Nov 24, 2011

Surviving Thanksgiving

I should probably have titled this something else, since this year Thanksgiving was a relative breeze unlike the ghosts of turkeydoomsdays-past. We did dinner in the evening, rather than at lunch, so there was all kinds of prep time for the eleven-million courses. It's 10:35pm, and the last guest just walked to the car.

Highlight of the evening: my nephew(who will be 4 in 3 months) stopped in front of Grandma #2.
     Grandma #2: You look awfully nice today. That shirt is sharp!
     Nephew: YEA, IF YOU DON'T WATCH OUT, IT'LL CUT YOU!

He can't grasp the concept of what it means that I am his aunt(he also thinks I'm his sister because I'm his Daddy's sister), but at 3 he's already got a firm understanding of sarcasm. That's my boy!

Nov 16, 2011

Plottin like a fool...

I love plotting. I love brainstorming, asking what if, finding links between the GMC of the H/H. But, the more I do it, the more frustrated I become by my tendency to be vague about some parts of the story. Vague as in, I have an undefined idea(like 'Pull wacky hijinx') which I never really put into many words because I feel that part of the story is golden and doesn't need plumbed in order to continue on with the plot. I guess this is the pantser part of my process.

Except, sometimes these undefined ideas I'm sure will work, just don't work.

With current WIP, there's been something bugging me about the setup and I couldn't figure out what it was. Last night, before bed, I focused on that bit of the storyline and tried to put into words what bothered me about it. I had no answers, just a feeling that something was off. After writing down what bugged me, I went to sleep. During the night, my brain apparently wrestled that bear to the ground, and when I woke up this morning the solution was my first thought after "I'm awake." I promptly wrote it down.

Later, after some errands and Real Life stuff, I went to put my new solution into my plot, and ... my whole plot FELL APART. It's all farked up now. On one hand, I'm glad that I've spent time dragging my feet instead of writing much more of it. To feel like I wasn't just being lazy or unmotivated, I'm telling myself that my subconscious knew I'd have to rework the entire darned plot to make it work, and that it hates discovery drafts--that's why it kept saying things like... YOU SHOULD READ THIS BEFORE WE WRITE MORE...

As much as I love plotting, I hate when my plots fall apart and I have to start over. New Voices entry rewind: starting tonight on plotjitsu V. 2.0.