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Not really sure what I’m going to write about today.  It’s that lack of planning that I’m dwelling on lately.  Although I will have you know that I did complete a page of revision.  It’s not awesome, but it’s done.  In my opinion, after much speculation, and after much reading on the topic, the first revision after a rough draft is little more than a second rough draft.  So what if I just want to get it done?  So what if not every word of this story at this point is not super-cool? 

It’s not really supposed to be. 

The next revision is going to suck even more, because I have to fix some of the back story, add some whole sections on the background, as the worldview at this point is, well, for lack of a better word, sucky. 

Don’t get me wrong, I like the story; I’ve enjoyed the story, and I think that the main story line is strong for the most part.  But what about the pregnant sister?  What about the crazy neighbor that never returned to the story?  (I really liked her, she was about 60, a workout-aholic, rather slim and pretty and feminine until she opens her mouth and turns out to be this brassy, brazen chick.  If she doesn’t end up in this story, she’ll end up in another.)

There are a lot of what-ifs about this story, and I’ve been thinking about them some as this first revision comes to a close.  There’s still a lot of work to do.

Character Problem

So, the last two stories I’ve started have been very different.  (Sorry, still working on the second draft of my other novel, absolutely no reason why it isn’t done except for I’ve had these other stories in my head and I have to get parts of them out while the muse is right)

One is a YA novel about a girl who twirls flags, I posted a chapter here:  https://writingsplashes.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/section-one-of-my-nano-novel-the-winter-guardian/ 

Apparently I need to work on posting links, lol.  When I wrote that one, I made an outline and kind of stuck to it.

This new one is a romance novel (I know, pick a genre already, right?).  I only have a chapter and a half and no plan or plot in place.

The similar thing in writing both of these is that I can’t seem to get into the main characters head, I can’t seem to feel what they are feeling and what motivates them.  In the first one, I just kept writing.  It was NaNo time and that’s what you do during NaNo.  You write, write, write until you want to vomit up all the words you’ve written and never pick up a pen (metaphorically) again.

But writing is like a disease, it seeps into your bones and you have to do it.  Sure, you can take a break from it, you can get busy and focused on other things, but the writing always comes back.

With the second novel, I was inventing characters with my friend/sister-in-law.  Which I blogged about here. https://writingsplashes.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/writing-group-today/

But I can’t seem to get into the head of this character either.  But I can get into the heads of the siblings who are her friends, so instead of forcing the book to go in a direction it maybe isn’t meant to, I’m going to refocus on the characters I can, and see what evolves from that. 

I’ll have to pick up the other one again soon (after I’m done with my revision) and try to fix it. 

Maybe my daughter can help me figure out how to post these links more effectively.  I’m sure it’s easy, but I just don’t have the knowledge…..