Journey Of A Novel

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bullet points

The big to-do

Tanya V 31 March 2021

A checklist has helped me to keep on track so far and I’ve written another 500 words for chapter four. When I got going it flowed but the going’s slow working through sections of story to integrate past writing with new. In this chapter I want to capture a new world and show my protagonist’s ability to change and grow with the world around them. To show how they roll with the punches and survive in the unknown without a helping hand; this chapter serves as a coming-of-age period in some respects.

Writing over the past few days with no clear vision in mind about what exactly I would write started to be a chore and I became intimidated by the idea of writing. It shouldn’t have been though. I overcame this by breaking the work into sections to write about in turn which made writing manageable for me. Navigating to this point has established a clear working model for me to write my novel. The next few chapters will benefit from the knowledge that I’ve gained so far with writing this WIP. The current chapter covers time progressively in a more precise way than preceding chapters, and chapters five and six introduce more characters. To continue working consistently through the different points of focus within these chapters I’ll have to keep breaking down the story into manageable parts while giving myself time to reflect, research, and then write.

Thinking through multiple sections at once or projecting forward to where I’m going is too much when it’s not clear in my mind. This has become a problem for me lately; I’ve struggled and avoided and puzzled over what and how which has taken my focus away from creativity to how to best manage myself. The progress that I’ve made has become about more than just writing a novel, I’ve made some real inroads in addressing how I approach and deal with challenges. This isn’t all new to me, I’ve faced challenges before and completed many tasks, but I’ve never completed anything that is my own project without a client or a class to teach or a cast to direct or a qualification to complete. In the past I’ve always had some sort of requirement to facilitate for others, which I do like doing and this may be why it’s never been an issue.

So back to lists which work so well for me that I’ll continue to make a simple list as I need to for structuring and navigating the task. To complete projects in the past I used lists as a response to time management rather than for structuring and motivation.

To do list:

  • Read previously written work for chapter four

  • Add new writing to prewritten work in chapter four

  • Research folklore tale details

  • Write without stopping for at least one hour today

  • Write without stopping for at least one hour tomorrow

Chapter two begins

Tanya V 20 March 2021

The groundwork has been established for chapter two, my protagonist is in forward motion and things are happening in my fictional world. It was difficult to get going, I did dither.

For the past week I’ve been shuffling through the chronology of my story in my head disagreeing with my decisions, disputing myself, and trying not to have reason-based conversations with myself out loud so I don’t appear cra cra… I was repeatedly cycling over points contemplating on how to best proceed with different scenarios in mind. I went back to the beginning in the end which helped me to reassess why I had made the choices about the narrative that I had long ago. This was all helpful, but gradually my process descended into a procrastination exercise.

Recognising this I came at it from a different angle and launched into research of the original folklore tale that I am using as the bones of the novel; this was very helpful. I was able to step out of my head and get off the merry-go-round of maybes that was plaguing my progress. I still have some more reading to do to solidify the direction that I’ve chosen to go in, but I was inspired to write before I could complete all of the reading that I’d assigned myself.

It felt so good to get back to writing.

Reading the research in parts is a more practical approach for me as it keeps the information fresh in my head. I find that when I do large amounts of research, I lose detail. To remedy this I keep notes in my chapter document to include certain points, I bullet point them below where I am writing and work them in as I progress. Over the years I have read lots about my chosen folklore tale so I’m familiar with most versions of it from different times and civilisations, but I’m less familiar with the version referenced in chapter two. New ground is being broken in terms of how I view my novel; for so long I thought that I knew what it would be but now I’m mixing it up and feeling good about it.

The decision that I made about my narrative and what will happen in chapter two requires a lot of new writing. The writing that I have done over the years towards my novel worked for a lot of chapter one’s content, and will for many subsequent chapters, but chapter two is all new. I’m excited to be writing fresh again, reworking past work into chapter one became tedious at times so it feels good to have a break from that approach for chapter two.