Reading Less And Analog Daydreams

The Bond Between Deliberate Reading And Freedom

For Lent this year, I gave up reading online articles. Yes, articles just like the one you’re reading now. Oh, the irony.

Lent is still ongoing, but the surge of creativity I’ve been feeling, the rush of ideas, the space that exists in my mind has been so awe-inspiring that I had to share at least the first half of my results early.

I’m not going to lie, it was SHOCKINGLY hard at first. I messed up on day one and found myself reading a listicle about all the things I needed to know if I was planning on moving to Greenland. No. I’m not moving to Greenland nor was I under any illusions that I would be (maybe Labrador one day… but that’s not the point).

It’s also annoying (to other people) when I tell them I can’t read the article they just sent me because I’m not doing that anymore. (To me, it’s exhilarating).

This experiment excludes me from reading everything except books, academic studies, and select magazines (SEVERELY SELECT). This being said, given my profession, I am sometimes sent an article to reference within the piece I’m assigned to write, so articles for work I have permitted (though I’m now actively seeking a way to remove even this from my life).

In short, this means, no news articles. No click bait summaries of studies or events or ideas. No time-wasting articles on how to be more productive (seriously, how much time have we collectively wasted as a species trying to learn how to be more productive? I don’t even want to know the answer). No recipes. No shopping guides. No one’s interpretation of anything.

There’s the primary sources. My intuition. Conversations with real people in the world. And God. That’s all the input.

What Happens When You Stop Reading Online Articles?

1. Not having immediate answers to my questions fuels the creative fire in near-magical ways.
2. I’m learning more truly valuable things more quickly than ever before.
3. I’m reading more good stuff; worthy stuff—feeding my brain nutritious ideas instead of gutter trash.
4. My intuition is skyrocketing, and I feel more innately connected to all things.
5. I’m thinking more.

Creativity Reset

It turns out, hosting everyone else’s ideas in my mind means less space for my own ideas. Without random internet people’s thoughts on new studies and what the government should do and how I should schedule out my day and set goals and exercise and eat… etc., there’s more space for my own organic ideas to surface.

I’m shot with arrows or lightning bolts multiple times per day: tweaks for my stories that exist, editing ideas, whole new tales waiting to be written. I have more ideas than I can put down, meaning my treasure chest of concepts to be explored in the future is overflowing (and I am more pumped for my artistic future than ever before because no matter what comes from the stories I’m working on now, there’s literally hundreds of new things to work on).

I’m Learning REAL Things

There is a lost, old-fashioned art to figuring things out yourself. And yes, I’ve made a few easily avoidable mistakes this Lent season, like putting too many lettuce seeds too close together, (my garden is now strangling itself with wild leafy greens and surgery is required). But I’m rediscovering the art of trial and error, or learning by doing and the lessons are REAL and they stick.

I’ve learned more things about being capable in this first half of lent season than I maybe have my entire life. When I wonder about something, I don’t type it into DuckDuckGo (Side note: please tell me you’re not still using Google. PLEASE. We know better by now). I wonder about it. I experiment. I learn. I feel like I’m getting an education in the truest sense of the word.

Without Time-Sucking Garbage, I’m Reading More Of The Things I’ve Always Wanted To AND LOVING IT

It turns out that online articles were taking up a fair amount of my reading time. I have the space now to cautiously choose what I feed my mind. I peruse the local bookstores and select the gems that feel like they’re adding to my life and mind. I’m reading them more slowly. I’m reading more deliberately. I’m appreciating the things I read more because they feel rare: most things don’t make the cut.

I have the time to read genuine academic studies, to read the classics I’ve always wanted to devour. I’ve started to look at reading as medicinal: there are things that I can put into my mind that add to my life, and there are things that, if read, can take away from it.

Without Society’s Answers To All My Questions, I’m Living More Intuitively And More Religiously

Maybe it’s a survival instinct that kicks in because I no longer have the world’s answers at my fingertips, but I have to rely more heavily on my senses. I can’t just look up the ideal temperature and length of time to roast the beef, I have to open the oven and feel it out for myself. Without looking up the weather before I head out, I need to feel the morning air and look at the clouds.

