It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I feel bad for not writing much here, but not so bad, because I’ve been writing my book, which was the point of me starting this blog in the first place. (Woo!) Since we last spoke, I have officially finished the final outline of my novel. (I’ll probably be writing a post soon about why this is a big deal. Basically, 15 years in the making) Now my goal is to finish the entire draft (third overhaul, second start to finish manuscript) and actually get it ready to send off.
Today, I just want to share a little bit of what writing looks like for me on a day-to-day basis right now. (Note: very little actually involves trying words.)
Since I am lucky enough to have a job right now that is predominantly menial labor, and doesn’t require full mental concentration or creativity, I decided a couple months ago to use this time to really think and plot and create (pretty much everything except actually writing) my book. This has done wonders to my productivity and satisfaction at work and motivates me to actually write when I’ve the time.
Each new thing I did was hurriedly typed into my phone in the rare breaks I get at work, in digital shorthand until I can compile and expand later.
So, what I decided I needed to do today in the six hours of quiet work ahead of me:
- Name my main villain (because I can’t very well call him Uncle the whole time. I know; I’ve tried. XD)
- Plot out the next scene.
What actually happened:
- Deepened understanding of magical system, as it relates to names, usage, place in life, and personality.
- In light of this, refigured interpersonal relations, scenes, and entire characters
- Gained deeper insight to the mythologies, religions, and cultures
- Found two new fighting scenes I have to write
- Made two characters far more interesting
- Built more ground work for other books
- Made one villain and one hero more relatable
- Found out how parents relate to their children in reference to pet names (I.e how they talk to their children before and after naming, and how that in turns informs their relationship with said child
- Found a story seed that uses punctuation in an interesting way
- Found a new way to describe a character that is less clunky
- Might have found a way to impart necessary world building information without info dumps, that will change the tone of the book in major way. (Closer to what I prefer to read, and find more fun, but wildly differing from how I always thought the story would be told, and that terrifies me.)
- Delved more into how I wanted to mesh my beliefs into my work, without it devolving into a sermon and undermining the story itself
- Solidified some ideas of how I want to be branded as an author, and how I could handle writing the multiple genres, and the crossovers and hybrids thereof.
- Worked on a pivotal relationship in the book, how the two interacted and viewed each other.
What did not happen:
- Naming of the Uncle
- Plotting of the scene
Hanz Writes 