Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Sometimes it works like this...

Had a very nice development on Sunday; I was thinking over one of my perennial writing projects - Afterworld - and it just sort of fell together. I've been working on this thing off and on for, I don't know, at least two years. I've never made it past the first chapter; it's mainly been a series of false starts. I'd write a bit, decide I wasn't happy with that approach, and start over.

On Sunday it occurred to me that in order to get the full effect of the build-up that I'd originally wanted to create, what I really needed to do was start at the absolute beginning and go forward... and that I could do that by connecting (with only minor tweaks) a bunch of the false starts into a single narrative. And once I started looking at it that way, I could also see the structure I would need in order to connect them. So in the course of an hour, I went from having maybe a page and a half, to having more like ten pages - the better part of the first chapter. And I know where it ends, and how it crashes into the second chapter.

Now I just need to pry loose enough time to finish putting it together, and then move into the second chapter. Fortunately, I have a plan for that, too - I'll post more about that in about two weeks, after my busy season is over.

How about you? Any projects coming together? Any moments of inspiration and/or revelation you'd care to tell us about?

1 comment:

  1. Projects? Well, I'm getting married next week. Which means I can no longer procrastinate on cleaning out my closet, since I'll be moving out.

    On the plus side, I sold my old Barbie Malibu beach house for 35 bucks.

    "Now I just need to pry loose enough time to finish putting it together, and then move into the second chapter."

    I'm dyslexic. So when I'd write fan-fiction back in the day I'd start randomly. Like, I'd write scenes and piece them together.

    It's a great way to avoid writer's block!

    ReplyDelete

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