Forced to rely on the subtle cues my mind and body and spirit are sending me, my ability to sense things is growing at a harrowing pace. The little wonders I’m discovering all on my own through testing my intuition is grounding and delicious. I feel more in the world, more connected to all things, including God which was my aim with this experiment. (It turns out God wasn’t such a big fan of me being influenced by the internet masses…).

With No Online Articles To Tell Me What To Think, I’m Thinking For Myself

Without random internet strangers to chew and digest ideas for me, I am actually thinking about things, wondering about the world and how stuff works and feeling out the conclusions I come to with my own mind. My thoughts feel more free and more mine than ever before. As someone who has struggled with separating myself from what I was told to do and think for many years, this is one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever received.

Moving Forward: The Analog Life

Understanding that my mind, focus, and attention is PRIZED REAL ESTATE has opened me up to a realm of experiments along these lines. I’m slowly working my way towards a more analog existence, outside the never-ending churn of blogger repeating blogger, journalist repeating journalist, expert repeating expert, artist mimicking artist. I fully intend to keep my reading of online articles at near to nothing.

To manage this in a full-time sense, I’m going to make a few adjustments. I will read blog posts written by friends. I’m a writer, I have a lot of writing buddies and I love encouraging their writing, commenting, and sharing. I will also allow myself to sign up for the occasional newsletter which contains online articles from the week. If I don’t trust the person’s thinking or work enough to read the emails they send me, to share my email address with them, I shouldn’t be reading their work. Full stop.

I’ve also become more aware of the negative effects of taking in other people’s conclusions, more aware of the space in the mind that’s needed for true growth, happiness, creation, and a life worth living. I’m getting stricter with all aspects of the digital machine. When I give myself unrestrained access to everything and billions of people have unrestrained access to posting their thoughts and ideas, it’s all too easy to give up my precious mental space to something that isn’t worthy of it.

I’m looking for ways to go analog because analog requires deliberation. It requires going some place, selecting something, evaluating whether it would add to my life or not, bringing it home, and finding a place for it. I might even buy a CD player and like… three CDs (because they are EXPENSIVE nowadays). Will I find the same clarity when I limit the music I absorb to a select few albums? Not casual listening, but slow, deliberate, genuine listening?

What if I started hand-writing my first drafts? Or my blog posts and uploading a scanned image? Would that annoy you guys? (My handwriting is solidly legible, I promise).

I am actively seeking more ways to pull back from the digital, more ways to stand firmly in the real and now, and more ways to radically limit other people’s access to my mind. I want a life that is my own, and now I know that part of that involves absorbing less of other people’s thoughts.

News Update: I Have A Website

In Other News, I Now Have A Writer Website:

My writer website: https://www.rcabbottbooks.com/

I am always looking for feedback/harsh critiques (it’s a problem actually). Let me know if any part of it sucks or doesn’t work right or is confusing or ugly. ❤

I Made Over 1000 Mistakes In One Week

People On The Internet Make Mistakes; Writers Make Mistakes; Writers On The Internet Make LOTS Of Mistakes

Before we dive in, here’s the proof. This was in my weekly Grammarly insights email—you know that message they send summarizing your week in terms of writing? Here’s a screenshot: 👇👇👇

Proof of my 1000 mistake week courtesy of Grammarly’s weekly insights sent to my inbox.

Please Note: These Are Only My Writing-Related-Errors

Between December 6th and December 13th, 2020, I made over 1000 mistakes. 1191 to be exact. And these are just the ones that I know about—there’s probably a ton more that I haven’t noticed yet. Maybe some that won’t crop up for another five or six years, and by the time I realize my error, it’ll be too late to do anything about it, and my life will be forever changed. Who knows?

I’m sure if you ask my partner, he could easily double that number.

Why Am I Sharing This With You?

Part of me sharing this is just to make light of a brutal email (I’m now querying so you can expect more brutal email sharing in the future), but the other reason is a bit heavier.

