03 March 2009

(No) method in the madness

I'm 13k words into my new book. My heroine's just announced she's half Dutch (which came as something of a surprise) and my hero's been chopping logs without feeling the need for a shirt. It's messy, disorganised, grammatically horrible, disjointed and unexpectedly features flamingoes (although happily, the foray to Scotland stays). But hey, that's what a first draft is for, right?

However, I know from experience that I can't finish the whole thing before going back to tidy up. I have to edit as I go along in order to move forward, and an edit is long overdue. But is there anything more demotivating than a decreasing (and it would be decreasing) wordcount? Ho, hum...maybe when I get to 20k...

Obviously this means I've been procrastinating. Single line spacing or double line spacing? Big margins or little margins? One document or lots of little ones? Music or silence? A glass of wine or a bottle? How do you write?

8 comments:

Suzanne Ross Jones said...

Lucy, I wish I knew. I've written so little recently that I think I've forgotten how.

13K is brilliant - you're making great progress. And am so happy that Scotland is staying.

:-)

Romy Sommer said...

Congrats on the first 13k. Like you, I have to go back and edit if something major decides to change.

For me it's Sangria. I love that you can now buy it in cartons. Whisks me away to exotic, sunny destinations.

I can't wait to see what you do with/for Scotland.

Jackie Ashenden said...

Haha! I love the way characters do that to you. And flamingoes?? Lucy, I'm dying to read it already!!

I know what you mean about editing. My Nano I wrote all in one go which was great, but my current WIP I'm finding hard going. And that's probably because of a conversation way back in Chapter 1 that I found difficult and so I skipped ahead. It was character building stuff too. Think I better go back and finish it.

Um writing. Well, I used to listen to music but can't these days - too difficult to concentrate. My document is single spaced, with page breaks between chapters. Margins big. I used to not be able to write after a glass or two of wine but sometimes it's just the inspiration I need! :-)

Lacey Devlin said...

I write similarily to you Lucy! Add in a bit of screaming and hair pulling though... and I've never had flamingoes... In fact I'm feeling a bit ripped off that my muse has never let me have flamingoes...

Lucy King said...

Ok, so I'm now rather nervous about the whole Scottish Question! And flamingoes... what have I let myself in for?!

Lorraine said...

I love the way characters suddenly surprise you, no matter how much planning you've done.

I used to write a bit, edit a bit etc but found writing the nano in one go brilliant - it was rubbish but I had a whole ms to edit then. I found writing without worrying about how good it was liberating and it made me more productive.

It's amazing how much the word count changes with edits - Natalie Anderson said she cuts 5-10 k in edits but still manages to increase the overall wordcount...

Lynn Raye Harris said...

Flamingos? LOL!!! I tend to write very fast, not filling in gaps, etc, and then when I go back for an edit, I add words rather than cut. Now I will write and delete entire scenes all in the space of a day, so it's not the most sensible process I must admit. :)

Word verif: prosepai

A prose pie? Or pay for the prose? Hmm.

Felicity Roger said...

Congrats on the first 13K. At the moment I am struggling to get to 1300, but this is because I have skipped the vital piece of the puzzle...the synopsis. Synopsis first, chapter set up next, then write book. Or that is my plan. In truth, I am normally like Lynne Rae, where I spit out book in a bout of verbal dysentary and then then when I go back to edit wish I had done a bit more planning.