I love reading everyone's blogs because you all are always "doing," and I get to read about the things that happen in your lives. I enjoy doing my blog but often have a hard time finding anything to write about. Who wants to read about me taking a turn around the yard. Yes, my lilies are coming up very nicely since I moved them. -or- Oops. Molly had an accident with her potty training last night. Not exactly what I call riveting prose. Not much goes on around here with me except the normal, daily routine of house and family and the writing process. Not that I'm complaining. These days, I thrive on routine and any deviation upsets my applecart. But, recently, I've discovered something about myself. If I'm not writing some kind of big physical action, I'm bored silly. So, yes, of course I'm living vicariously through my characters and their stories. I freely admit it. Writing is my Calgon that takes me away. I noticed this since I've been rewriting the beginning of the manuscript I'm working on. On the advice of an agent who gave me a critique, I took out the big action scene at the very beginning of the story. Without it, I'm finding that my heroine has become the proactive, reactive character and my hero has kinda faded to the background. Furthermore, it's boring me silly. And it shouldn't. I read books all the time that have far less going on action-wise. Books that are nothing but the emotional struggle between the two main protagonists. The reality is, this manuscript is turning out to be a different kind of story than I intended. In later chapters, the action-adventure type stuff does kick in, but it's not happening soon enough for me. And when I say action, I'm talking about the faced-with-danger-or-death and very physical situation kinds of action. Still, I keep plowing onward because in the back of my mind, I know there's enough there to carry the story forward. I hope.
I suspect I'm scared of writing a snoozer, afraid I'll never match what I did with my first book. One of the most common comments about my debut novel is that it's a page-turner. That's because nearly every chapter has some kind of big action going on that ends on a hook. The hero is a larger-than-life type, but how many stories lend themselves to that kind of character? In the story I'm currently writing, the hero is more of an average man (or cowboy) type who resorts to desperate measures when faced with desperate times.
So, in view of the fact that I have a dearth of topics to blog about, it looks like I'm doomed to keep pouring out my writing insecurities for all of blogdom to read. Maybe I should just practice sitting on my hands. Or, maybe I should just turn this energy toward finishing the manuscript and see what happens. At any rate, I hope you all have a pleasant, productive day.
Devon
Well, Devon, I've been "doing" today, but not anything anyone would want to hear about. Bleah. Finally I'm finished with that unpleasant task, and have maybe an hour to myself for writing...or blog reading.
ReplyDeleteWhat I've found is that writing a blog can be exhausting. It's one of the first things I think about when I get up in the morning--gotta get the blog posted. I'm not as good at working on the wip as I am on the blog.
So once again you're light years ahead of me! Enjoy your action packed novel, so the rest of us can enjoy it soon.
;)
Wow, you think about it first thing? That IS exhausting, not to mention stressful. Have you tried writing them a different times of the day? Maybe even at night. I usually write mine when I'm winding down at night because the blog is one of the least stressful things I do. If you like to have a new post up at the same time every morning, you can "schedule" it. Here's how. When you're in compose mode, go down to the bottom of the window where it says "Post Options." Click on that and you'll see the time stamp. You can change it to any time you want, then when you click "Publish," the post will go up at the time you have it set for. You can schedule them days ahead, if you want. It's a handy little thing to know.
ReplyDeleteDevon, your techiness continues to amaze me! I doubt I would ever have discovered that nifty little tool! I'll be making use of it.
ReplyDeleteI should have said in my previous post that although writing the blog is exhausting, I love doing it. Perhaps I think of it first thing because I'm looking forward to writing the blog and reading the comments.