It can be easy to look at someone on the internet who’s sharing something (like, for instance, me, sharing my writing experiences) and assume that they’re an expert. That they’ve got at least some of this life thing figured out. And maybe some of them do, but I want to make it expressly clear that’s not the case in my situation.

I have no idea what I’m doing. At all. In any respect. I’m still learning.

I Don’t Know What I’m Doing. At All.

Yes, sometimes I stumble upon something that helps me a little or feels the teeniest bit sensical and wonder if someone else might also find it useful, so I throw it up on the internet. Sometimes I discover little patterns or tweaks that make my life or writing slightly less chaotic. Occasionally, I share stuff just in case someone else is going through a similar thing and feels alone and crazy in the abyss.

But I want to make it abundantly clear that whenever this happens, it’s a complete fluke. Whenever I appear like I’ve got things somewhat sorted, it’s some form of miscommunication. In the event that I tell you I figured something out—that I actually do know something—it’s an even bigger error because I can’t even see my own ignorance.

I promise you there is an infinite amount of things that I find confusing or am struggling with, or am completely unaware of. Please feel free to return to this post whenever you begin to think that this random internet girl has any idea what she’s doing. If you think I sound a little full of myself in any of my posts, you can also send me a link to this post, as a friendly reminder.

Here’s a recent tweet to illustrate my point:

Today I wrote down:

"When the coin was termed."

I'm a professional writer. Like, this is how I make money.

Do with that what you will.#amwriting

— Robin Hood / Indiana Jones (@aholisticwriter) January 15, 2021

And here’s what happened when I ran this article through Grammarly:

23 more mistakes to this week….

Happy writing lovelies ❤

The Selfish Edit

Is The First Round Of Self Edits Like Amateur Psychotherapy For You Too?

The Selfish Edit.
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In my experience, the selfish edit involves reading through what I wrote and realizing all the interpersonal things I’ve got to work on in my own life because WHY ELSE WOULD I HAVE PUT SO MUCH TIME AND EFFORT into this made up scenario in my head? Like, its not real and I legit spent all my free time for the past two months on it. Every second. What does that mean about me? As a person?
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The first round of self edits is also where I realize how not different the story is from everything else I’ve written. I read through and think: “There’s my dad, there’s my mom, and oh hey! All my existential crises… laid out right in front of me, one by one so I can see how connected they are. Oh and there’s my confusion about God… and my struggles to accept societal norms… And let’s not forget the barren character because am I ever gonna convince someone to get me pregnant?
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It goes on like this until I give up and send the book to my sister.
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#Writers what does your first edit look like?

Posted originally on Insta as a response a TheWriterCommunity daily prompt.

A Note On Balance

Sharing Something That Helped Me Find That Sweet Spot Between Writing And The Rest Of Life—Or Helps Me Perpetually Find It… Because It’s Always Changing

For me, life got a lot more level when I started listening to resistance, hearing it out, paying attention to what it was trying to teach me, instead of fighting with it.
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Life is super cyclical, and people are too. There are phases that are great for writing, and there are phases where it feels natural to focus on other things. Spiritually-focused phases, solitary and social phases, exploration phases and homebody phases. Some parts of the cycle result in lots being done and some involve nothing getting done, or even, all the previous work being undone. Some phases are about drinking life in and some are about keeping the world out to find that inner middle bit of myself.
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Rather than try to balance everything all at once, which, at least for me, feels impossible, I try to get the most out of every point in the cycle, taking full advantage of whatever phase I’m in. If I’m in a work part of the cycle I get lots done, if I’m not, I don’t force it. I don’t try to write if I’m in a romance phase (or maybe I do, but I write romantic poems and love letters and those are only for one other person to see).
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When I started looking at resistance this way, life became a lot less painful. And more beautiful, and more bewildering. Oddly, I accomplished way more as well. (And the time not focused on writing always gives me a ton of good material for the next writing phase – Henry Miller calls this “Keeping Human”)
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Whenever I’m having a really hard time focusing on something, I take that as a sign that there’s something else that needs my attention more.
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When it sucks, I remind myself that all phases are temporary. When it’s magic, I remind myself that all phases come back around at some point.
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This idea comes up A LOT in my writing. Hence the excerpt from book five above.

