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One of the biggest lessons I’ve had to learn about writing is that sometimes my normal writing process and patterns won’t work for a specific story. And it can be hard to shake the idea that I *have* to stick with what worked before.
My figure skating analogy:
My figure skating analogy:
Typically when I write a zero draft I have a sort of an outline with major points and minor details. I write forward in a combination of discovery and architecture, or maybe discovering architecture, and some tangents, either all the way to the end or about 3/4rds.
Often I have to write the entire thing in a clumsy zero draft before I can see the plot as a better whole and go back and revise forward back through. So I aim to write a zero draft straight through, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. Except
That with this current WIP it didn’t work. I wrote stuff, added stud, moved stuff, stalled. Stalled. Stalled. The worst part being that I know the plot, and many of the details. But I stalled on introducing the layers.
I kept wanting to go back to the beginning but didn’t.
I kept wanting to go back to the beginning but didn’t.
Until I finally realized an analogy for what was going on.
In figure skating there are various kinds of jumps the skaters do. Each jump has a specific angle and approach and speed that you use for that jump and its number of rotations.
In figure skating there are various kinds of jumps the skaters do. Each jump has a specific angle and approach and speed that you use for that jump and its number of rotations.
With this book, I knew what jump and how many rotations I wanted to do, as it were. I kept stalling out because I wasn’t setting myself up right, and in this case the set up (the first third of the book) would allow me to do the jump (the rest of the book).
Normally I think of going back to the beginning like this as procrastination when I should be pressing forward to the end. I learn so many things about the book by writing the zero draft. But it turns out, this one needs a different process.
I had a long phone call with my fabulous editor @MiriamAnneW and we broke down the angle, speed, and approach. And now I am back on chapter one, reworking material so it will set me up the right way.
But it took me about ten days to accept that I had to do it this other way.
But it took me about ten days to accept that I had to do it this other way.
IOW even when you think you know you need to be flexible, be more flexible. Creativity is weird and slippery. As it should be.
