Yes, I know I said I was going to focus on just writing rather than methods, but then I saw Katy Cooper's post about the Snowflake Method and decided to check it out again. This time it struck a chord in me, so I've started to work with it.
I like the building blocks approach, though I can also see myself using FDin30D forms as well. But what it did do was get me jump started again. Well, that and a couple of suggestions from Sean. Fitting my writing work in right now is a tad tricky as I'm super busy with house stuff, but finding the excitement again certainly has helped.
Writing for me has always been a form of escape, but sometimes I forget that because I put so much pressure on myself to produce a marketable ms. In the end, I need to remember why I write, and get back to that rather than worrying about how to sell it. Not that I'm aiming to write something that won't sell *g*, but at this early stage the story and characters are paramount.
I've been researching as well and had great luck this week emailing the British Museum for information, receiving back a detailed response with just the info I need. So for those of you who've hesitated about emailing a major institution, I urge you to give it a go - you may be pleasantly surprised :)
Teresa
Link of the Day: Deborah Hale on Walking the Historical Tightrope: Giving Your Historical Romance 'Atmosphere' Without Making it Sound like a Doctoral Thesis
Bonus Link: Lord of Scandal by Nicola Cornick
6 comments:
I've wanted to try the snowflake method. I printed off an article on it a couple of years ago but haven't tried it yet.
It's so easy to get sucked into the marketing aspect of writing and forget why we started writing in the first place. I think all of us need to step back every once in awhile and remember the joy. :-) I know I do!
beautiful outdoors!!I yearn for being with nature. Enjoy the time that you spend, cherish it.
I don't know what the Snowflake method is but I've learned just to be myself and write using my method. I got a wonderful book "How to Write and Sell Your First Novel" in March and have used it to source organizational details. When I got to the chapter on Editing I stopped reading and put aside. Now I'm writing my ms and have 5 1/2 chapters done. I am doing the 3 pages a day thing for the most part and love it! When I finish my day's pages I am on a high for the rest of the day. So far I've done 90 pages. I write all of this to tell you to focus on your ms first and worry about publishing it later.
Bonne Chance!
I totally know what you mean. It is hard to try and remember that you write for enjoyment and yet still try to balance it with the marketplace. While its great to write from your heart, it is naive to ignore the market.
I'm really leaning towards a Dana now. I was thinking today how nice it would be to go outside and write but my laptop isn't geared for that. Sigh...
The snowflake method didn't work for me because it didn't help me to actually develop ideas. Redchurch over at Quantum Storytelling had a few posts a while ago about reverse plotting. This worked wonders for me because going backwards, I'd have to come up with what happened to get me to a certain scene.
http://www.redchurch.com/quantum/
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