Current Project:Doctor In Petticoats
Status: page 251
As you know (from all my complaining) I've had company the past two weeks. I'd just gotten on a roll with the WIP when I was descended upon. The company left on Saturday, then my dh hauled me off to Princeton to finish setting up a wheel line.
Now I'm trying to get myself back into the WIP. I MUST HAVE IT DONE by mid-June. I can see the whole thing played out in my head, but hope it flows as well from my fingers to the monitor as I see it.
To get back into the story, I'll start reading it a few chapters before where I stopped and review my research.
When you get stopped in the middle of a project- what do you do to get back into the story?
10 comments:
Let me know if you get the magic answer! I simply lower my head and push forward. Reading from the begining helps me get back in my characters' heads.
Paty, as you know, starting a project and then sitting on it for the weeks (and sometimes months) it can take for an editor to give you the go ahead to write the rest of it is an all too common headache. I wrote nineteen books start to finish with no breaks and I loved writing that way. Most beginners also write a book from beginning to end with no imposed interruptions. I think it's a lovely way to write, but as you grow a career it becomes less and less practical.
Lately, the times between completion of the proposal and the finishing of the book have been getting smaller again, (thank you dear editor.) Still, I don't believe there is a magic bullet for getting back into a book, it's just like you and Kendra both said, you start reading and that inevitably begets tinkering which unfolds into new scenes and forward momentum. It can take several days or an hour, it just depends. And that delay is one of the key reasons some kind of outline or call it what you will can save your behind as it means you've actually thought up the rest of the plot already. Whether you stick to it verbatim or not is immaterial, it's just nice that after a forced delay you have some idea of what you intended to happen next back when you were fully invested in the project.
I believe I just rambled.
Happy Memorial Day!
Paty, I find this incredibly difficult. A couple of times I've set aside something that I was enthusiastic about after having let it "sit" too long. I just couldn't seem to work up the excitement again and hope that one day I'll go back and that spark will be there. If it was something I had a contract on, though, I know I wouldn't have that luxury and would have to do just what you and Kendra and Alice all essentially said -- grit my teeth, read what I'd already written and just start working on it again.
Good luck!!
I do like the others--and you, Paty. I reread what I've written and go forward from there. Usually that helpsme get back in the zone.
Hope you had a great week with your family!
Kendra, Alice, Deb, Eli, I had a sneaky suspicion that no one had a magic wand that would put me into the story again. ;)
I wrote this post before my dh dragged me off to Princeton for another three days of hard labor! If the man putting cattle on the hill part hadn't been able to change pipes I would have been left there for two days! I'm glad he's available because I didn't' bring extra clothes or food for an extended stay!
We're on the way home now. I have a bunch of running around to do tomorrow, but I'm hoping for a productive hour or two. One thing I discovered over the weekend, I had a chapter my CP sent back of DIP and going through her suggestions, did a pretty good job of jogging me back into the characters. So that may be my catalyst I need. I have two more chapters, I've filed away while I had company.
Start a new one...HAHA! KIDDING! Kinda... ;) Reread the chapters, try to plot a bit further than I had. Good luck!!
Um, shoot the interruptor? Kidding!
Like others, I reread what I've already written. I also usually have lots of notes and probably pictures and folders of research material that I can review.
Oh yeah--and type faster!
Lisa and Genene- LOL
I reread what I've written, too, but to keep things "going," I go to bed thinking about where I left off and what's going to happen next. I do this every night when I have a WIP. I've been lucky that I haven't been dragged off for too long on past projects (nothing happening at the moment), but the holidays last year messed me up, and then the puppy! OMG! She's calmer now, but man, she put me through my paces when I first got her. No more puppies!
Re-read.
That's the only way I can get back. I polish (fix typos and grammar) and/or make notes on revisions as I'm re-reading, and in the process get back into the story. The key is to time it out so there's time to start writing when I get to the end.
If I still have no idea where I'm going at that point, I go back to my working synopsis, or even to my storyboard, and then I revert to pen and paper and scribble some random ideas that I let stew for a few hours or overnight.
But the time comes when you've just got to jump in, even if you don't feel you're ready. As Nora says, give yourself permission to write crap. But write.
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