Wow! The first segment of Write Club is almost over already. Time really flew by for me.
Some of the other Clubbers have been posting about their process, or about how to write better, and so I thought I ought to get on that bandwagon, however late.
First, what's actually happening in Write Club right now: We're in the "reading" stage. We are all reading each other's entries and providing anonymous general feedback. I have to say, it was a joy to read everyone's stories, they were ALL fantastic. I'm glad it's not a competition and that I don't have to judge which one is the "best." Impossible, I'm telling you!
As for my process? Well, I got to choose the first prompt, so you would think I had an advantage, but really I didn't. I did have an idea, but that's all. When writing time came around, I stalled out really fast.
Staring at an empty screen didn't help, so I broke out the pencil and paper. I quite like working this way, because even if i don't write words, I can draw or doodle or make diagrams. Just moving my hands seems to help unlock my brain.
I asked myself questions and answered them on the paper. A good story needs conflict. But it also needs proper motivations for that conflict, and that was what was missing in my original idea. The pencil helped me find it, and I was able to return to the screen.
It wasn't all cupcakes and rainbows yet though. I still got bogged down a lot. I've learned a lot about how to really make writing shine, but I was spending so much time making sure each sentence was perfect that the story wasn't getting told. So I resorted to drastic measures and started breaking every rule I could think of!
My story turned into a stream-of-consciousness freewrite mess full of dialogue tags and ridiculous adverbs. But I got the whole story out in a couple hours!
Then for the fixing. I had to go back through and make all those sentences pretty. I replaced dialogue tags and adverbs with action tags and narrative prose.
My brain was mush.
I had to take several rests throughout this process to regain my brain power. So, I visited my sheep...
I cooked a meal...
And eventually, I got through my revisions!
So I guess that's my process. Tada! I feel like I've come through this first segment of Write Club in pretty good shape, and I'm already looking forward to the next prompt. Now that I have figured out my process, perhaps I won't struggle to get started for as long this time.
