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Update 13/01
Jan. 13th, 2023 04:18 pmBack at work this week, and as expected I promptly broke my writing streak, BUT I went out to my writing place this afternoon and poured out a good six pages or so. All is not lost!
I think the real key is to allow myself time where I'm not working, or scrolling my phone, or watching or reading something. That is, time where I can let my mind wander and sort of turn over parts of the writing project in my head. That way, when I come to sit down with a notebook, I've got these ideas that have been marinating over the previous hours or days, and it's much easier than starting from blank.
This week, I thought I was going to write the next scene in my main narrative, a chance encounter for the viewpoint character which would get me out of the dead end I wrote into last week. But instead, I had a lot more luck writing out some backstory for the other main character - and in doing so, spun out some threads relating to her sister which I think I can pick back up in the main narrative later.
I'm trying to practise not letting everything resolve too easily. That is to say, if the character and her sister are going somewhere to do something, there's a temptation to have an Event occur to them on the way home, once they've done it. But if I resist that temptation, and have the Event on the way to the thing, they never get around to doing the thing... and that leaves me more options for bringing it back up for dramatic conflict later. (This is not exactly an original realisation - I remember reading a Story Hospital post several years ago which included an example of leaving tension unresolved at the end of a scene - but I think this might be the first time I've noticed myself really applying that advice as I work. Does that mean I'm learning and growing?!)
I think the real key is to allow myself time where I'm not working, or scrolling my phone, or watching or reading something. That is, time where I can let my mind wander and sort of turn over parts of the writing project in my head. That way, when I come to sit down with a notebook, I've got these ideas that have been marinating over the previous hours or days, and it's much easier than starting from blank.
This week, I thought I was going to write the next scene in my main narrative, a chance encounter for the viewpoint character which would get me out of the dead end I wrote into last week. But instead, I had a lot more luck writing out some backstory for the other main character - and in doing so, spun out some threads relating to her sister which I think I can pick back up in the main narrative later.
I'm trying to practise not letting everything resolve too easily. That is to say, if the character and her sister are going somewhere to do something, there's a temptation to have an Event occur to them on the way home, once they've done it. But if I resist that temptation, and have the Event on the way to the thing, they never get around to doing the thing... and that leaves me more options for bringing it back up for dramatic conflict later. (This is not exactly an original realisation - I remember reading a Story Hospital post several years ago which included an example of leaving tension unresolved at the end of a scene - but I think this might be the first time I've noticed myself really applying that advice as I work. Does that mean I'm learning and growing?!)
