Monday Morning Update

I did not reach my goals for the weekend. Am I a little mad at myself? Yes. Did I write this weekend? Yes. As much as I should have? Probably not.

As I was writing Chapter One, I realized that my scene by scene was inadequate, and that it was going to take three more scenes to get me from Chapter One to Chapter Two. The original scene 5 had to be revised, and the new scenes (6, 7 & 8) needed to be conceptualized, planned, and outlined in scene-by-scene format.

Also, I was feeling a little weak with dialogue, so I went back and reviewed some of my craft books as a refresher, and did some tweaking (strengthening?) of dialogue I had already written. This is all writing work, per se, but does not add to word/page counts.

What I'm discovering is that the actual writing process is very much different mentally than the planning-to-write process. Stealing 15 minutes during the planning-to-write process worked. There was always a detail to be worked out somewhere, websites to find for research, spreadsheets and charts to set up for later use, information to be added... The writing itself is requiring more in-the-zone time. I need to be centered in the scene, visualizing, right there with my characters in the middle of the action.

It's hard to get there in 15 minutes, but not impossible. Once I am there, what is brutal is walking away. If I don't have enough time to see a scene through, it's almost painful to leave it. It leaves me feeling frustrated, edgy, nearly angry with whatever it is that's pulling me away.

Half an hour seems to be a decent number. I can get the bare bones of a scene laid out if I am really focused, and walk away. I might wish I didn't have to, but I'm not petulant about it. An hour or longer is better.

Now that I've discovered this, I'm beginning to think my original plan is a little hopeless. My life is not that neat and circumscribed where I can block out chunks of time so easily and still meet my other obligations. The Master Plan probably needs revision.

But for now, it's President's Day, and I have two little boys at home (who are currently having fun with Batmobiles) to go play with.