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Monday, April 12, 2010

Spice Up Your Life

I started this morning with my notebook and a blackberry iced tea at the coffee shop in the hopes of getting some writing done. It always helps to be productive on Monday morning; it sets the tone for the rest of the week.

I did work on my new WIP but I'm hitting a snag, which is the conflict, and--let's be honest--that's a nice way of saying the plot. I've got the setup but I'm not sure where the story needs to go. And I think if you don't know where you're going, you really have to stop and ask for directions. If I keep on writing with no idea what my destination is, I'll be sure to take a bunch of wrong turns and end up getting lost. I might even run out of gas, call a tow truck, and just give up.

All I want to do is write. But I can't let myself move forward until I've got a map. So for now I've got to wait and think and WILL myself to figure this out. I know the plot is there somewhere--I can almost feel it--now I just have to find it.

There are some other interesting developments in my life. All of it is uncertain. Possibilities. So I'm feeling excited and uprooted and unsure. It would be nice if something in my life was certain right now, but I'm just trying to enjoy the adventure. Trying being the operative word. Remember what I said about my inability to be spontaneous.

And finally, I have no explanation for this, but I'm in a Spice Girls mood today. Maybe it's the sunshine. And while admitting that I liked the Spice Girls in the 90s and even knowing all the words to their songs might have made me embarrassed at one time, now I feel proud and a little wistful. Which I think means I'm getting old.

So in an effort to combine the upheaval in my life with my current feelings of Spice nostalgia and to give this post some sort of cohesion, here's a link (it wouldn't let me embed) to the video for my favorite Spice Girls' song.

SPICE UP YOUR LIFE!

2 comments:

  1. I've been trying more and more to do this, have that plan (however general) before typing Draft 1. Or at least allowing myself to write a Draft Zero to work out where the story should go on paper without feeling the need to commit to it. Good luck, Jennifer!

    I wanna zigazig ah!

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  2. Yeah I learned my lesson with my last novel--which I had to entirely rewrite because I hadn't plotted at all. Not something I want to repeat!!

    Good luck in your plotting, too. I think every writer has to figure out her own strategy.

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