Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Work in Progress Wednesday

This week, I'm showing you my uber-cute notebooks again. I have two I'm writing in now; the second one is almost full. I also have a third notebook, labeled NOTES. Since it's almost impossible to go back and add a detail you've thought of later [when writing by hand], I needed this third notebook. (Oh, and LA stands for the working title, Living Assistants. I have other notebooks, but they are labeled with a totally lame black Sharpie. Not even a shred of cute paper on them. One's called "EH" for Elemental Hunger, another novel I've written by hand. Well, "written" isn't the correct term there, as that book is not acutally finished yet. I didn't write The Mirror or Control Issues by hand, but I have sections of those two books that I did completely rewrite. When I did, I wrote them by hand. That notebook is labeled TM/CI. That almost sounds like YMCA. "Tee, em, see, I! It's fun to read and write, tee, em, see, i-hi!" Yeah, see why I need to write by hand? I can get off on a tangent like nobody else.)

Anyway, back to business.

You see, I have stupid little marks like the ones below, indicating a place where I need something more. Since I didn't have space, I simply drew a line, put the lame symbol and wrote the inserted scene. Um, yeah, it's a mess. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to figure out where those three stars go...

So I made a new notebook. Now I have a purple marker and I put a number where I need to add something. Then in my NOTES notebook (it has pink paper! Squee!) I label the number, write what I want added, and go back to my regular place.

Note: This page is a mess. I had written the scene between my MC, Jesse and his BF Lorenzo (L-zo). Then I decided that wasn't going to work. So the conversation is between Jesse and his not-so-BF-but-becoming-at-least-a-friend, Ty. So the whole thing is just a complete mess of scribbles, and arrows, and other stuff I hope I'm going to be able to figure out. I had not worked out my NOTES system at this point, so don't judge me too harshly!



It's so much easier. And I think I'll be able to figure it out when I actually go to type this bad boy up. Which should be happening soon. My goal is to finish this novel by the end of March. I think I'm going to make it. But I suffer from that 3/4-writer syndrome, and I can feel myself getting bored. But I've made a deep, personal commitment NOT to introduce a new character, a new power, or anything new at this point. I just need to tie together all the threads I've got unraveled. I can do it. I know I can. *repeats to self five times daily*

But I sorta suffer from my-endings-always-suckitis, so we'll see how long it takes me to come up with something that's actually tied all together. *repeat above mantra one more time*

Sidenote: Turns out the photobooth is not the best picture-taking program. Go figure.

How was your writing week? Goals? Major breakthroughs? Lay it on me, baby.

7 comments:

Michelle D. Argyle said...

Hello! You need to discover the Levenger Circa system, m'dear! It's a notebook, just as small and convenient as the ones you've got, but you can add and take out pages whenever you like. They just slip in and out. And you can add different sizes in the same notebook, too. I would think you could keep things so much cleaner and organized that way. Just a thought. :)

Good luck on finishing! It sounds like you're making some great headway!

Kate Karyus Quinn said...

You can do it! I believe! Get that ending down!

Also, I love the pics in this post! I used to do a lot of writing by hand before I had easy computer access and my pages were often starred, crossed out, and scribbly messes.

Jenn Adams said...

Those pics were taken in a photo booth? They rock. Seriously.

I'm so proud of you for being so gung-ho and going after these writing projects like this. You CAN finish this book, without any wolves or anything, I just know it!

As far as how MY writing week went . . . Well, I spent the whole weekend polishing up a couple chapters for a contest, and ever since then, I've laid (lied? lay?) on my bed, moaning, with strep. Now, I'm going through my folders, trying to decide what my schizo muse wants me to do next. :D

Kathryn Hupp-Harris said...

Wow! That's so cool that you do stories in longhand. I can't even read my own handwriting. :-S

I finally came up with a decent hook for my query. That's about it for my WIP Wednesday.

Annie Louden said...

Ooh, thanks for posting the photos and showing (not just telling, ha) your writing process.

That reminds me of a book I read in my (horrible) writing program at the University of Sydney. The book is Making Stories: How Ten Australian Novels Were Written.

And, I just looked, and it's not available on Amazon. I guess that's not helpful. But, the authors posted all their notebook pages and crazy notes and then posted the published scene, and it was really cool to see their processes.

If anyone is ever in Australia, I recommend picking it up.

Michelle McLean said...

I love your notebooks! And your written pages look just like mine :D I haven't done enough writing by hand for fiction yet, but when I do non fiction, I do the numbered system for inserts and stuff too! We are soooo much alike LOL

Carolyn Kaufman | @CMKaufman said...

I love your notebooks too. And I too use stars (and triangles and spirals and so forth) to help myself when I need to add something later. Kudos to you for figuring out to just use numbers --I kept making up new symbols. :-D

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