As you might recall, I've mentioned a few times that I've been working on a story for the past few months. Well, I am pleased to announce that on Friday the 3rd of December, I finished the first draft. This is actually a bigger deal than you'd think because, as I've also probably mentioned, I've never gotten to the end of anything this big before. After giving myself a day or two to take a step back from what I'd written (which only kind of worked), I read it all the way through for the first time. Fortunately, my worst fears were not confirmed and I didn't absolutely hate everything I'd written, another problem that has plagued me for years. Reading through 28 pages was exhausting and there's plenty of work that needs to be done, but I fairly confident I'm off to a good start. Unfortunately, blogging about the writing process is not quite as interesting as looking at pictures, so I included a sketch that expresses my current state of mind.
I know, it's not a very good sketch. The sad thing is that I had a hard time getting even that to look acceptable. Anyhow, my art production has slowed way down do to this other preoccupation, but don't worry, I'll have some more stuff up soonish. (I hope.)
Seeing as how I'm starting to seriously pursue writing, I'm going to look into some ways to share some of the stuff I'm working on in this blog. I have a few other novel ideas I want to start on, plus the editing work I'm doing for this story and some other pieces of short prose. Who knows, I might even chuck in a bit of poetry for good measure, if I ever come up with anything good. Poetry is one area I'm interested in playing with, but know nothing about.
sincerely,
me
I LOVE this sketch. I can so identify with this girl! I'm working on a novel, and some days I just feel like creating new words on the page is the hardest thing ever - mostly, I think, because it won't write itself, and you can't cheat or speed up the process in any way. You can stare at a blank piece of paper for an hour, and you get nowhere. Not much else in life is like that.
ReplyDeletep.s. This is one of my favorite quotes about poetry: In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite. ~Paul Dirac
I know! Unfortunately, the same thing goes for editing, which is the part of the process I'm currently struggling with. You can stare at one part of your story, knowing that it needs to be fixed, but you have no idea how to make it better.It's so frustrating!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your novel, though! That's so exciting! Hope it's going well. As hard as writing is, there's nothing like weaving words together into a bigger narrative.
I love your quote about poetry, by the way. The same principle applies to creating art. You have something you want to communicate to the world, but you don't want it to be too obvious. It's a strange sort of balance to find.