissed me off. It was not romantic. It was not passionate, or thoughtful, or reverent. And Mr. Him is exceptionally reverent towards her. He would also never ambush her, this way or any other.
To get into the trees, based on where everything starts, she has to run away from him, with her son in tow. Blaze’s inclusion offered a lot of good understory, showed touching glimpses into Mr. Him, and helped increase her confusion. But I didn’t like the position this scenario put her in. I didn’t like that she fled. She’s come a long way, and I want her to get angry and stand up for herself rather than fall apart. She is not going to meet him crying on her knees after brainlessly running away. Yes, fight or flight, but no f’n way.
There were moments in the night before where I could’ve led her blissfully into the forest. But she wouldn’t go, and I humbly shrugged and didn’t push. Plus again, he’s reverent, and time of day matters to him.
I decided to play a writing game and challenge myself: Instead of running, instead of being outside and amongst her trees, why not rewrite the scene with her remaining indoors? The worst that happens is I lose a day or three to a scene I don’t keep. If I see it as a waste and whine, I turn myself into a bitter writer, and no one likes a bitter writer. Granted, she doesn’t normally like being between walls, and given the location of the indoors and the setup, instead of her and him alone (with Blaze) she will have more of an audience. There goes her privacy and his anonymity.
I already didn’t like it. But I was going to be a trooper and humor myself anyway. I made a copy of the chapter, labelled it as ‘inside’ and made the other ‘outside’, and got to work.
So, we’ll see what gets chosen in the end.
Hey there. I’m writing!
Me again! Writing lots!
Happy (fill in the blank)! Writing’s going fairly well!
But it’s the times when it doesn’t go well, or as planned, that I think I should journey over to here, and give some insight. When you read the completed book, you can remember the struggle and laugh, or be surprised, or agree with my choices, or sob at me for them. But you’ll have been part of the road.
There has actually been a lot to share, it just didn’t occur to me that I should. Actually. Share. I follow a lot of authors on Instagram and Twitter, and love the story behind the story. I love the glimpses into their lives and the insight into them as people. Again, didn’t occur to me to share, or moments were over so quick, it no longer seemed relevant. I also started taking part in daily, month long, themed writer challenges I found by accident on Instagram. It was a lot of fun, a little work, and usually challenging. It brought a lot of different-angled insight into BOOK TWO and all the characters, introduced me to some more Indie authors and their great books, and was just all around a good thing to be part of.
With the sudden Obvious-Thing-I-Don’t-Want-To-Mention, I needed a bit of a break and reset, so this month, no new challenges. I am just writing. I am going to meet my goals and get Number Two finished this year. This is a must. Last fall, I decided to share with my writers group and began to read from the middle. There was much needed positive feedback, but for me, the scene kept transforming and lengthening, and it felt like I was never going to reach its end. It wrote smooth and perfect, don't misunderstand, and I'm really pleased and proud, but it just wouldn't end! And it's what occurs immediately prior to the Big Central Event……I was getting antsy and impatient.
Well, Sunday, I reached my biggest writing goal for Book Two: the Big Central Event! Mr. Him is visible again! So much changed from when I first wrote it- which was back during Red’s first draft. Actually, I knew this scene before I knew the entire rest of the story. It was the vision I had that sparked everything else. It was such a raw thing: two people confronting each other in a forest, and there’s hurt and anger and fear. But threading through everything is an insane amount of love. More profound than love. I felt everything Lira felt, and it was monstrously heavy and heartbreaking. WTH could have caused this confrontation between two people like them? That question is what birthed Red. So, this scene is pivotal and personally important. It is what began it all.
A lot has occurred between Red and now. There’s new people, there’s been a lot of healing and friendships, and power dynamics have shifted. Lira has changed. The afters of this scene have improved and chronologically rearranged, and I’m returning to this point with a much deeper knowledge of Mr. Him and what he’s been up to, what he’s been struggling with prior to deciding that now is the time to finally make himself re-known.
I was very disappointed to find that what I had written was not as gripping and emotional as I remember. WTactualH?? I rewrote it, and still, it felt flat. I had always seen them in the trees. It morphed into a symbolic way to play against the first time they were together, when all was rosy and golden and warm. Trees have always been part of her security, and she doesn’t feel safe anymore. Now she feels like they’re trapping her, they’ve become that hallway of trees that deposits her and dead-ends. This is what the location was supposed to portray.
Then too, originally, he kinda ambushes her. Not kinda, he does. For the last few years I've been struggling with this fact. I wanted her alone and unsuspecting, I wanted this tense and gripping and private- yep- raw and emotional exchange. I had written his greeting as a kiss, one of those abrupt, no warning things the movies tell us are romantic and passionate. I wanted her to be reminded of what kissing him feels like, to jumpstart a rewire in her thinking. But you know what, a couple years ago, I was kissed like that, and it actually pissed me off. It was not romantic. It was not passionate, or thoughtful, or reverent. And Mr. Him is exceptionally reverent towards her. He would also never ambush her, this way or any other.
To get into the trees, based on where everything starts, she has to run away from him, with her son in tow. Blaze’s inclusion offered a lot of good understory, showed touching glimpses into Mr. Him, and helped increase her confusion. But I didn’t like the position this scenario put her in. I didn’t like that she fled. She’s come a long way, and I want her to get angry and stand up for herself rather than fall apart. She is not going to meet him crying on her knees after brainlessly running away. Yes, fight or flight, but no f’n way.
There were moments in the night before where I could’ve led her blissfully into the forest. But she wouldn’t go, and I humbly shrugged and didn’t push. Plus again, he’s reverent, and time of day matters to him.
I decided to play a writing game and challenge myself: Instead of running, instead of being outside and amongst her trees, why not rewrite the scene with her remaining indoors? The worst that happens is I lose a day or three to a scene I don’t keep. If I see it as a waste and whine, I turn myself into a bitter writer, and no one likes a bitter writer. Granted, she doesn’t normally like being between walls, and given the location of the indoors and the setup, instead of her and him alone (with Blaze) she will have more of an audience. There goes her privacy and his anonymity.
I already didn’t like it. But I was going to be a trooper and humor myself anyway. I made a copy of the chapter, labelled it as ‘inside’ and made the other ‘outside’, and got to work.
So, we’ll see what gets chosen in the end.
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