Reverb10: Writing

 

Prompt: What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?

I’ll tell ya, this prompt somewhat vexed me. Even as someone who is focusing on writing.

There are lots of things that don’t contribute to my writing, routine things  – like balancing my budget, or having a bath, or coping with my arguing children. And that’s okay.

What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your life and can you eliminate it? There’s a question. ‘Cuz even for Little Obsessed Me, writing is not my totality.

But. That doesn’t mean that while I’m writing I don’t have distractions. I suffer the common complaint of easy Internet distraction.

I should totally get on that. *snork*

What’s a WAY MORE INTERESTING writing problem is one just started this November.

One of the really helpful notes I got was that, especially during stress moments, I don’t ground my character in space. I write talking heads yammering at each another. Totally true.

Makes sense. When *I’m* in conflict, the stove could spontaneously combust and I might not notice. And when I’m reading about characters in conflict, I utterly skip all the boring (ahem) drapes-and-carpet descriptors.

My favorite authors write detail sparingly but to good effect during conflict. So I wandered into bravely imagining whatever I can.

Only now, I’m writing really… very… slowly. I’m writing new scenes – and when I flip into visual imagining, I get lost in there. When I’m done I have to re-write the whole bloody thing, because it’s not my protagonist’s voice, but my own. Plus, I have to start deleting.

I’m finding this highly amusing right now, but it will get old fast if I can’t pick up the pace.

Leave a Reply