Okay, first off…the Ho and I have a new show. It’s called Wild Wild Country, it’s on Netflix, and it’s soooooo goooood. It’s about this cult that called themselves the Rajneeshpunam, and they set up shop in Oregon in this totally, completely remote area. Both Liz and I thought we knew where they were going with the story, but we’re only two episodes in, and already it’s twisted and turned into a story we did not anticipate in the slightest (and yet, also so predictable in a “oh, humanity” kind of way.
Watch it.
Writing today teetered on the brink of not happening…but I don’t how to explain it, guys, I had a feeling in my bones from very, very early on in the day that good things were going to happen. I feel like I’ve been leaving good words in my head each day instead of emptying myself creatively. Or maybe not emptying my creative brain, because that implies that afterwards I would be, well, empty…but at the very least that I am capable right now of getting more down onto the page than I’m currently producing.
I journaled about that for a little while, and this is what I came up with before I even started writing: that I need to set story goals for the day rather than word goals. STORY goals I actually look forward to. A word-count is just a number. It’s helpful, certainly, when looking BACK at what I’ve done, but it really doesn’t work for me looking FORWARD at what I want to get done. It just doesn’t motivate me.
I’ve also come to the conclusion that, at least for now, my saving writing for before bed, those hours between 10pm and 12am, are NOT the right time for me to be writing. I’m too tired. I get too anxious building up to those hours that I haven’t written yet…I just haven’t been able to find a consistent groove. So, I’m pulling back from that and moving my writing back into the day time and earlier in the evening.
In fact, I’ve decided that I need to aim a bit higher with my writing goals. Be more ambitious. If I fall short, that’s fine! In fact, that seems to be my M.O.; whatever goal I shoot for, I allllmost get there. So, if I set a bigger, more ambitious goal for myself, I will actually work harder each day to reach it, and thus, get more done than the actual smaller, more realistic goal. Does this kind of make me a constant disappointment to myself? Perhaps. I feel like I sit in that every day regardless…but even that hasn’t been out of control lately. I’ve been fairly kind to myself, and my writing has improved as a result.
And oooohhhh was the writing good today. I’ve solved–or at least I hope I have–this glaring hole of how-do-I-make-this-work in one of my main characters that was sucking the life out of what happens later in the plot. I’ve talked about this before, I know, but I actually wrote the words down today of this new choice at its most crucial, info-dump kind of scene…and it was SIZZLING tonight. I found a way to make it really, really interesting stuff…I think. Dramatic. Edge of your seat. And you BELIEVE it (I think), which is what’s so important. My job as a storyteller is to make the reader believe what I’m telling them happened ACTUALLY happened. That suspension of disbelief. If it’s not real enough, readers don’t believe it, and then they don’t care about the characters, and through them, the story.
But, I wax poetic.
It’s working. I think, I hope, that it makes this section of the story now really kind of take off. And these scenes are fairly EARLY in the narrative, which is awesome, because there is so, soooo much adventure to come. I worry it might be TOO much, actually, and the book will be too long…but we. Shall. See. Not going to put that limiter on it until the book is finished, I’ve done a pass, and then I let Liz read it. She’s my barometer.
Can you tell today was a good writing day? I’m writing a hugely long post 😛
That’s it for tonight. It rained all day!
See you tomorrow 😉