…in more ways than one. School is coming to a close, I’m making my final preparations for the study abroad, and this novel is only one or two chapters from completion (in rough draft form, that is. Very rough draft form). Now that I’m almost finished with this draft of the novel, I’m able to see a number of things I’ve learned about writing from the experience…
One thing is the importance of plotting. I can better appreciate the idea of planning things out. This novel is extremely long for a sci fi piece, and looking back it seems that the characters too often were getting swept along by the action, rather than playing a decisive role in determining what happens. So planning out a plot better would help me to strengthen and develop the characters, as well as keep things shorter and somewhat easier to write.
Another thing I saw is that I relied really heavily on cliches. I noticed it when I started getting feedback for the stuff from the novel I submitted to the 318 writing group. You’ve got to mix the familiar with the original everywhere, and not rely too heavily on the one and not the other. I utilize a lot of tropes that have been tried and done throughout sci fi.
Another thing is that it’s always, always hard to put your butt in the chair and just write. What I’ve found is this: if it’s moderately hard for me to get started, the first 200 words will be difficult but the rest will be easy–but if it’s really hard for me to BIC and I just keep putting it off, by the time I get started the writing will be difficult the whole time. That’s basically what happened tonight (but I got in 1,800 words! Woo hoo!).
Another thing I’ve learned is that 1,000 as a daily word count goal is pretty steep but doable. 500 words is quick and easy when you’ve got a busy schedule–just half an hour. And when I sit down to write 1,000 words, I usually end up doing 1,500 or 2,000, so 500 is just a better goal for the sake of consistency.
Speaking of consistency, I’ve learned that writing a little bit every day is a lot better than writing huge chunks inconsistently–even if you’re writing more in those huge chunks than you would have in the same amount of time with little pieces. Writing consistently builds momentum, and the momentum helps you to be more creative and write a lot easier. If a couple of days go by and you haven’t thought much about your story, BIC becomes a lot harder the next time, and you spend all your time motivating yourself rather than world-building / character-developing / figuring-out-what-happens-next, etc.
One really interesting thing I’ve noticed is that even though I’m attached to this novel, I’m also detached enough that harsh criticism doesn’t bring me down into the depths of self-despair. Even if I do end up deciding that this novel is a piece of crap, I can do so and say “meh” at the same time. So, in some really wierd and probably significant way, I really did grow out of the whole writer’s fragility complex.
Finally, I’m really excited to pick up a new project.
I should probably finish a couple of the ones I’ve already started–there is that novella I started for English 318, The Wormhole Paradigm. I’ll have to completely rewrite and reconceptualize the beginning, but I’ve got a lot of meat on that story. Trouble is, I don’t know how interested I am in the original concept. Maybe if I completely changed the premises and ran with it…
I’ve also got this really, really cool idea–or rather, a nebula of ideas that’s gradually starting to coalesce into a story. It involves the same FTL technology in The Lost Colony, an interstellar version of the delivery services where I work, a twelve year old (or maybe fourteen year old?) boy without an immediate family who works on an interstellar freighter and works under a boss who rips him off without him knowing it, the Mormon pioneer trek in space, and space pirates who live in a nebula where the authorities can’t get to them. Those are most of the ideas, anyways, but I need some more to really ignite the story.
Then again, I probably should turn The Clearest Vision into a novel if I ever want to sell it. I think I’ll bring the first chapter to the AML writer’s conference at the Wilk this Wednesday and see what Deseret Book and her clones tell me.
Whatever happens, I probably won’t be doing that much writing while on the study abroad. I figure my time (and parents’ money) would be much better spent by my getting out and speaking Arabic with the natives than holing up by myself in a corner to write a story I could be writing in America. Plus, I’ll probably come across a lot more cool story ideas by getting out and experiencing the culture than I would by just writing.
That doesn’t mean that I won’t write at all over the summer, though. Just that I’ll be toning it down a few notches. I have yet to make some real study abroad goals, so we’ll see what happens.
We shall see.
