Okay, quick post before I go to bed.<\/p>\n
Things are progressing in this novel, slowly but surely, as you can see from the wordcount.\u00a0 Unlike past weeks, I’m not pushing myself too hard, mostly because I’ve got a lot of schoolwork right now and if I were to spend much more time on this novel, I would neglect a lot of the more important stuff.\u00a0 Even though my course load is relatively light this semester, I’m a senior and I’m really not as motivated to do this stuff as I used to be.\u00a0 I get done what needs to get done, but just barely.<\/p>\n
I have been successfully getting up early, however.\u00a0 And I’ve discovered something very interesting: I’m more productive when I have less free time.\u00a0 Thursday, I didn’t have class until noon, so when I got on the computer at about 6:30 to write, I opened up the email, opened up facebook…and, by the time I had to leave for class, I had only written about 430 words.\u00a0 Disgusting.\u00a0 But today, when I had class at 9:00 am and still had my Arabic homework to do, I got in about 700 words in half an hour.<\/p>\n
I still have a lot of self discipline to learn, I guess. \ud83d\ude1b\u00a0 The scary thing is that my idea, up to this point, has been to keep my time open in the summer so that I’ll be able to write.\u00a0 Err…yeah.\u00a0 We’ll see how that goes.<\/p>\n
I’ve been getting a lot of comments back from my alpha readers on Genesis Earth<\/em>, and it’s been REALLY fun!\u00a0 Even the criticism–as long as it’s helpful criticism, I really appreciate it.\u00a0 This one girl in my ward asked me if she could be an alpha reader, then read the whole thing in only a couple of days.\u00a0 She had a LOT of positive comments–in fact, almost all of her comments were positive–and she said she really loved it!\u00a0 So much so, in fact, that she said she was having withdrawals, so I sent her The Phoenix of Nova Terra<\/em> v1.2.\u00a0 Hopefully, getting her comments back will give me motivation to pick up that old thing and rework it…goodness knows it needs it.\u00a0 Needs it bad.<\/p>\n My first two novels, The Phoenix of Nova Terra<\/em> and Genesis Earth<\/em> are completely different in some ways, but very similar in others.<\/p>\n <spoiler alert> <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>They both have an important romantic element, and they both have generally positive endings.\u00a0 The book I’m writing now is something of a tragedy, at least at it’s core, and there is a completely different dynamic there.\u00a0 No love stories, no happy resolutions–lots of pain, lots of violence, lots of grappling with difficult issues. <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/spoiler alert> <\/strong><\/p>\n I suppose it’s good to try out a lot of different things early on in your writing career.\u00a0 That’s what I’m doing.\u00a0 At the same time, though…I get feedback on the one novel, and I kind of want to work on it instead of the one right in front of me!\u00a0 And when I think about what I did right in the one I finished, I look at the one I’m currently writing and I think “man, this is crap.” Of course, I keep working on it because I recognize that I ALWAYS think “man, this is crap” at some point before I’m done.\u00a0 Knowing that doesn’t make it easier, however.<\/p>\n Jason from the FLSR writing group said something interesting about that, however.\u00a0 He said that writing a draft of a novel is like climbing a mountain: you do it three times.<\/p>\n The first time, you climb it in your mind as you plan it out.\u00a0 You’re excited and motivated, and busy with all the preparations.<\/p>\n The second time, you actually physically do the work of climbing.\u00a0 It is long, hard, and frustrating, you get lost a few times, the summit is anticlimactic, and the return is boring.\u00a0 You can’t wait until you’ve finished and it’s all over.<\/p>\n The third time is when you look back on the experience after you’re safely back down.\u00a0 No matter how excruciating the climb was, you look back on it fondly and remember all the best parts.\u00a0 You thrive on the memories and wish that you were back up there, standing on the summit, enjoying the experience.<\/p>\n Right now, I’m on my third climb for Genesis Earth<\/em> and my second climb for Bringing Estella Home.<\/em> I can remember how miserable I was when I was still in the middle of Genesis Earth<\/em>–for a while I seriously thought about throwing the whole thing out and doing something else.\u00a0 However, now that I’ve been letting it sit for a while, I’m getting really, really excited about it!\u00a0 I can hardly wait before I can get back and write the second draft.<\/p>\n But that’s not going to happen until I finish Bringing Estella Home<\/em>.\u00a0 And, no matter how difficult it gets, I swear I WILL finish this book!\u00a0 I’m a chapter away from act III, and that’s too deep into the thing to quit and start something else!\u00a0 This book WILL be finished–if not by April, then by sometime in May!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"