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The good news: After months of my writing process being a painful slog, I've finally recaptured that feeling where I hate not having more time to write, where I'm pissed when my train reaches its stop in the morning because the words are coming and I want to keep writing.
The bad news: I hate not having more time to write.
I'm hoping I can finish draft 1.5 of my current short story this weekend. I call it draft 1.5 because I got stuck partway through the crappy first draft and went back to the beginning to start editing and see if I could figure out where I went wrong. And that brings us to the planning vs. pantsing issue.
I used an outline for writing the first draft of my novel (though one writer's idea of an outline doesn't necessarily match another's), but for short stories, the write-the-first-draft-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach works better for me. When I was at Odyssey, I tried outlining a short story first to see if it worked any better. It didn't. In fact, I ended up with lots of unnecessary scenes and a story that was almost twice as long as it needed to be.
I recently realized that, for me, my short story writing isn't all that dissimilar from how I learned to approach singing. During my voice lessons, we'd pick songs apart to the smallest detail. Notes, rhythms, phrasing, dynamics, tempo, breathing, interpretation--there's a hell of a lot that goes into just one song. But my college voice teacher always reminded me that, when it came time for performance, you couldn't think about all those things on the same analytical level you did during practice; you just had to sing and hope it all clicked.
So that's sort of how I've come to view writing short stories now, except the process is reversed. The revision and critiquing stage is when the thing gets picked apart. The first draft is when I just write and hope that all of my previous practice clicks.
And as with performing a song, if I make a mistake in the first draft, the best thing is to just keep going. But every so often in performance, I've seen even professional singers get off on such a wrong foot that they have to stop, apologize to the audience, and start the song over. That's what happened with this current story. Luckily for me, writers generally don't have to start over in front of an audience.
Partway through this current WIP, I became stuck and felt like I was flailing blindly. It was not a pleasant feeling, and the more I tried to plow forward, the worse it got. So I started over. The first thing I realized was that what I had written, even when slogging, wasn't as terrible as I thought. Better yet, I figured out why I was stuck. Yesterday I reached the point in the story where I had given up and started over, but this time, things clicked and I know how to move forward with the rest. This time, I'll get through the whole song without apologizing and starting over.
While thinking about this process, I also realized that planning doesn't necessarily keep you (or at least me) from having to start over. I ran into the same problem with the first draft of my novel a few years back. Even though I had an outline, I got stuck around chapter 2 or 3. I kept trying to move forward, but it was rather like bashing my head against a wall, and that is not fun. So I went back to the beginning, started revising, and voila! I figured out what wasn't working and was able to plow straight through the rest of the novel.
So, the lesson learned for my writerly self: plan or no plan, sometimes you're better off apologizing to the audience and starting over. If the final product's good enough, no one will care that you screwed up the first time.
The bad news: I hate not having more time to write.
I'm hoping I can finish draft 1.5 of my current short story this weekend. I call it draft 1.5 because I got stuck partway through the crappy first draft and went back to the beginning to start editing and see if I could figure out where I went wrong. And that brings us to the planning vs. pantsing issue.
I used an outline for writing the first draft of my novel (though one writer's idea of an outline doesn't necessarily match another's), but for short stories, the write-the-first-draft-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach works better for me. When I was at Odyssey, I tried outlining a short story first to see if it worked any better. It didn't. In fact, I ended up with lots of unnecessary scenes and a story that was almost twice as long as it needed to be.
I recently realized that, for me, my short story writing isn't all that dissimilar from how I learned to approach singing. During my voice lessons, we'd pick songs apart to the smallest detail. Notes, rhythms, phrasing, dynamics, tempo, breathing, interpretation--there's a hell of a lot that goes into just one song. But my college voice teacher always reminded me that, when it came time for performance, you couldn't think about all those things on the same analytical level you did during practice; you just had to sing and hope it all clicked.
So that's sort of how I've come to view writing short stories now, except the process is reversed. The revision and critiquing stage is when the thing gets picked apart. The first draft is when I just write and hope that all of my previous practice clicks.
And as with performing a song, if I make a mistake in the first draft, the best thing is to just keep going. But every so often in performance, I've seen even professional singers get off on such a wrong foot that they have to stop, apologize to the audience, and start the song over. That's what happened with this current story. Luckily for me, writers generally don't have to start over in front of an audience.
Partway through this current WIP, I became stuck and felt like I was flailing blindly. It was not a pleasant feeling, and the more I tried to plow forward, the worse it got. So I started over. The first thing I realized was that what I had written, even when slogging, wasn't as terrible as I thought. Better yet, I figured out why I was stuck. Yesterday I reached the point in the story where I had given up and started over, but this time, things clicked and I know how to move forward with the rest. This time, I'll get through the whole song without apologizing and starting over.
While thinking about this process, I also realized that planning doesn't necessarily keep you (or at least me) from having to start over. I ran into the same problem with the first draft of my novel a few years back. Even though I had an outline, I got stuck around chapter 2 or 3. I kept trying to move forward, but it was rather like bashing my head against a wall, and that is not fun. So I went back to the beginning, started revising, and voila! I figured out what wasn't working and was able to plow straight through the rest of the novel.
So, the lesson learned for my writerly self: plan or no plan, sometimes you're better off apologizing to the audience and starting over. If the final product's good enough, no one will care that you screwed up the first time.