Posted originally on Insta as a response to a TheWriterCommunity daily prompt.

Who’s Life Is This?

Big steps. We’ve been nomads for so long I think we both forgot what it was like to have a home. Six years we’ve been running together, even longer apart. Rambling from contract job to contract job, country to country—staying nowhere for more than a few months.
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When we first met, you put on a fake cowboy voice and said: I’m like the wind. And I got it. Cause that was me too.
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It was good. For both of us. But then the pandemic came and everything changed.
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We have an apartment now. The bills are in our name. We have a Christmas tree. We own a table. It’s silly I know, but I never thought I’d have something like that. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. It’s a trick. I can’t possibly be happy like this. I’m going to get bored. You’re going to get bored. Christmas lights aren’t for people like us.
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But then I look at you, and your expression says: this is the only adventure we’ve not had yet. Are we really going to chicken out now?

Originally posted on Insta.

Discovery Writers + Mirroring = Plot Threads Tied Up?

Nanowrimo Day Ten Journal: Trying To Make Sure All Those Plot Threads Don’t Become Plot Holes

Discovery Writing And Plot Points:

If you’ve been following along with my Nanowrimo writing sessions, you know that I’m what people call a “pantser.” This means I write with no plan in mind. I don’t know how the story is going to end before I start it. I don’t have an outline. (By no means am I recommending this method or suggesting that you try it out. If you like outlines, that’s cool).

While this writing approach is an intense amount of fun because it feels like you’re reading a book while you’re writing one, it can be scary to take the leap and begin following the story wherever it feels like going. The main ingredient in a discovery novel is faith. This means battling it out with doubt, asking yourself all sorts of tough questions. What if it doesn’t end up someplace cool? What if all these ideas don’t connect? What if the ending sucks?

These are all valid questions to have when writing a novel (or pantsing a novel, as some like to say), and I’ve found a little technique that helps solve these sorts of problems—some of the time—for me at least. I’m going to break it down here because it might also help you if you’re discovering your novel as you go along.

To help make sure my discovery writing turns into a full story with a beginning and an end and middle-ish stuff in the middle, I sometimes try out mirroring. I’m sure that I’m not the only person to discover this writing trick so if someone else has named it something else… I’m sorry for claiming your idea as my own. Also, let’s be friends because I like your mind.

This writing technique suits how I like to work because it doesn’t force me to plan anything. There’s no need to stop writing and outline. There’s no need to give up my pantser ways. I can continue to discovery write, but I can also make sure I’m not breaking any promises I made to the reader. I can make sure I’m tying together all the plot threads that have developed organically throughout the writing process.

Mirroring: A Writing Technique To Help You Avoid Plot Holes While Discovery Writing Or Pantsing

Mirroring is when a part of your story—a chapter, a scene, an entire act—reflects something that has already happened in the story. If, for example, the first line of your book is the same as the last line of your book, this is mirroring.

That scene in Guardians of the Galaxy, where Star Lord takes Gamora’s hand when she asks him to is emotional because we saw a scene much earlier in the film, when he was a child and his mother asked him to take her hand and he was too scared to do it (she was dying at the time). That’s mirroring. It’s the same scene, but it’s different. It’s a callback. A reflection of something that happened earlier.

That scene in Game of Thrones where Arya gives someone a pie, that’s also mirroring. Earlier in the series Bran tells a story about what happened to a man who slaughtered people he’d invited into his home—his sons were baked into pies and fed to him. That’s mirroring too.

In Good Will Hunting when Ben Affleck shows up st Matt Damon’s house at the end and he’s not there, because he’s ditched town to go after the girl he loves. That’s mirroring too. Earlier in the movie, Ben Affleck told Matt Damon that his favourite part of the day was walking up to Matt’s door and hoping for a second that Matt won’t be there anymore because he’s smart enough and worthy enough to be living a better life somewhere else. I think you get the point.

