The Inner Darkness

Everything I learned about human nature I learned from me. Anton Chekhov #amwriting #writing #writingtip pic.twitter.com/cgdUDBQ6ai

— The UnNovelist (@TheUnNovelist) May 19, 2016

Today was a little better mood-wise, even if I got less words done. At least I nailed some things down.

The doctor gave me some injections in my neck yesterday to help with the pain. This is exactly as grotesque, squicky, and painful as it sounds. Normally needles don't bother me (though this is my limit to sight-of-blood-or-gross-things tolerance), but I am REALLY glad I couldn't see what the doctor was doing. I caught a glimpse of the size of that needle, and I think I would have been traumatized had I had to watch.

Today there was still pain, but even though the degree was weirdly the same, it was the kind that I felt but which I could ignore and continue to function. The previous pain was the kind that pretty much stopped me from doing anything. I did learn that the area might be tender for a while, so yay, it's not my weird body, it's normal and it'll gradually go away!

Anyway, the relevance to writing is that I didn't feel so crappy, so even though I got off work only at 8, I actually started at 9PM.

The necromancers are stirring. This story is definitely turning into yet another angle on the neither-dead-nor-living-nor-ever-alive spectrum that seems to haunt my plot bunnies. There are definitely elements of my other necromancer characters, as well as bits and pieces of other things I've 'borrowed' from my other stories.

This story is my playground!

Some say kill your darlings. I say save your darlings. If you love them, they need to live. May not be here or now, but one day. #amwriting

— J. A. Rama (@Bobo_The_Bard) May 19, 2016

What I Did: 

I wrote a bit more. I now have about two paragraphs, roughly.

I fleshed out the Twitter plot a bit more. I think I know who my characters are now.

I found myself outlining a bit, quite unintentionally. I came up with five scenes or so, which are (gasp) actually loosely causally linked! I'm still not sure where this is going, but I begin to have hopes (cross fingers) that the shape of this thing actually exists, and I just have to find it.

It seems like switching between writing, outlining, and plotting is working. Every time I hit a wall on one, I go to another.

What I Plan to Do Next: 

I need to introduce all the character lines into my Twitter plot, and fill out preliminary values for what I haven't. I still need to tighten it up after that, but first things first. I might have to write again to get to that stage.

I might need to introduce more plott-y sorts of things, like more character questions, or some writing exercises, etc. to help me nail down the central choice/stakes of this thing.

Hmm. Maybe I need to do a synopsis/query exercise.

Of course, I hope to write another paragraph tomorrow. Maybe this needs to take a rough percentage shift...of all the 'work' I do over the time I do it in, maybe in the beginning it'll be mostly plotting/a little outlining with even less writing, but gradually it'll shift to more outlining/less plotting/slightly more rapid writing, then mostly writing with less plotting/outlining.

Obstacles:

This shiznit is ALL OVER THE PLACE.

Right now the biggest obstacles are that:

1) I am slow. I need to build up my writing stamina. Maybe part of my crashing and burning earlier is that I tried to do too much for my level.

2) I still don't know how I'm going to get a concrete, interesting story out of this very loosely knit pile of weirdness I have. Right now things are very vague, and still feel formulaic and a bit boring. I mean, there are bits I like, but nothing is alive or jumps off the page yet. I guess I have to wait this one out.