Writing Update

Book 3 is now up to 70,000 words.  Woohoo!

Now, I'm not saying it's any good…because it's not.  But my goal for this weekend is to "finish" the first horrible draft so I at least know what is going to happen in it and then I can officially start plotting out book 4 (even thought I've been working on it already too.)  By doing these drafts now, I know some things I have to add in book 1 to make sure they aren't deux ex machina when I need them in book 3-5.

One of the things about each of my  "books" in my "series"  (quotes are due to them not being official books in a series yet…aka published) is that they each take place over a small slice of the main character's life.  I really appreciated how one of my writing teachers at Stanford's OWC shared that there is the arc of the character's whole life (picture an arc like a rainbow) but our stories are a slice out of it.  In my case, my series will look at a chunk of Kayla's life over five years but each individual book is a very small slice within that already small part of her life. 

Now, some of the stuff that comes before the slice that I'm sharing is important to understand the character but I can't cram the whole first part of the arc into the beginning of the story.  I need to fit in little tidbits here and there so that the reader can better appreciate the slice they are reading.  (Why do I suddenly want a slice of pizza now???)

I have a 5,000 word rewrite from book 1 due on Sunday for my One-on-One Tutorial.  It is so hard to select which portion to submit.   I love getting feedback on pieces of the story from people that are genuinely interested in seeing it become a stronger piece of fiction.

I was talking to a person who had never done a workshop before in writing.  She was concerned about people taking her ideas or being too harsh.  I can understand those concerns but once you get that feedback and use it, you start to realize the huge difference it can make in your writing.  So, I encourage all of you to find a group of aspiring writers willing to do workshops where you "sandwich" the criticisms between praise.  

BTW- Having friends and family read your writing is not the same as a workshop.  People who are not reading your work-in-progress (WIP) from a writing perspective do not necessarily know how to comment on your writing and the flow of your story.    They might point out typos but they won't necessarily point out the holes in the plot, the confusing portions, the overly verbose sections, or other issues.  You need people that can be critical but still supportive.  

My desire to keep that type of workshop-circle-of-writers is one of the reasons I wanted to pursue the MFA.  It sounds like workshops are a large portion of the brief residencies and I am looking forward to new people reading my works-in-progress while keeping in contact with OWC folks too.