What Does Mirroring Look Like In Practice?

In editing, I like to take mirroring to another level, but in the first draft, all this means is that, after I reach the midpoint, I read an older chapter before I write a new one. Not just any chapter, one chapter in particular. Note: I don’t use this technique until after I’ve reached the midpoint. (I’ll write a post about determining the midpoint of my story one day soon… it’s one of those odd, feeling-based things that I need to think through before I can write about it).

The day after I’ve reached the midpoint and I sit down to write, I’ll read the chapter before the midpoint and try to keep the themes and threads and plots in mind as I write and make sure that I’m referencing or calling back or mirroring the scenes that I just read.

When I write the second post-midpoint chapter, I read the chapter that’s two chapters before the midpoint. If this is confusing think of it like this:

The final chapter will be mirroring the first chapter. The second last chapter will be reflecting the second chapter. The third-to-last chapter will be calling back to the third chapter… etc until I reach the midpoint.

It’s important to remember that mirroring doesn’t mean the same thing happens again (although it can). It often means the opposite thing happens. For example, your first scene might have a character being a complete prick to someone for seemingly no reason (at that point, traumatic backstory is ensuing, of course). There’s a lot of ways to mirror that. Your final scene could be:

• Your main character going back to that very person they were cruel to and trying to make amends
• Your protagonist in the same situation with another person, only this time they’re kind because they’ve developed throughout the story
• Your main character doubling down and being even harsher to someone than they were in the first scene
• Someone mistreating your protagonist in a similar way (poetic justice)
• Your main character needing the help of the person they mistreated (and getting it or not getting it)
• Someone being kind to your main character even though they don’t deserve it

All of these scenes are examples of mirroring. The possibilities are endless, and when I’m writing, I don’t feel restricted by this process at all. This makes sure that no threads are dropped and forgotten about, that no promises are left unfulfilled.

When Rereading Older Chapters:

1. Don’t edit them. NOW IS NOT THE TIME. You’re still drafting.
2. Seriously. Don’t edit them. You will be stuck in limbo forever if you start now.
3. Ask yourself about what each scene has promised or thematically explored.
4. Pay attention to which characters appear in which scenes.
5. Notice the themes.
6. Become aware of any hints or foreshadowing.
7. DON’T EDIT.

When Writing:

Let those previous scenes guide you. More than likely your subconscious knew what it was doing when it planted those seeds. Now you get to harvest the ideas. Touch on the same themes with the same characters (unless they’re dead… then have something that represents the character or reminds the others of their fallen friend). Fulfill your promises (we spoke about country A invading country B so now we make them attack). Bring to fruition all that you knowingly or unknowingly hinted at.

WARNING: YOU WILL DISCOVER WONDERFUL THINGS YOU DIDN’T REALIZE YOU HID IN THE STORY.

Of Course, ALWAYS Listen To Your Writing Intuition

Still, let your novel guide you. If you feel like throwing something totally new in, that’s cool. DO IT. Discovering new plot threads halfway through writing is part of the process. Some might even say it’s part of the fun.

In editing, you can make sure that all these additions have a nice hint or foreshadowing or thematic introduction earlier in the story.

And of course, it is completely okay to not follow this strictly. Maybe you only want to use this for your character arc. Maybe you want to use this for your umbrella plot but not your subplots. Maybe you want the setting to reflect the beginning but nothing else (think of all those stories that end with the character going home again—back to where they started).

Your story chose YOU to tell it for a reason. Trust your instincts. Don’t force it to go in a direction you don’t feel is right. This is what intuitive writing is all about.

If you want to watch this in action, you can follow along with my Nanowrimo novel writing sessions. You can also take a look at my rough draft or check out a few podcast episodes where I ramble on about writing.

Happy Writing! ❤

Making Life Difficult For Your Character

Nanowrimo Day Five Journal: Creating More Problems Than Your Character Can Solve Is The Name Of The Game

This is part of my Nanowrimo series where I explain what I’m doing with this particular novel step by step. Day five was a fun one… if not a little mean.

