D'vorahDavida
Yetzirah

Gut Wrenching Insanity
Thu Oct 30 2003

I am in here at the computer looking at my three medium sized posters with all kinds of notes on them about the story I want to write. I only have 2 more days to get ready.

One poster has notes from a book I read months ago that has the philosophical reasons listed that made me want to write the story.
Another has technical writing tips from the books that I got at the library.
It has things on it like: “You are not writing a sermon!” and “Allude to the facts, don’t spell them out.” And the one that gives me the chills…”Inventing is easy, storytelling is hard.” Eeek!
The last poster has my characters and story outline on it. (With HUGE gaps in motivation… that are giving me fits at the moment.)

I DID decide to stay with my original storyidea. (I sort of panicked earlier..) I still have lots of questions. I haven’t figured out who is telling this story. Is it narrated, or first person, or from several viewpoints? This is a real writing challenge to me. I haven’t had to worry about that kind of thing ever before! It was usually just me, mumbling into my hat. So that’s my next project for this evening and tomorrow. I am going to pull several books off the shelves here at home and see how some of my favorite authors tackled that little decision.

About once an hour I have thought……”WHAT are you doing here cupcake? Have you moved into a new level of gut wrenching insanity?” And I have no real answer except that I want to give it a try and I like the idea of doing it in a virtual group, since I have no writing group of my own. It has been a lot of fun to go on the forums at NaNoWriMo and read how other people are just as panicky as me.One person had written in the space for “Title of your story” - - ‘Oh God, how I wish I HAD a title!’ Bless his heart.

As I told BT today, I have been in alt, listening to my new Sting CD.
Anybody else really like the song “Desert Rose” I am blown away by it. It’s new to me believe it or not. (Hey, I was busy raising children when he was doing all this stuff!)

Okay, yoga class beckons.

What’s YOUR motivation? :-)



6 Comments
  • From:
    Pragmatist (Legacy)
    On:
    Thu Oct 30 2003
    My motivation? That was rhetorical, wasn't it?

    I took a course in short story writing so many years ago I don't even want to mention it. And I turned out some pretty good stories during the course of the semester. But I don't have that uncontrollable desire to WRITE.

    I wonder whatever happened to those scribblings?

    Well good luck. You'll come up with something that is so Yetz that it couldn't possibly come from the pen of any other.

    Shalom
  • From:
    Bookworm (Legacy)
    On:
    Thu Oct 30 2003
    Your panic is so entertaining, lol. You'll pull it off, don't worry so much. Just sit down and write. Don't forget it can *all* be crap. ;-)

    My motivation? Because I have this insane drive to tell my story. And because I can. ;-)
  • From:
    BillyTeabags (Legacy)
    On:
    Thu Oct 30 2003
    I don't have that compilation. I have pretty much everything he's released so I know all the songs you mentioned very well.

    I like the Desert Rose, but I much prefer his stuff from the 70s and 80s. If you can, try to get a hold of his Nothing Like the Sun album. He wrote it as a way to deal with the death of his mother, and it's the best thing he's released, I think. (He has a version of Jimi Hendrix' Little Wing on there that is absolutely amazing. You have to hear it.)

    His Police stuff is great as well. I always thought the other two members of the band complemented his song writing very well. (even though they wound up hating each other.)

    That is quite the task you have ahead of you.(writing that book) I'd try to say something encouraging, but I'm sure I'd be having panic attacks if I was in your position. That's certainly not a lot of time to write something so long.

    The little hint of what it's going to be about sounds promising.

    Here's hoping you stay focused and ideas come flooding into your head.

    Have fun. Talk to you later.
  • From:
    AeolianSolo (Legacy)
    On:
    Thu Oct 30 2003
    Motivation: because even it it does turn out to be crap, I'm the only one who can write the crap in my own unique way.

    As for your characters' motivations: It's unfortunatley time-consuming, but you may be able to do it briefly. I always do a character interview. I start with a spec sheet (name, age, birthdate, astrological sign (for personality traits), logdings, parents, etc. Then I do an interview. What scares you the most? What's your favorite thing to do? Who is your hero? What's your guiltiest pleasure? Stuff like that. Then you KNOW who this person is and you don't have to try to guess what he/she'd do in a given situation. Of course, they can still surprise you. Good luck! I know you can do it.

    --Solo
  • From:
    AQuietEvening (Legacy)
    On:
    Thu Oct 30 2003
    One good thing about being involved in an emergency is that I was able to get away from the crazy writer in my head and all the things it thinks I should be doing. I still haven't decided if I'm going to do nanowrimo or not. I imagine I'll decide Friday night and then I'll just wing it. I'm allowed to write really bad my first try - right?

    I have a feeling I will, whether it's allowed or not...strangely the thought doesn't scare me anymore.

    ~QE
  • From:
    Goodeks (Legacy)
    On:
    Thu Oct 30 2003
    Hey,
    You are WAY farther in this whole thing than I am. I just signed up last friday for the nanowrimo thing and I still haven't decided on which story I'm going to do. THAT is a pain. I think that you are intrinsically motivated and are just freaking out--I know that is what I'm doing.
    Well good luck on everything and I hope that you get your *crap* written!