I should be writing today, but I’m currently distracted by the discovery that Scotland names it’s snow plows things like Sled Zepplin and Gritty Gritty Bang Bang. Nope, I’m not making this up. Here’s the Scottish gritter tracker. Han Snow-lo and Skid Vicious are hard at work. See for yourself.
Don’t worry, I’ve had my fun for the day and I’ll be right back at writing after I send this newsletter.
As for the current work in progress, I’m shooting for about 90,000 words and I’m short by about 40,000 of those. The holidays slowed me down, and I’m still struggling with the plot. Although a lot of writing advice says to plan ahead and fast draft, meaning write it and then come back and revise, I just can’t do those things.
I make a sketchy outline of the story and then I change practically everything as I write because my characters drive the narrative far more than my ability to plan things. I find their motivations and their weaknesses as I write. New characters show up. New ideas slip in. And I can’t just keep writing. If I know the story needs to be revised because of the new information, I go back and fix it before I move on.
Does this approach result in a lot of work and re-work? It does. But it’s the way my creativity works, and I’ve decided after three novels to follow my own path.
Bear with me as I slog through writing this novel. I’m certain you won’t be disappointed with the results.