Now that I’ve introduced my characters, and my world, and I’ve passed that inciting incident where nothing is ever going to be the same again, even if my character succeeds at everything else they try—which they won’t… because, you know, it’s a story and I want things to be interesting—nothing is going to be the same for them ever again. (Let’s not get into how much this is mirroring all of our current situations at the moment and instead, just keep writing).

So basically, from this point in the story until the midpoint, all I need to do is make sure that my character has lots of problems. It really is that simple. If it feels slow, I add a problem. If it feels boring, I add a problem. Meet a new character? Add a problem. Go to a new setting? Problem. You get the idea.

Now sometimes, this might happen intuitively, without any attention needed. But sometimes I’ll notice as I’m writing that there’s no new problems or challenges for the character to face, and I need to consciously think about what could go wrong… and then make it happen. It’s kind of fun… really fun actually, to sit and ask: “What could go wrong here?”

Problems Don’t Have To Be Massive

Now, to limit the pressure of it all, I remind myself that problems don’t have to be massive. My character’s problems can be little and normal. My character might not fully understand the new world they find themselves in. My character might be worried about exams. They might not know how to talk to their crush. It doesn’t have to be life or death here, it just has to be a problem.

That’s it, for the next little while, I follow my character wherever they feel like leading me, making sure that there’s lots of obstacles and issues for them to deal with along the way. If I feel like getting really fancy, I’ll sometimes focus on ensuring that the problems are varied. Like, not all the problems should be created by societal norms or the antagonist or the romantic relationship. Mixing it up. Trying to have a problem coming from each element.

A Word On Solving Problems:

Now, of course, because my character is a living, breathing being, they’re probably going to try to settle some of these issues. And how I deal with that is, I just let them. I let them tackle their challenges. Let them try to find a way around these obstacles. Let them try to leap over the hurdles I’m scattering everywhere.

I don’t force a success or failure, or even a draw. I let them do their best with what they’ve got and what they know. I let their friends help if they’ve got good friends. I let their teachers teach if they’re watching what’s going on.

If They Solve One Of The Problems, I Make Sure That The Solution Brings About An Even Bigger Problem

That’s it. That’s all there is, for me, during this novel between the inciting incident and the midpoint. It sounds really simple—so simple that you might feel like knocking it, but give it a try before you judge (feel free to judge after you try it though… send me a message if you think I’m nuts—all feedback is good feedback and I’ve made mistakes before).

The reason I ask you to hold judgment is that there’s a lot more going on than a character facing problems. That’s only the surface level of the story.

What’s going on beneath the surface is me (and therefore, my reader) getting to know this character. Getting to see all their strengths and weaknesses, how their mind works, what makes them tick, what bothers them, what they love, what they’re willing to sacrifice, and what they’re not willing to compromise. I’m going to need all this knowledge later on in the writing process.

When I approach things this way, it doesn’t have to be the “murky middle” like so many other writer’s claim. This part can be fun. It can be beautiful. This is the falling in love stage. I’m getting to know my character, like really getting to know them. I’m connecting. I’m feeling. I’m growing and understanding. People like these feelings and if I’m feeling them while I’m writing, there’s a chance that some people are going to be feeling them while they’re reading (that’s how that works, right?).

I don’t want to rush this stage. Everything that is happening now is a clue, a hint as to where the story is going and what is going to have to change for the BIG problems that are coming later on. This is the point where my character vouches for you as a writer, so the rest of the story can reveal itself.

If A Deus Ex Machina Solves The Problem:

If my character gets really lucky and a stranger agrees to help out, or a fluke event happens and the thing they’re facing is stopped by nature, or the gods, or magic, or sheer, dumb luck, the ramifications of the solution need to leave mycharacter worse off than they started.

At this point in the story, it is okay to introduce magical forces or guides or whatever makes sense in the world and have them help out (I think, some might argue this point). As I use this time to learn about the characters, I can also use this time to learn about the worlds. The things that go on there. The rules. The way different forces of natural phenomena or magic influence the beings that live in the world.

