Writing in Retreat

We’d talked about it–fantasized really–for months, maybe even years. A girls' weekend/writing retreat with nothing to distract us: no families, no internet (hopefully!), not even each other. We’d stay at a spa and eat healthy meals, have separate rooms, but get together every once in a while to bounce ideas off each other and just have a mental break. At the end of the day we’d relax with massages to ease away all the tension from a long day of writing.

Of course, the price tag gave us a reality check, but we weren’t ready to give up the idea. After all, when it came right down to it, the Motel 6 would serve our purposes just fine, right? But then just like a good novel, a twist: Lori’s husband took the boys camping, but her daughter got sick. Could we just meet at her house?

Definitely cheaper. But would a familiar location be too much of a distraction, especially for Lori with a sick child?

Nope. 

For 24 hours we wrote, stopping briefly to eat, compare notes, sleep. And it worked. I spent my time reworking a story I’d given up on. With quiet time to think about what worked and what didn’t, to experiment, cut, write and rewrite, I found threads I didn’t even know where there. Best of all, I found my mojo again. I was ready to write. Anything. Ideas were bursting over each other, words flowing, aching to come out.

I was so happy I cried on the way back home.

And now I know. Next time I hit a rut, all I have to do is find a quiet stretch of time to focus.

Or send Lori’s family packing for the weekend and move myself back into her house :)

Chasing the Elusive Idea

I've been to a lot of author talks and regardless of the audience, the inevitable question always comes up: Where do you get your ideas from?

Even if the author is gracious enough to avoid the eye roll, I'm not. (Guess I'll need to work on that before I get published!)

The question doesn't annoy me just because everybody asks it. The truth is, most writers can't pinpoint a specific time or place where an idea comes from. At least I can't. Every book tends to come from a different spark. There isn't some magic box under the bed that writers pull ideas from. (If you have one, please share. I'm willing to split royalties.)

As I worked on edits for a book that I'm not ready to give up on yet, a new idea came to me, an idea that would add depth to the character and offer him an impossible choice. I have no clue where the idea came from. Unfortunately, I also have no clue as to how I'm going to incorporate this brilliant plot point. So I turn it over in my head and pray to whatever deity impressed the idea on me in the first place, to follow up with the second half of the equation because the drivel I've been typing out just isn't cutting it.

I guess that's the persistence part of this writing journey. Even if it's drivel, I keep typing, keep writing until it makes sense. At this point, I'm still willing to believe that if I keep at it, I'll figure it out. Eventually.

Defining the Draft

I am not a fast writer.

It pains me to say it, but it's true. Those people who can write four books a year, they're superhuman in my opinion. Even two books a year seems to be beyond my capabilities. Because even when I set aside time to write, the words come slowly. Five hundred in a day is a lot. A thousand, huge. So while I've tried to do NaNo, on more than one occasion, I always end up failing because I simply cannot write that many words in a day. And here's the reason why:

I'm an editor.

When I sit down to write, I read over the stuff I wrote the day before, in part to remind myself where I am in the story. Often I'll think of a better way to say something, flesh out sensory details, add a line or two to make things more clear. And THEN I start adding new words. Sometimes I'll go back even further, to a section that was giving me trouble and try to work it out. Sometimes I'll spend my entire writing time doing edits like this.

There are people who say not to do this on the first draft. Power through. Get it done.

I can't. It obviously works for plenty of people, but it just doesn't mesh with me. And frankly, I'm tired of hearing rules. I've decided that there isn't any right or wrong when it comes to writing. There's just getting it done.

One good thing about writing this way, is that by the time I get to the end, I have a pretty well written first draft. But if I've done that many edits on it, is it still a true first draft? Judging by the number of revisions I've made on one story in particular, I'd say yes. Because every time I think it's done, I find myself rewriting it. Again.

What about you? Do you power through or are you more of a writer/editor?

Slash and Burn

Whenever I'm working on a story, I keep a file of cut stuff. Sometimes I'll go back and pull a paragraph or two, but usually the file is more of a reminder of the excess that my story doesn't need.

Yesterday as I cut yet another section from my book, I happened to look down at the word count: 13,251. I've cut thirteen thousand words from a novel that is only 30K! Wow. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing! A lot of the story lines in the cut stuff are in the final version. They're just written differently. Better I hope! But still...

How many words do you cut from a novel before it's ready to face the world?