Some more babbling about fiction writing!

_{Source: Pixabay}

Yesterday I babbled about fiction writing and thingies, and today I plan to babble a little bit more. Hey, I've warned you about my tendency to babble! 😅

After my giant babble yesterday, I actually spent most of the day in Scrivener, plotting out my future story. And then after vaguely plotting out each chapter, I actually started writing something! It was amazing, it was a miracle, I was being creative for the first time in ages, it was fantastic!

Part of me wants to share the 850 word scene I wrote, right now, but I'll wait til April. The freewrite prompts might encourage even more to be added to things that I'm writing in the meantime, expanding upon things, making them filled with even more life and hilarity.

I also don't want to "repost" once April hits. I'll already be reposting a little bit because the original segments I wrote in #Maynia a couple of years ago will still exist. They will be written a bit differently due to writing style changes and a few slight story changes, but the overall content of those couple of chapters is basically the same.

You know what? ... Here's an image of my Scrivener instead!

So I was debating whether or not this book that I'm writing should have anything to do with the webcomic I'm creating, since the same two main characters will be used. At first I thought that a stand-alone story would be better, unrelated to what happens in the comic, but then I started thinking that if I do something alongside the comic, it would be more relevant and maybe if people actually enjoy the comic they might like the more deeper point-of-view from Jenny's perspective.

Or even vice versa!

Maybe people would enjoy the ridiculous novel, then like to revisit it in comic form.

So what I'm going to do, is basically write what I have planned for the comic (which was originally derived from what I had planned for the novel years ago! 🤣) and then as I continue the comic past the end of the novel, I could write another novel, and the books and comic can follow each other.

I'm sure there's a better way of writing that, but I didn't sleep well last night and I'm fueled by 360mg of caffeine at the moment.

So far, my main issue with this whole endeavour is removing 'The Freewrite' from 'The Story.'

In The Five-Minute Freewrites where Joey and Jenny first found life, Joey was over-the-top ridiculous and, in my mind, I felt as though I were forcing his ridiculousness in newer freewrites. He didn't just come naturally anymore.

In this novel, he simply cannot be as ridiculous as he was in the freewrites. Still mildly ridiculous, yes, but not over-the-top. As a result, he will not be as we currently know and love him. I'm sure he's still a loveable goofball, but..... I guess this is like a Mr. Bean scenario. In the live-action Mr. Bean series the character is just a joke. But in the cartoon version of the series, he is required to be more personable otherwise it just wouldn't work.

Joey is now required to be more personable. He has more dialogue. He's more human. Actually has feelings. And while he's still strange at times, he's not just a comedic cue to be worked in.

When I was writing last night, it was actually a whole lot of dialogue and I was surprised at how naturally it came. I wasn't treating Joey as a ridiculous side-character, and it turns out he actually had a lot to say. It was great.

Another issue I've been experiencing, well, over the past two years or so, is not really being "excited to write." I fell into a slump where I just didn't really care anymore, care about my characters, care about possible stories. I didn't think anyone would be interested anyway, so why bother?

I forgot my own personal rule which is to write for myself and not anyone else. If other people enjoy it, great, but the goal is to write for me. Instead I got hung up on the non-reaction to Vengeance and inwardly gave up.

I wasn't excited to write anymore. Occasionally I'd come up with an idea and get mildly excited about it, like when I came up with The Worldmeld idea, which now happens to be one of my unfinished books sitting in Scrivener, but mostly the excitement wouldn't last and a wave of 'meh' would just drown out everything else.

Now, at least the past two days, I'm feeling that excitement once more and I'm looking forward to finally writing something again.

I'm all ready for April Madness!!

Except, I'm cheating by writing tidbits in advance. And vaguely plotting. And planning to draw a webcomic to go with my words. Still, in April all will be revealed.

I'm planning on posting my writing every day, and of course I'm hoping to have a finished story by the end of the month. Something I can edit, fiddle around with, then publish.

I was originally toying with the idea of actually hosting another #FreewriteMadness this year, but I know from personal experience that I can't host and write at the same time. So I'm being selfish and doing my very own writing thing. 😅 Feel free to join me though, if you like. Just there won't be any HIVE prizes or HBI rewards this time around as it won't be a proper contest. Just a self-motivated writing spree.

Join meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee in a bunch of writing this April. 📝📚

(Maybe in November, during the proper NaNoWriMo, I'll properly host something again!)