Hey Folks,
Ugh. Allergies on overdrive this morning.
Topic: Fixing Things (with the Subconscious)
The novel has ground to a temporary halt. But I know why, so it really is only a temporary halt.
All books (stories) are different, and they can all write differently, even from the same writer. I suppose that’s part and parcel of writing into the dark too.
The last few days, even as I typed, a nagging little voice was telling me the overall story was overloaded with one couple, one ongoing situation. This morning as I cycled through, the voice was stronger and more insistent.
It’s as if my subconscious was crossing its arms and holding its breath, refusing to give me more of the story until I right the ship here. It’s like dealing with a petulant 4 year old.
So I sat back in my chair, physically crossed my own arms and thought “All right. Tell me what’s wrong.”
And it did. This sort of thing happened exactly this way once before in one of my novels, but not to this level of severity.
“Come look at your reverse outline,” the subconscious said, tugging on my arm.
So I did. And I was surprised.
Currently there are three separate major groups of characters, plus two minor groups (at present) who keep peeking in from the wings. Each group has its own interlaced story to play out.
Recently I’ve been “stuck” on telling one of those stories, with the others making almost token appearances. As a result, the one story has eleven of the fifteen chapters. That isn’t a good balance.
Interesting to note, the characters who currently have eleven of the fifteen chapters are the only ones who weren’t yelling at me. (grin)
So today might be a nonwriting day. First I’ll spend soem time rearranging some chapters to balance the story. (Note: If you decide to do something similar, be sure to change the file name of the novel document first and Save As so you retain the original.)
When I start writing again, I’ll write at least five chapters that will insert between pairs of the current chapters. But I’ll need some distance from the novel before I start writing again. That might take an hour or it might take a day.
But I’ll start again soon. And the world will be right again.
Today, and Writing
Rolled out a little after 2, opened the novel by 2:40. Realized I was stuck, my subconscious screaming at me.
That was around 4. I stopped and wrote everything above, then began working on the reverse outline and then on the actual manuscript (after adding a B to the ile name and hitting Save As).
Definite nonwriting day today. I’ll be back tomorrow, but tomorrow might be a nonwriting day as well. Going to bed late tonight and getting up late tomorrow so I can stay up for the Super Bowl. At least that’s the plan. We’ll see.
Back tomorrow.
Of Interest
Over at Dean’s, basically another placeholder post but also one about BundleRabbit. If you haven’t found that yet, this might be the perfect opportunity.
Fiction Words: XXXX
Nonfiction Words: 530 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 530
Writing of Will Perkins (novel, working title)
Day 1…… 4219 words. Total words to date…… 4219
Day 2…… 4003 words. Total words to date…… 8222
Day 3…… 3383 words. Total words to date…… 11605
Day 4…… 3124 words. Total words to date…… 14729
Day 5…… 3373 words. Total words to date…… 18102
Day 6…… 2294 words. Total words to date…… 20396
Day 7…… 3102 words. Total words to date…… 23498
Day 8…… 2578 words. Total words to date…… 26076
Day 9…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX
Total fiction words for the month……… 7974
Total fiction words for the year………… 100584
Total nonfiction words for the month… 1570
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 21260
Total words for the year (fiction and nonfiction)…… 121844
Hi Harvey,
Your representation of your subconscious made me think of Boulet, a great French comic book artist who likes to visually represent the various parts of his mind (his conscious mind, his subconscious, etc.).
I think you might like his latest blog post, which you can access on the English version of his webpage:
http://english.bouletcorp.com