So I wrote a lot and did a lot, even though I definitely didn't write enough. Ah, well.
Lessons Learned
- Apparently, it takes me a while to really fully recover from heavy emotional blows.
- Publishing slows me down if I mix it in with writing. I knew that but forgot it. I didn't even finish getting Dowse and Bleed published and will have to rethink how I fit publishing in the schedule.
- Layering in on top of stuff I've already written pretty much requires me to go into a bubble. Writing a quick, rough novel draft goes much faster if I can bounce it off of someone else whenever I hit a wall. Writing a quick, rough short draft pretty much requires knowing too little or too much; it's that semi-ignorance that stops me cold.
- Reading to 2 o'clock in the morning is a very bad idea. Stop picking up novels at 11 p.m.
- Reading can radically alter which story I can write. Be very careful of what you read when.
- I had forgotten my old style of story creation when I was just a wee thing. It went like this: I had certain kinds of stories I liked, which usually involved special powers and often romance. I would create a premise and plunk in my favored pairing of the moment and all their family dynamics with others, then play it all out in my head for weeks on end. Eventually, I got too good at this. I could play through an entire story in a couple of hours because my brain had dissected the inevitable path. If you'll recall my rule of story process:
Know your characters, the rules of your world, and a handful of outside factors to fling at them. The rest will be unpredictable—even to you, but inevitable.
The instant of predictability killed the story for me because it would wrap too quickly. So I got very, very good at adding more twists, more obstacles, more cultural or biological issues to get in the way, more trauma, more angst, until I could still play out my stories for weeks because I had backed my characters into some awful corners and inescapable difficulties.
Which means that outlining kills a story for me because the instant of predictability, I lose all interest in a story unless I've already hit the home stretch of writing, from the end of the middle through the climax and denouement. Which is also why I tend to sketch instead of fill out a story the way I ought to. :headdesk: Lesson learned.
- I write waaay better and more if I do not browse the industry blogs first. I write waaaay better if I do not read someone else's fiction first. New rule of thumb ought to be, Write first.
- Self-discipline is a virtue. Learn it!
Word Counts
January 31, 2014
- Fiction: 0 words
- Poetry: 85 words | 21 lines
- Blog: 33 words
January Totals
- Fiction: 17,392 words
- Poetry: 498 words | 102 lines
- Blog: 8030 words
Completed Pieces
- Poem: "Before My Eyes," 220 words | 47 lines.
- Fanfic: "Mistakes," 1397 words.
- Poem: "Writer's Social Therapy," 32 words | 4 lines.
- Poem: "Blanket Statements," 8 lines| 48 words.
- Poem: "Friends Like These," 24 lines | 121 words.
- Poem: “Empty Spaces,” 7 lines | 20 words.
- Poem: “The Soundless Scream,” 5 lines | 22 words.
- Poem: “Like a Light,” 9 lines | 43 words.
