Hello, friends. I hope you are all having a lovely August. As promised, I'm dropping in briefly to give an update on my hiatus happenings.
My lovely alpha reader, who has cheered me on endlessly through book one, sent me a good, old-fashioned letter, asking to see pages from book two. How could I say no to that? I spent a week cleaning up the first six chapters (can't say how many times I changed chapter breaks), printed them and mailed them to her at the camp where she's a counselor.
I gave myself the goal of repairing and finishing chapters 7 and 8 by mid-month. I finished that up last night. I'll put those in my alpha's hands when she returns from Maine.
Some things I learned while on the road last week:
~Weak coffee is the bane of my existence.
~I do my best drafting in longhand.
~Preparation is everything. Before leaving home, I had organized a notebook with printed pages of the draft, my novel "bible," plot notes and drafting spiral-bounds. At quiet moments, I could review and add brainstorming notes.
~Asking for blocks of time away from the family to just write does wonders for my morale. A quiet museum cafeteria was my most productive venue.
~Staring out car windows at nice scenery is good for the subconscious mind to do its mysterious work.
~Understanding character motivations and desires is so foundational. Spend time freewriting about each character's psychology and scene ideas will come to you fast and furious.
Have you ever taken your writing on the road? What did you get out of it?
My lovely alpha reader, who has cheered me on endlessly through book one, sent me a good, old-fashioned letter, asking to see pages from book two. How could I say no to that? I spent a week cleaning up the first six chapters (can't say how many times I changed chapter breaks), printed them and mailed them to her at the camp where she's a counselor.
I gave myself the goal of repairing and finishing chapters 7 and 8 by mid-month. I finished that up last night. I'll put those in my alpha's hands when she returns from Maine.
Some things I learned while on the road last week:
~Weak coffee is the bane of my existence.
~I do my best drafting in longhand.
~Preparation is everything. Before leaving home, I had organized a notebook with printed pages of the draft, my novel "bible," plot notes and drafting spiral-bounds. At quiet moments, I could review and add brainstorming notes.
~Asking for blocks of time away from the family to just write does wonders for my morale. A quiet museum cafeteria was my most productive venue.
~Staring out car windows at nice scenery is good for the subconscious mind to do its mysterious work.
~Understanding character motivations and desires is so foundational. Spend time freewriting about each character's psychology and scene ideas will come to you fast and furious.
Have you ever taken your writing on the road? What did you get out of it?