I just try to make sure there’s a consequence or a cost for each of these flukes. Make sure there’s a debt owed or an alliance made or a hint of trouble brewing in the background because this force was taking a break from its usual day job. Especially if there are magical solutions to my problems, there needs to be a cost (and it should be expensive).

As a side note, it’s totally okay if the character doesn’t see the cost right away. I can hint at it to the reader so they’re thinking: oh, this is gonna come up later… she’s gonna regret agreeing to his help. Take the classic fairy tale example of a character promising their first-born child in exchange for being saved from death. They’re not really thinking about this non-existent kid, but the reader is. We know that at some point, they’re going to regret the choice they’re making.

For The Umpteenth Time, I Remind Myself This Is The First Draft

And again, this is a first draft. I can later decide to remove any of these problems I want. I can change the outcome of any of these challenges. Nothing I’m writing now is set in stone. The paint will still be wet for quite some time so I try not to worry about writing myself (or the character) into a corner. They might surprise me. They might get out of that corner in a way I never saw coming. And that might be exactly the information I need to have in order to better handle what the antagonist has up his/her/their/its sleeve.

My mentality at this point in the process is going to directly affect my relationship with the main character, my understanding of them and their capabilities. It’s going to change how I view the story and whether the story makes it easy on me or hard on me to write it. So I try not to force anything. In every scene, I think about the problems that could arise and pick the most realistic one. Bring it about. And then sit back and watch, leting my character teach me how they solve problems. I try to avoid teaching my character how to handle things (I legit have no idea how to deal with most things, so there’s a much better chance of my character coming up with the right solution than me).

Trust your character.

Think About The Impact Of Their Struggles

I watch them and learn from them and spend some time thinking about how these problems (whether solved or not) impact them.

• How are they changing?
• How will they act differently in the future if the same thing comes up?
• Are they a little traumatized? (Or, you know, a lot traumatized?)
• Do they trust people more or less given what’s happened?
• Are they getting bitter?
• Optimistic?
• Have they been injured?
• Are those injuries going to bug them for the rest of the novel?
• What did they learn?

I don’t need to do anything with this information. Just try to stay aware of it. Let it sink deep into my subconscious. It’ll find it’s way back up. It’ll express itself somehow. Some way it will be useful to me even if it doesn’t make it into the words, it’ll be in the spaces between the words.

Another thing to keep in mind is that if I’m writing realistically, most things are a lot harder than heroes in stories make them seem. Take, for instance, one of those scenes where a character digs a hole to bury a body… we’ve all seen this, probably many times. Do you have any idea how long it takes? This could be an eight-hour ordeal depending on how firm that soil is and how many rocks are in it. The character’s back would be sore for days (especially if they don’t typically dig holes), their hands would be bloody and blistered and they might not be able to draw that bow or axe in the next scene. I try to think about the realistic impact of everything that is happening to the character.

And, As Always, Keep Writing

If you want to see this kind of approach to writing in action you can watch my writing session for day five on IGTV. You can also take a look at my rough draft. Of course, a lot is going to change before I call the book done, but this will give you an idea of what my first draft looks like.

And if you’re someone who likes critiquing things, please leave some comments. Rip it apart if you want. I’m one of those weirdos that really loves feedback. Like, I genuinely love being given criticism… it always makes the work better. Either because there’s an area that need improvement and now I know about it, or because I’m forced to defend in my mind why I chose what I did, to expand the idea on the page so it’s clear to others what I’m aiming for.

Happy Writing! ❤

Earning Your Story’s Trust

Nanowrimo Day Four Journal: Flowing With The Story, Not Against It

Previously, we talked about how it’s completely fine to not know where the story is going. How in the first draft we’re not going to nail down all the elements. Character, voice, setting, ambience… one of these things is enough for the first draft. But what does following this adage look like? That’s what I’m attempting to tackle today.

Keep The Pressure Of Writing Off (Or At Least Turn The Volume Down)

A big part of the process, especially at this point, is keeping the pressure off. The pressure to understand the main character in and out, the pressure to understand plot points, the world the story takes place in… the right song to listen to while writing. The key is not to force things, not to hammer your story until it reveals to you what the villain is up to.

