Friday, October 14, 2011

What now?

A wonderful surprise arrived in the mail this week. My friend, Leslie, sent me Ann Patchett's, What now? It is a book that summarizes a graduation speech she gave at her alma mater, Sarah Lawrence. It wonderfully and succinctly describes the feeling we all have as we teeter on a precipice wondering, "What now?"

The other point Ann makes is that to be a writer, you have to do a lot of what she calls staring. As in, sitting in one place, gazing out at nothing. That's how she gets a lot of her ideas. I stare a little. Mostly, I think right before I'm drifting off to sleep. I once tried to recreate this moment of subconscious thought by hopping on top of my bed in the mid-afternoon, closing my eyes and thinking. It worked. Another technique I have is to walk.

And I'm happy to report that just the other day when I was walking, I thought of three terrific plot strands that I knew would work. Only problem - it's for a different WIP...

Monday, October 10, 2011

Thinking

It's been awhile since I've written, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working. I've actually been working hard - doing a lot of thinking and reading. There seems to be lots of revision necessary for my latest WIP, so I've been trying to decide how to approach it. I'm not usually that attached to a manuscript once I submit it, but this one has parts that I really love, so without specific line-by-line guidance, it's been hard to chop it up.

So, what I've been doing is trying new plot strands to see if I like what's happening with them. Normally, I LOVE the revision process, but this manuscript is a little tougher to clip, so I need to see how I can do it so that it feels right.

Anyone out there feel the same??