Well
that was humbling.
After
a great first day, I found myself on day two stumbling and bumbling.
Wrote about 600 words, deleted most, tried again. Couldn't come up
with anything that worked to get me into the story. Clever? Maybe. But useful? Not at all. So I backed up and tried again. And again.
The
problem, I suspected, was that my opening was kind of flashy but
didn't get me into the story. Had trouble transitioning. So I started the story in a slightly different place, just a
little farther along.
It
worked, but I'm not there yet. Took several false starts before I
finally got right into the action, in a place that works. By then,
the afternoon was over and I had to run around picking people up,
dropping them off, the usual.
So
my word count isn't impressive. Oh, if you count all the false
starts, it's probably good – probably more than 1,000 words. But
what I have left after all teh deletions and fiddling, is: 54 words. So what with all the backing up and adjusting and fiddling, the grand (?) total is now slightly LESS than it was the day before: 1,270 words.
But
that's better than no words. I'm not happy about it, but at least I
kept pushing until I found soemthing that works. And it does work.
Some
days you get the bear. Some days the bear gets you. But I'm back at
it, a little mauled but pushing on.
At least you survived the bear attack. I think you did really well. You wrote the words that mattered most in the end, even though you had to write them a few times to get them just right. I admire the confidence with which you write. You know when something works for you and that is all that matters. Thank you for your kind and inspirational words on my blog. I really needed them.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words. Confident? I'm not sure it's that. Maybe more realistic or even fatalistic. I just know that this is what the job requires, so it's what I do. Maybe my strength is approaching writing as a job. I'm just doing what I think it'll take to get *paid* for this job.
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