Write, Live, Repeat

I’m not a glamorous writer. If you’ve been following my blog for any amount of time, you know that. I wish I could say that I wake up early in the morning and immediately begin penning the world’s next super-amazing novel, but I don’t. I do write late at night, but it’s not nearly as interesting as you might think. I sit down with my computer, read through my outline (again) and try to make some sort of plot. I do that day after day; crazy, isn’t it?

My first drafts, too, aren’t amazing. The story’s good enough and the characters are mostly genuine, but the plot. Sage advice: Never ever lose half of your novel and try to rewrite it from scratch. This means you come up with random plots (what, there’s a rebellion now?) and the beginning and end don’t fit anymore. You also realize that you have no idea what you’re doing, and you’re writing anyway. (Hey, welcome to my life.)

I’m also not that writer who only writes when she’s inspired. Sure, I could wait for that. But then I’d just wait, and nothing would happen. Writing solely from inspiration, though poetic, doesn’t work for me. I also don’t spend hours crafting elegant sentences. I set a time limit and cram. My writing process isn’t pretty, but it works.

My characters don’t talk to me when I’m doing other life stuff. I think about them, sure, but it’s not the same. It sounds fulfilling to say, “My characters speak to me,” but mine don’t. I just write them and think they’re awesome. (There’s a great difference, you see.)

I’ve been a bad writer lately. Why? Because I haven’t been writing.

But my novel deserves more attention than that, and honestly, wasting time doesn’t do anything. I need to give my novel focus. With so much time on my hands, it’s easy to squander it on pretending to write and email and reading and fun stuff and housework, but I can’t. Besides, I believe in the story and the characters enough that it’s worthwhile. I’ll fill the document “with the breathings of my heart.” I just need to put in the time to finish this draft so I can actually do something with it. Soon it’ll be worth it, I hope. (Then I can discover the joys of editing. YAY.)

Me looking excited about editing. With bedhead.
 

So, I’m going to make myself write 3k a day. Only 18,000 more words. I can do this. My writing deserves it. I deserve it, because writing is awesome. I just got inspired, so I'm going to sign off now.

           However, it’s Father’s Day today. So, I just wanted to give a shout-out to my dad, for being awesome and encouraging me. He's always been here for me and really cares about all of us. I'm so lucky to have him. And he makes the best chocolate-chocolate-chip peanut-butter cookies ever. :)