Ok, whew. I’m back to liveblogging, and rather sorry for punking out on it last week. One of the plusses, and minuses, of a writing group is that it’s like writing with someone looking over your shoulder. That provides a lot of accountability, which is great, but it also provides a lot of pressure, and sometimes that pressure can get more than a touch negative.
And I’ve found this to be a plus and minus of liveblogging as well. I’d like to do it again in the future, but I don’t think I’m going to commit to seeing a whole project through with it again.
Here’s where I am with Harold’s story: About one scene farther that I was when last we spoke of it. Can I just say: What a difference a scene makes! I am currently deep into The Scene, the scene I first envisioned when I started this story, the scene I’ve been writing toward the whole time. It’s the scene where Harold reaches out and makes a connection. Right now, the words are flying (which is good, because I have a Writing Group Deadline I’m already pushing).
2:39 PM: Getting in some good voice-y bits for Harold. In a later draft, I’ll need to make sure these are more present throughout.
3:07 PM: Inventing a richer history for Harold.
3:21 PM: Done with The Scene, and it wasn’t too bad if I do say so myself. I thought there’d only be one more to write after this, but it turns out there’s two.
3:29 PM: Argh, not a plot snafu! Not now!
3:34 PM: Solved.
3:44 PM: Penultimate scene down. Ultimate scene: engage!
4:26 PM: One last big emotional moment. Come on. Get there.
4:50 PM: Hallelujah. It’s done.
So, let me wrap this up. That story took an insanely long time to write. In-sane-ly. Part of the trouble was that it’s been a while since I wrote a short story; I’ve been an exclusively novel girl for four or so years now. It’s just sort of a different thing.
And part of it is that is was just an inherently challenging story. At any rate, I am very happy to have a draft of it complete. I’ll see what my writing group has to say about it tomorrow. Despite the fact that this first draft is slightly rough, I have high hopes for the final version.