That's my goal, now. Write three pages every day. Robert Parker did it - or maybe it was five pages a day - and he was an incredibly prolific writer. I'm no Parker, but it is a laudable aspiration.
So, where am I? In last week's post, I said I was stuck. I'm now unstuck and am moving ahead at my 3 a day pace. What I'm writing is dialogue. I like to write dialogue. It comes easily for me and t also takes up a lot of space. That's nice.
Description is something I have to think about before I can write it. So I'm making notes, highlighting them in yellow, and inserting them in the text as I dialogue away. Stuff like "describe bedroom" or "describe her face" - things like that.
I have to put on a different hat for writing description and I'm not there right now. The conversation is moving along nicely, however, and I'm going to keep at it until I talk myself to the end of the novel.
Hope everyone is writing well this week. Share your own tricks of the trade, if you'd like. I'd love to see them.
I thrive on dialogue and often write it straight, without any descriptions or 'he said with a sneer', etc...
ReplyDeleteThen I have to go back and put my participants in their space, include their behaviors and tone, etc... I find writing all that as I go along takes away from the natural pace of the conversation. Once I know where the conversation is going to go then I can set my scene better. I suppose that's like wearing another hat. I considered it to be building another layer.
Three pages a day is a great goal. I would love to be able to do that. Maybe I’ll make that my goal for today - just to see if I can.
ReplyDeleteI prefer writing dialog over description, too. I generally do just one scene at a time though, rather than going through to the end of the story – probably because I don’t always know what is coming next. Good luck with your three page a day goal.
ReplyDeleteGreat writing goal!
ReplyDeleteIt depends on what kind of dialogue I'm writing, and whether it's important to the plot; sometimes I find description a lot easier than the back and forth between characters.
Layering, I like that concept. It is more about texture and layers than changing my millinery. Thanks, Erin.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks Holly, Jane, and Golden Eagle. I always appreciate your insights. Hope things are going all right for you, Karen.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting stuck, pulling myself out, then getting stuck again. I'm not sure why my manuscript is being so difficult right now. I imagine it has everything to do with me thinking too much instead of writing. :-)
ReplyDeleteMelissa, I'm trying to focus on what the characters are telling me. That seems to be a true shot. Sure, a lot of the pages I'm cranking out now will be edited, purged, or whatever, but the purpose is to move forward. I'm ok with that. Also want to thank you much for the WWII link. Keep at it. Don't get distracted.
ReplyDeleteI promised myself I'd write 500 words a day in 2011, and so far I've written 1,972 of a new short story (an average of 73 per day). If I want to catch up before the end of January, I need to churn out 11,528 by the end of the month, which is about 2,900 words per day (two long short stories worth). Sigh.
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