Good morning! I hope life is treating you kindly. It's Black Friday 2013 and I'm sitting at my desk thinking. I finished the rough draft of a novel at 12:43 p.m. Monday, Nov. 25. How did I perform this miraculous feat? I bought a pretty journal with lined pages and wrote until every line was filled. Well except for about 10 lines on the last page. As I hand wrote this rough draft (why do I keep thinking "red"?) I also made notes of things that were related to the ideas I was using in my story so I can use this rough draft journal as an outline for my novel.
The novel is about a "mature" woman who has resisted change for a long time. She doesn't know why she has stayed in her situation for so long...Loyalty? Fear? Love? She deserves nothing better than she has right now? She is on a journey to discover the answers to her life's purpose.
So, I've begun to reread the rough draft journal written mostly in blue ink with notes to refer to in red. And I am making notes as I go...thinking about related things, scenes to write, and whatever else comes to mind in the process of my discussions with my muse. Does this mean I should be rewriting as I go? Well, I didn't have another journal at hand to rewrite in so I am using a one subject spiral notebook. Again, I am writing with one color ink (blue or black) and making notes in red.
The most huge challenge is very common, let the reader understand. It is hard to apply the behind to the seat of the chair and write. It is not easy, though, to dig deep inside of ourselves to look at the ways of the world and consider our perceptions of these ways...how the ways of the world have affected us or may affect us in the future. But it must be done. Why?
I have read that writer/philosophers don't write to educate others. That's a by-product of the real reasons for our work: informing/educating ourselves. We learn, we have to write it and share it to get it out of the way so we can move onto the next experience of learning and writing and sharing and getting it out of the way so we can move onto the next...
William Shakespeare didn't originate all of those tales. He "borrowed" from those who went before. We all do this, for there is no new story to tell. They have all been told before. But we find new ways of telling the story. Example: How many times has The Hobbit been remade in film versions? It's the same story time after time, but the creators apparently have a more impacting version, better technology.
Go and write. Write well. Practice makes perfect. Practice, practice, practice.
(c) 2013 Cathy Thomas Brownfield ~ All Rights Reserved
