#FirstDraft60 Day 36: Sunday Story Reflections #amwriting #nanowrimo
On Sundays, we take a moment to step back and think about our writing from a wider view. In order to do that, I’ll post some guided questions—feel free to answer them here with as much or little detail as you’d like; or answer them on your own blog or on Facebook. Or just write the answers down in a private journal or notebook. The important thing is to actually think through and write down your answers.
Because we’re now in the writing portion of the challenge, there will be a much narrower focus to the question(s) posed each week—and we’re going to turn that focus onto the story itself.
Reflections for Day 36:
- What have you learned about your main characters so far?
- Are your characters staying on track, or have you already had to make revision notes in your Story Bible for things that will need to change in the revision process for the second draft?
- Do you still look forward to spending time with your characters every day?
I look forward to seeing your answers and will be posting mine soon. And don’t forget to check in with your word-count progress!
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KayeDacus.com 
What have you learned about your main characters so far?
Well, the most important thing I learned so far is Hero Edwina Stanhope’s real name. I also learned that my villain is insisting on having a viewpoint, even if it’s short at this point. (I’d forgotten how much I enjoy writing a villain’s POV. I just need to make sure I’m not rehashing what I did with Shaw in the Ransome trilogy).
Are your characters staying on track, or have you already had to make revision notes in your Story Bible for things that will need to change in the revision process for the second draft?
Now, instead of Hero being the one reticent to share herself with me, it’s Quin. He’s being a bit squirrelly right now. I tried the 1k1hr technique of just starting to write in a character’s POV and having him go somewhere and then see what happens—and he wouldn’t cooperate. He walked out his front door and . . . NOTHING! We’ve got some work to do, that boy and I.
And if the villain is going to be a POV character, even just for brief scenes, I need to work on his background a little bit more to give him some motivation and realism.
Do you still look forward to spending time with your characters every day?
I think because I fought with Hero for so long over her name/identity, and now Quin is misbehaving, I’m having trouble “wanting” to write. But I need to remember who’s actually in charge here and figure out what’s off kilter so that I can right the ship and get us back on course. (How’s that for staying in the “voice” of my story?)
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I don’t have a WordPress account so I can never “like” anyone’s post, but I always love hearing about your process!
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I suffer the lack of a WordPress account too…and as I have no intention of using it I don’t want to sign up just so I can like things either. lol However, I too love hearing about your writing “adventures”.
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LOL, don’t worry about not having the ability to like/star comments—I use it almost more for myself as a way to check off the comments I’ve read, since I can’t respond to every single one. I use it kind of like a checkmark (for me and for you) to say yes, I’ve read this comment and I’m with you! And now I know which ones are new and need my attention.
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I have to confess that I haven’t been enjoying what I’ve written this week. In fact, I don’t like much about it at all. After our whole month of planning, the night before the challenge I decided to switch gears and work on a series of short stories that have nothing to do with the planning I did in October. My reasoning was that suddenly I had much less time to write, so maybe I could actually finish the shorter pieces and feel like I accomplished this new goal. But all I really succeeded in was writing stuff I don’t care about. I do like these new characters, but the short story thing just isn’t for me. I’m going to finish the one story I’ve got going just to be sure I don’t want to go on, and then I’m moving back to my October project. I am excited about that book, so that’s probably where I ought to spend my limited writing time, even if a finished draft is a few months off.
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What have you learned about your main characters so far?
I feel like I haven’t really learned anything new about them yet…like I haven’t written enough yet to get there. I have just written my hero and heroine meeting each other for the first time in 5 years, just began this scene so I feel something will be revealed here.
Are your characters staying on track, or have you already had to make revision notes in your Story Bible for things that will need to change in the revision process for the second draft?
So far so good I think…I have made a few notes in the Scrivener document notes so far on some things to revise/cut/flesh out when it occurs to me though. 🙂
Do you still look forward to spending time with your characters every day?
Yes, mostly, but I’m finding the words come so difficultly that I procrastinate sitting down and writing terribly because I know it’s going to be mostly a struggle the entire time except for teeny bursts of inspiration which realistically I know is better than none!
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I ended up staying up WWAAAAYYYY too late Sunday night/Monday morning . . . but it’s a win—I ended up with a total of 2,706 words for “Sunday” (I’m calling it Sunday because I’m actually going to go to bed between now (4 a.m.) and when “Monday” starts (around 10 or 11 a.m.). So, yay–back on track!
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