Well, I’ve been gone a while I see. But it was for a good reason. I’ve been writing. No poems this time, I had an idea for a new novel so I dove right in and had my own personal NaNoWriMo. Except this one took 6 weeks for 50,000 words. Yeah, hard for me to believe, too. I’ve been averaging around 8000 words a week. When you’re on a roll, you’re on a roll. You don’t want to break the streak.
I’m doing the seat of the pants method. I have a loose story idea, and I’m just spilling words out on the page in a somewhat linear fashion. No going back, except to read what I wrote the previous day to get back onto the mood of the story. Keep chanting, ‘It’s a rough draft, no need to be perfect.”. Full speed ahead. Any ideas for a previous part I realize get jotted down in my notes section to be slotted in or unfolded when the time for revision is at hand.
Forward, ever forward. I have a good handle on the main protagonist. Her and her sidekick sprung forth, full blown, from my writer’s mind. It’s good to feel like Zeus. The bad guys are taking shape and form, they’ve already started to make the protagonist’s life miserable. The secondary characters spoke up and demanded places in the story. My head is full, trying to empty it out onto the page.
Poetry, alas, has taken somewhat of a back seat. It’s still moving forward, a line at a time, thanks to the collaborations I’m doing with Kathleen Cassen Mickelson. (Thanks, Kath.) In a way, that’s a good thing. It forces me to really concentrate on one line at a time. And the time off from poetry will help clear my head so when I go back to editing poems, it will be with new eyes. So here’s to new work, walking up in the morning with scenes in my head, and a fantasy novel desperate to be born. What’s new with you in the writing realm?
Hey, Connie – thanks for the shout out! It does make a big difference, having a collaboration that keeps one foot in the poetry arena while working on other projects. Go, you!
And the collaboration is fun to boot!