Taking a page from Janet this morning, I think I'll share a little bit of what free-writing looks like for me.
Below is a free-writing session that I would typically conduct in one of my notebooks with my trusty red pen. This morning, I'm doing it here. And this is for the book I was calling Nano (or Bloodflow) that I started years ago but never quite finished
Okay, so you know where you want to go with this. It's pretty clear. But I think you got off on the wrong foot - again - damn it. Sure it would add a little extra twist if you made X & Y formerly ellicit lovers and it might even add a punch, but it would totally cut out Y's motivation for what he doesn't want to do but knows he has to do. And the last rewrite you did - the one you just tossed aside - was actually pretty good. Stupid. Why reinvent the wheel?
Okay, setting that aside, what do we do with the scenes showing Z's backstory and motivation? He's got issues, but do they all need to be on the page? Do they all need to stay in the book or can they be cut without damaging the plot line? And would leaving them in make the book better in the long run?
What is the point? What are you trying to accomplish with this story? Is it too contrived? And no matter how hard you work or how much you love this, is anyone anywhere going to want to buy it? Or will it end up as just another stack of paper on the junk pile that is your career? Stupid.
At which point I usually just degenerate into a bunch of negative self talk, and a good self-asskicking until I get myself back on track. As for the above, yeah, I talk to myself using 'you' and 'we', like I'm talking to someone else. But I'm sane. Really I am.
Do you free-write? Or do you just talk to yourself a lot? ;o)
URG - Blogger ate my comment before I could click publish!
ReplyDeleteAs I was saying - this could have come directly from any of my WIP notebooks (where I question plot/character/GMC/all-of-the-above and then go on to lament being either unpublished or unfinished). I believe we are long-lost sisters!
Thanks for sharing your free-writing with us, B.E. :)
That was interesting! Your free writing is much more linear then mine. I tend to just ramble to myself in jot notes, LOL. If someone tried to look at it, it would look like code, since I also use writing shortcuts I learned in university ;)
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