Southern Writing

Rethinking the writing process

For every piece of fiction I've written before now, this has been my process:

1. Write a story in a couple hundred word chunks at a time.
2. Get discouraged after a few thousand words because of how "horrible" everything I write is.
3. Hit a block where it's about impossible for me to write anything, because it all looks so bad in my own eyes.
4. Finish the story.
5. Rewrite and decide it's not that bad.
6. Send out for publication.

Most stories get to step 3 and fizzle. With my current novel, I've reached 27,000 words with at least 23,000 more to go, and it seems realistic I'll reach this goal.

My secret this time around is my beta readers. I have a couple that, every once in a while, tell me they're sorry they haven't finished reading whatever chapter they're on, then send me a frantic message for another chapter.

There's one guy, whom I've never met, who seems genuinely excited by the story. He reads and sends me feedback; he's already on chapter five when everyone else is on three or, in one case, four.

So far, I've heard that the writing is slick and professional, that it's believable and has unique elements, and that it reads "like a Tom Clancy novel." I think this is going to be the secret to the success of this book.

Almost halfway there!

Despite my free time being taken up by my synagogue, an art project I'm working on, some fun stuff with friends, and a horrible sinus headache that grounded me for most of yesterday, I managed to sail past the 20,000 word mark in my novel over the weekend.

I'm almost halfway to my minimum word count, and I alternate between wondering how I'll manage to get to my ultimate goal of approximately 75,000 words, and wondering if I'll be able to squeeze all of my ideas into such a small allotment of words.

Things I've discovered since I began writing:

• My main character is going to have a real boyfriend.
• Something terrible is going to happen to him.
• She is going to rage against the machine.
• She is (hopefully) going to realize her inner strength doesn't come from having vampire super powers, and that the super powers of the other supernatural creatures mean nothing in the face of her own determination. (Although, she'll still do a bit of experimenting with what limited powers I give her.)

This post was originally full of spoilers. I think I weeded most of them out.