Stories Are Organic Things

A story is an organic thing. That means it grows, it develops… heck… it’s even got it’s own rhythm which sort of—to me anyway—feels like breathing. At this point, we’re just getting to know the story and it’s just getting to know us. We’re figuring out how to work together to best bring these themes to life.

Graceful Writing Is One Of The Goals

So be gracious (or at least, try—grace is a hard thing to master). When the story throws us a bone, be it a little shred of backstory or internal monologue or world building element… be grateful and then: don’t be greedy. Don’t ask for more, just follow along.

We’re trying to be patient with our story. Because the truth is, if we’re trying to fit the story into the shape of another, we’re going to ruin it. That’s like having a kid and wishing it was like someone else’s kid. Let’s not get into how much that actually does happen… unless of course that fits into your story somehow… 😉 .

Stories Can Be Shy

There’s the occasional bold story that demands to be written with fire and brimstone, but most stories are shy. They want to know that we’re going to do them justice before they reveal all the secret details… the things that make the story magic. We have to earn those things. And we earn them by building trust with the story, by following where it leads us (not where the market dictates stories at the moment should go).

Watch my struggle to live up to such a poetic idea in my IGTV writing session for day four of Nanowrimo. You can also check out the in-progress first draft.

Happy Writing ❤

We Don’t Have To Know What We’re Writing About (At This Point)

Nanowrimo Day Three Journal: Reminding Ourselves It’s Okay To Write Down Something We Don’t Fully Understand And Just Keep Writing

Yesterday we explored writing the second scene in our novel. Now that we’re passed the second scene, the pressure to write the most perfect opening anyone has ever seen has started to wane because it doesn’t quite feel like we’re working on the beginning. This being said, there’s still an immense pressure to understand every detail that we put down. A need to have a full understanding of the entire iceberg below the surface for each teeny detail added.

We Don’t Need To Understand Every Part Of The Story At This Point

We don’t (and spoiler alert: some authors never know this sort of stuff). We can come back and research the inner-workings when the first draft is done. We still don’t know what we’re doing at this point—the ending might make us realize this scene isn’t gonna stay in the story anyways, so there’s no point in polishing it up and making sure our mental awareness of it is shining because it might be wasted work.

Besides, while we’re focusing on forcing ourselves to get one little piece perfect, we might be missing out on the goldmine of ideas nearby. Sometimes we’ve got to let the story take the lead. The first draft is one of those times.

Pick One Thing For This Draft (Character, Plot, Voice, Atmosphere…) And Focus On That

Another thing that can help us stay focused and keep the momentum going—keep us writing until the first draft of the story is done—is to choose one thing. Pick one important element for a good story, be it character, atmosphere, plot… whichever we feel closest to given the two scenes already written.

For me, that was character. I understood the outward vibe (I’m nowhere near presupposing I understand who she is on the inside). I know the sun and rising sign (me winking at all the astrology folks out there) but not the moon sign. I decided this first draft was just me getting the character right: her development, her arc, her motivations (if you pick character MOTIVATION IS BIG). A character-focused draft might include a lot of internal questions while writing like: what does she want here? What’s she going to do if she doesn’t get it? What’s she going to do if she does?

Use The New Scenes To Answer Questions We Have About This One Element

Whatever we choose, out scene(s) should be looking at this element with a new light. If we’re choosing world-building and we’ve got the vibe down pat in the last scene, we might want a scene that shows what this world is like for criminals, or children, or elderly folk. If we’ve got a happy go lucky character, take a moment to show how they react to something not so happy. Shed a little light on another side of what we’ve shown the reader already.

Again, Remind Ourselves This Is The First Draft

In our second draft, we can fill out the other elements that we weren’t focusing on. We’ll have a much better understanding of them once the story is complete.

If you wanna see someone actually doing this, you can check out my writing session for day three on IGTV or you can take a look at my Nanowrimo rough draft up on Wattpad.

Happy Writing! ❤