Friday, May 20, 2022

Nailing It Down As I Go

I'd mentioned, back on Monday, that "fits and starts" wasn't exactly the way to describe the writing dynamic for the current project. Because it is, and seems to be working (for a gods-damned change) as a seat-of-my-pants no-plotting-in-advance tell-myself-a-fucking-story project, I thought I'd take a moment and describe how it's actually going. 

It's a process. 

I said earlier that "I've been working and reworking the opening couple of scenes of the new writing project, which means I'm not moving as fast as I'd like but also that I'm pretty happy with what I've got down before I move on to each new section." And that's really the dynamic that I'm trying to describe for this story: I make various attempts to write a section, decide on the one that I like, nail that down, and then move onto the next. I am, basically, feeling my way through the plot and discovering more about the characters as I go. 

It's not efficient, and you might not believe the number of false starts that I've had for each particular section, but -- however slowly and even painfully -- it's working. I know who my characters are; I know where the plot is going. It's just a matter of making everything fit with the characters and the fundamental story dynamic. 

Still, telling myself a story I enjoy hearing seems like a workable strategy -- even if I have to figure it out as I go. 

So, the fifth song on the playlist: 

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