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Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Slightly Hallucinogenic Writing

First, a disclosure:
I have a sinus infection. My teeth ache and I'm on mucus draining drugs.
But this has been going on for almost A WEEK. I can't not work for that long. I can't put my kids on ice for that long (wait, can I?) I have to get on with it.

This is where I find that my new writing approach is paying off. If you remember, I recently have thrown my lot in with PLOTTERS. I have outlined my current WIP in a mind bogglingly detailed excel document. This has generally meant that when I open up my WIP, I am confronted, not by a sea of blank space but by a prompt 'THIS SORT OF THING GOES HERE'. It's working well. You'll not be surprised to hear that I'm not sticking to the outline religiously (you can take the pantser out of the pants...wait, what?) but that's okay too.

Now that my head is full of gunk, I find it very helpful to know the general direction I'm meant to be going in. I have started to imagine that a person different to myself but also named Alex (this person doesn't have a constant low-level headache) is leaving me messages in my WIP. I open up the word doc and say to myself "hey, look what Alex says I should write next. Phew. I was worried I'd have to come up with it myself."

I'm not completely round the twist - I know that the kind person who outlined my WIP for me is Me-from-three-months-ago. But as I struggle on with the WIP and the head case, urm, I mean head cold, it's nice to feel that I'm not alone.


2 comments:

  1. I can't believe we lost you to the plotters! This is dreadful news. But, well, if it helps you get another novel done, so be it. Hope those sinus meds kick in soon and do their job. :)

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  2. LG, I KNOW. I can't believe it myself. But plotting is my KRYPTONITE! It was my weeeaaaakneeeess.SO I needed to embrace it or sail a ship through my plot holes. Wow. Sounds like I need to go lay down. I may be hallucinating again!

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