As much as I love to write, sometimes it's a lot of work. When the fog clears and I type paragraph after paragraph, there is no better feeling in the world... Well, maybe a tight hug around the neck from one of the grands...
Yes, to me writing brings much pleasure. But there's a lot more to it than just coming up with a story and running with it. I mentioned in an earlier post about when I read through some earlier chapters and stumbled upon Kyle, a character I wanted to keep - but she wasn't supposed to know who the father was! Details - they are important. I am getting better at the organizing as I go along.
Tonight I realized my time-line was off, so back to the beginning I went... I opened my 'author' notebook in OneNote and created a chart. (I love my Office OneNote program for organizing. I didn't start using it until a couple of months ago, and now I can't live without it!) I made a chart with a column for 'year', 'Liz', 'Nat', and' what happened'. Liz is my main character and Natalie is her daughter. So I put in years from 1968, the year her sister left home, to 2012, well beyond my outline to be on the safe side. In the columns under their names, I put in how old they would be on their birthday that year. Under the 'what happened' heading goes the details... January - mom died, summer - met Nick, moved here, there, etc. I found a couple of major date faux pas!
My next manuscript will be a breeze! I've learned some really good tips to help me keep things together. Next time I won't be starting over... and over, and over! I'll get it right the first time. I do expect my first book to be a learning process. I just hope I learn fast enough that I have some lifetime left for a second book...
All things writing: My WsIP and tidbits I learn along the way, book reviews, an occasional author interview, and a hodgepodge of anything else on the topic of writing.
5 comments:
Becoming an author is an education in itself sounds like. If I ever write a book I think maybe I will go for a collection of short stories, LOL.
SQ
It must take a tremendous amount of dedication to keep everything detailed and organized. I have enough trouble blogging. I can hardly wait to see this on book store shelves.
Lily, I admire you. In my dreams I always wanted to write a book. After hearing from you what all is involved I think I'll just satisfy my dream with blogging. But good for you, hang in there. BTW, I don't like the word "blogging". There should be a prettier word for it. "Writing" sounds so romantic, but "blogging" --?
How about beautiful logging? ...or blogging for short?
For me, the most exciting - and frustrating - thing about writing is that you never stop learning. And you can only learn by trying things out and discovering what works for you. Good luck with it!
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