My journey to completing my first novel |
I have been reading Terry Brooks, Sometimes the Magic Works. What a fantastic read. I am a huge fan of Apocalyptic and Epic stories and series' and love Shannara and The Word and the Void. The main things I have taken away from this so far (apart from all the interesting info on Terry's life) is it's ok to daydream and live in your own made up world sometimes, that this is the first part of creating and then writing a story. Don't panic and rush to write it all down, if it's good and workable it will stick. I am still on the fence about outlining, however I had an idea (prob more of a short story or a part to a longer story, time will tell) whilst driving (that happens a lot) when I got in I rushed and made one sentence notes for what I thought would happen in this. I've now started writing it (by throwing it all out there on the page and not second guessing or editing myself as I go) and am using these notes (more a timeline, plot line) to keep me going. So far it's working. Especially since have been ill over the weekend and not written anything on it since Friday. I was able to pick up where I left off, just by reading the last sentence and looking at my wee plotline and going for it. My notebook is getting full, keep penning small ideas that come to me. Am letting them grow and live in my head till I see what happens. Terry is right, you don't forget you initial idea, but once you expand and 'live' it in your head you quite often drop it and forget because it wasn't whole, complete, had potential?. I don't know am letting things build and see where they go whilst I write this short story. I've really noticed that what kills my writing and any ideas is thinking beyond the actual writing of them and wondering. Easily nipped in the bud as I am writing for myself, to keep my head and have some space carved out that's mine. Still when you daydream your story you can get a little carried away. |