They started framing the house yesterday. Yay! Pics to come soon. I just realized my camera is still in the bag Sean has over at the site.
I worked over there for four hours yesterday, but am staying home today to do more work on my new ms. Lots to figure out. Mostly, can this story work? I sure hope so. My characters are already chattering away to me and to each other, so I'm taking this as a good sign.
It's a marriage of convenience story - one I've never really done before. My first ms included a forced marriage for the heroine (not to the hero), but until now I've never used an MoC plot. It's interesting, that's for sure. Even though, historically, it's entirely within the bounds of reality, it still seems strange to me. And that's where I have to get my head into the late 18th century mindset. That love and marriage don't always go hand in hand. That people married for a variety of reasons - if they were lucky, mutual caring and respect developed and sometimes even blossomed into love.
I'm finding one of the biggest obstacles to my writing these days is my quest for THE PERFECT system for plotting. In the end, I think I have to remember what Yoda said - "Do, or do not. There is no try." Ok, in my case, it's "Do or do not. There is no perfect system. Just PLOT already!!"
Thing is I LOVE systems and software and forms etc, yet I get so caught up in them I forget that the ONLY way to plot a story is to put my butt in a chair, pencil/pen in hand and brainstorm. Or open up the new, nifty (see, I fell for it again) storyboard feature in Writers Project Organizer and enter what comes into my head. Clear my mind and allow things to flow.
Do you find that sometimes you just have to remember that writing really is all about putting words on paper, not reading endless articles on HOW TO PLOT or filling in forms? Please tell me I'm not alone! That I'm not the only writer who falls for all the latest gew gaws and how-to workshops etc.
Teresa
Currently Reading: Labyrinth by Kate Mosse (almost done - will blog about it soon)
3 comments:
I'm in the midst of sort of relearning how to plot since I'm not writing a romance this time, but a mainstream contemporary novel. That's why I picked up Maass's book - I'm looking for some good pointers.
I also think the only way I can really plot is to put a big, long sheet of paper on my basement walls and plot from start to finish in a linear fashion so that I can see how things work from beginning to end.
I find I can get so caught up in systems that I forget to write the story. Or I lose the essence of the story in the forms and charts, etc. THat's when I know its time to put away the systems and break out the notepad and write longhand for a bit.
"Thing is I LOVE systems and software and forms etc, yet I get so caught up in them..." hee hee - a writer's disease for sure.
How did you get into my brain, anyway?
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