The turning point.

Not surprisingly, I have been swallowed by the mammoth beast that is the senior year semester.

Good news, though, on the Plan C front:

The past few weeks, I've been working on "retrofitting" parts of the story, and through it all, I'm learning so much about the novel writing process. As a result, hoping that my depictions of academia will ring a little more true than they have thus far.

Some of the more major aspects of the work are being tweaked as I realize just how much this book is "character-driven" versus "plot-driven." What does that mean? It means that, according to my professor, my novel will "stand or fall" based on how genuine - how real - my characters are. I wholeheartedly agree.

I'm telling you, this directed research is a novelist's boot camp. Never before have I felt so sure that I have have little-to no-idea what the heck I'm actually doing. Never before have I so seriously doubted my basic competency as a creative writer to tackle a project like this. Each meeting reveals to me just exactly how much I do NOT know about my craft. This may sound like I'm whining about a negative experience, but out of the nagging self-doubt comes the challenge to do the absolute best I can and to NEVER settle for less than 110% out of myself.

But perhaps, most significantly of all, I'm learning so much about how I have to BELIEVE in what I'm doing. If I don't, who will? I have to love this book enough to be willing to do whatever I can humanly do to make it good. To be willing to make sacrifices where I need to - and to figure out exactly what's truly important in my work. Nothing worth creating out of this is going to come quickly or easily.

It's been a stretching experience - one of extreme highs and lows - but, through it all, I think that it's been teaching me more about diligence and patience than I could have ever imagined it could. But through it all, I know that I'm only further discovering where the passions of my heart lie.

And, as a result, I know that I'll never be the same again.

Next year: NaNoWriMo

One of the difficulties of balancing a full-time schedule of college classes, work hours, and (the semblance of) a social life is that, inevitably, something ends up getting shortchanged. Unfortunately for me, my writing project is the thing that I've ended up having to place on the back burner for the past several weeks. However, I do have a few positive bits of news to report!

Over the past few months, I've had an opportunity to attend a few sessions of my new writing critique group, and I've managed to receive some amazing encouragement and feedback. Best of all, I've received the motivation I need to start actively moving past the mere planning stage. Outlining is extremely helpful to me, but, at the same time, it tends to keep me a bit stuck. I find it too easy to begin to distance myself from my work and keep painstakingly plotting for every little contingency. Not only does this begin to suck the spontaneous pleasure out of the project, but also I find myself afraid that I may never actually move beyond pages of endless plot summaries and character profiles.

Thankfully, I received the stimuli I needed to start actually writing the thing. Even though I've been working on my outline sporatically since July, I still have a (significant) few more holes to get filled in, but I suppose, at least for this first draft, that I'm going to try to tinker with and explore my characters and let them begin to reveal aspects of themselves as we go. (Those who have worked with creating and writing original characters will understand how this process works.)

With that said, my major goal for this coming Yuletide season (and extended break from college classes) is to complete the first one or two chapters of Plan C. Can I do it? I think so! I've started to jot down a rough outline of the first 1 and 1/2 chapters as well as having begun a working draft for the first few pages. I just wish that I was finished with the last few (academic) writing projects of the semester...

Until next time...
I'd much rather be novel-writin'.
-R

Not to write, for many of us, would be to die. - Ray Bradbury