Lazy day and jobs
Oct. 20th, 2006 12:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayYesterday was our first lazy day of the holiday. Apart from popping down to the job centre to make some enquiries and get a better feel about my prospects (which seem to be no better but no worse than in England), we spent most of the day reading. And I did a fair bit of writing.
For the curious, Green Hills has been looked at but only a few new words added. The Atlantis Serpent-style AU that I'm totally not writing has had rather a lot of words added. Um.
And I've gone back to the beginning and started re-writing my original novel, Mage Murders (so totally working title only), from scratch. That one had a good core idea, some good characters but I'd done some stupid stuff. Primarily, I'd written out a good character in the first ten pages and discovered that I needed her. Not only was I then attempting to write a new character to do all the things that Lanny could have done if I'd kept her, Y'Pennf just wouldn't get involved in things without her. She was the bridge that pulled all my other characters together and without her I was struggling to get them in the same rooms. The other alternative, just writing out two other characters, got rid of several subplots and meant that I still needed to write in replacements for them. Plus the core plot wouldn't work as well.
In addition, I'd written a fair chunk of the novel and nothing had really happened yet. I know that I would have lost interest in the book already if I were trying to read it, so why did I do that?
Instead, I've gone right back to the beginning and started writing it again, changing all the things that I'd been having problems with. Lanny is still there, Y'Pennf now has a reason to get involved and Medreth seems happier with the entire thing. He's also willing to talk to Y'Pennf, which is a major breakthrough. I think he's shy :-)
I've also got the plot going immediately this time. Hey, the first body has already appeared so I've actually got the mage murder that everything hangs off! I've kept all the bits that I was happy with and it's flowing better than before. So far, I'm at around 3,400 words and feeling pretty pleased with it. Maybe this time when I sent myself a target of finishing it within a year, it will actually happen. Although I do need to remember to write regularly :-)
I've also discovered that I write well when listening to music with no words. Better, in fact, than my usual technique of writing in deathly silence. Who knew? At least I feel like I'm finally getting back into a writing groove, even if I'm not writing some of the things that I feel I should be writing. I'm writing, and that's the important part.
For the curious, Green Hills has been looked at but only a few new words added. The Atlantis Serpent-style AU that I'm totally not writing has had rather a lot of words added. Um.
And I've gone back to the beginning and started re-writing my original novel, Mage Murders (so totally working title only), from scratch. That one had a good core idea, some good characters but I'd done some stupid stuff. Primarily, I'd written out a good character in the first ten pages and discovered that I needed her. Not only was I then attempting to write a new character to do all the things that Lanny could have done if I'd kept her, Y'Pennf just wouldn't get involved in things without her. She was the bridge that pulled all my other characters together and without her I was struggling to get them in the same rooms. The other alternative, just writing out two other characters, got rid of several subplots and meant that I still needed to write in replacements for them. Plus the core plot wouldn't work as well.
In addition, I'd written a fair chunk of the novel and nothing had really happened yet. I know that I would have lost interest in the book already if I were trying to read it, so why did I do that?
Instead, I've gone right back to the beginning and started writing it again, changing all the things that I'd been having problems with. Lanny is still there, Y'Pennf now has a reason to get involved and Medreth seems happier with the entire thing. He's also willing to talk to Y'Pennf, which is a major breakthrough. I think he's shy :-)
I've also got the plot going immediately this time. Hey, the first body has already appeared so I've actually got the mage murder that everything hangs off! I've kept all the bits that I was happy with and it's flowing better than before. So far, I'm at around 3,400 words and feeling pretty pleased with it. Maybe this time when I sent myself a target of finishing it within a year, it will actually happen. Although I do need to remember to write regularly :-)
I've also discovered that I write well when listening to music with no words. Better, in fact, than my usual technique of writing in deathly silence. Who knew? At least I feel like I'm finally getting back into a writing groove, even if I'm not writing some of the things that I feel I should be writing. I'm writing, and that's the important part.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-20 07:45 pm (UTC)Music with no words is great, especially when you're trying to create a mood. I find that music with words can be distracting, but then some times I get so into what I'm doing that I don't notice.
I love silence but that's probably because most of the time my only choices are my music or whatever my landlady & her boyfriend are watching on TV at top volume.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-20 08:11 pm (UTC)Yes, I did try this technique out first at my job and it worked marvelously :-) But I hadn't thought about trying it for writing until a few days ago and it's working much better than silence.
But then it's usually quiet in my room at home whether or not other people have music on. So for me silence is a default rather than a treat and having something that sets the mood without being distracting seems to be working really well.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-22 11:17 am (UTC)I did put my classical chillout CD on yesterday when I was writing, but that failed completely because I ended up just sitting listening to it, and had to get my guitar out instead.
When (if, at this rate) I move I'm looking forward to being able to choose when I want quiet and when I want noise.