"Just sitting down and thinking about writing doesn't always work.It would be nice if it did, but the creative process is more complicated than simply deciding to create and then doing it."Terry Brooks
*******I've been crazy busy at work lately--everyone trying to get in the last research paper/project of the year--so I apologize for not posting more often. I've been feeling rather guilty for not working on my novel, but I'm struggling with the voice, tone, person, and tense. Yesterday I was reading Sometimes the Magic Works (by Terry Brooks) and he talked about dream time. You have to take time to think the story through--and at some point put it all on paper. He didn't want to use the word "outline" but that was the essence of what he was talking about. It actually made me feel better about not writing and just spending time on plotting. I am toying with the idea of writing the first chapter in past tense (it is presently in present tense, first person), in third person, and whatever other way I want just to see which one grabs me the most. How do you decide what is the BEST way to tell a story? I mean,I can tell it 50 different ways, and essentially it is 50 different stories. Ahhhh! I get all stuck worrying about the BEST way.
P.S. The deadline for Writer's Digest contest is coming closer.
May 15. Come on, what can it hurt to try? You can't win if you don't play!
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Voice and Tense
Today's Mood: Capable. Today's Music: Beethoven's Symphony Number 9. Today's Writing: IFFY (research, plotting) Today's Quote:
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2 comments:
I really wanted to make my novel first person, present tense - and my next one I will, I swear.
He really wanted to make his novel first person, present tense, the the next one, he swore, he would.
I decided that I needed to go third person because there was too much information that the narrator wouldn't know and how would I get to that? I felt, ultimately, that I wasn't talented enough to pull it off. That's not a put down, just, I think, a fact. I went with utility.
I also think that plotting and outlining can be important. I spent weeks, maybe months, outlining my novel before I wrote a word. I envy people who just write and have no idea where it's going. I do that with poetry, but I don't know that I could pull that off with a novel.
Listening: Chopin Sonatas
Mike--my first two novels are first person, present tense. I deal so much with emotion and thought that I automatically think in first person. I tried rewriting in past tense and thought it lost a lot of the urgency so I went back to present tense.
For this next novel--I started it in first person, present tense again, but I'm struggling to get a handle on it. Maybe I should just try it another way.
I bought the book The Writer's Little Helper (yup, I'm a librarian through and through--what do I do when I'm stuck? Buy a book and read about it!). So far I'm thinking it is a great help in getting set up--plot, outline.....
I've actually been working on getting two things ready to send out to the Writer's Digest competition. You know, they have a poetry catagory....
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