Perpetual Ruminations

Wednesday

It's Wednesday and noon already, time to get writing on my story for the Challenge. I've gotten into writing it at the last minute, and that's not good.

One difficult prompt that I just could not get anything going with put me off. It ended up being Friday before I even had a decent idea to write about. I needed to do some research, get some names and general character traits before I could get the story started, so it was Saturday before I really got started on my writing. That's all it took to throw me off center and behind on my writing.

I did get the story done before midnight, in fact, I had it done by dinner time. I don't remember for sure, but it ended up around twelve pages long, and required me to write almost straight through the entire story non-stop. Part of it was minor research I had to do while writing, some of it is my typing speed isn't the best, and the rest was just needing to generate ideas and dialogue as I went.

I never realized before I started the 52 Week Challenge, how tiring writing can be. Of course, I never wrote as much before, except in college, and that was essays on studied subjects as much as anything for English Composition, so it wasn't quite the same. I mean, it's different to cram a bunch of stuff into your head and then write about it, as compared to start with a blank slate and create the material your writing. Both are exhausting, but in different ways.

Because I put so much into my writing, I find myself pretty drained after I write a story. The research part isn't the most difficult, it's just time consuming. The tiring part is putting it all together and typing it out. It requires a lot of mental activity, since I do it all within my mind, organize, store ideas, create situations and dialogue as they are required, and always, new ideas are forming and being stored for other areas of the story. Sometimes I even find myself backtracking and having to change some of the previous work to fit in an idea that came along later. Other times, I find I'm going into a whole different direction that I thought when I reached a certain point. I have to take this side jaunt, making it fit into the existing story. From here, I have to develop new material to bring me back to the place I left off, often with things slightly changed and needing adjustment as I write forward.

I've looked at, and tried a few different writing programs that are suppose to make this all easier, the characters, plot, scenery, etc..., but they just don't work the same way as my head does. They tend to be more like scenes in a movie or play than the type of story I tell. Also, the distractions of having to go to different areas to find things messes up my flow. Finally, unlike most people, I don't develop a character and then write the story, so this part doesn't help at all. Instead, I get my idea for the story, and then map out the characters as they are needed. At the most, I find names for them and a brief description of how they fit in.

For example, I recently wrote an item on fantasy and needed names for the main character, the wizard. I also knew that my story idea would need a few others, possibly a queen and princess, a king, the name of the areas the story would take place in, and the mother of the wizard. So, I used a name generator and found some names that fit the characters I planned on using. As I worked, I found I needed a few more names, so I went to generator and found more names.

Names tend to be the most difficult for me, once I have a name that fits the mental image I have for that particular character, things flow pretty well again. The point being, I don't use a lot of writing tools. I have my dictionary, my thesaurus, a couple of name generators, and my spelling and grammar checker. I do have some note programs, but don't use them for the actual writing, just for storing ideas. Any notes I need, I usually write in a notebook beside my computer, so I can add to it as needed, look at it when needed, and never have to close or minimize the page on my word processor. Lets not say never, but seldom, since I do have to switch over to do research on the web or use a name generator.

What I'm saying is, I put a whole lot of mental energy and imagery into my stories, trying to make them come alive, as they are in my mind as they unfold and play out. By the time I finish, especially if done in one sitting, I'm exhausted. It takes a few days before I can even attempt to write another story or generate ideas to use for one. That puts me where I'm at now, writing my heart out on Saturday to make the midnight deadline, then wiped for the next few days. By midweek, I'm ready to start generating ideas and by Saturday, I'm writing again.

So, today i'm going to give it my best shot to end this last minute cycle and start moving things up towards the start of the week instead of the end of the week. Like I said, I'm going to try and write today, even though I don't have much of an idea yet, and therefore have not done any research. Even so, I want to generate enough of an idea to start writing the story, do the research as it's needed, trying to get at least half the story typed out this afternoon. That leaves tomorrow and Friday to finish it, at the latest. Lets see how it goes from here.