Thursday, July 1, 2010

What Are You Doing Here?

It's the Thursday before the 4th of July and you're reading Do Some Damage?

Leave work early. Throw a Bratwurst on the grill. Have a beer, or several. No? Stuck at work? Can't leave for the shore until tomorrow?

Okay, fine. Lemme try to wrangle up a post for ya:

I'm a teacher. I've mentioned that several times before. One of the perks of being a teacher is summer vacation. Some teachers get shore houses. Some teachers teach summer school. Some veg.

Me? Well, for the last few years, I take these two months and see what it's like to be a full time author.

Let me tell you something: My guess is full time authors don't shower.

Besides that, it's an interesting life. I find I'm not in as much of a hurry to meet goals (unless there's a deadline). Usually, I get home from work and go through my routine.

Now, I have time to really focus on what I'm working on. The summer time is great for revising. I can really think about the part I'm editing and where it comes up again. What I have to add. I have more time to read and re-read passages and find out how they work or tick. Or take my fantastic agent's notes on the piece and get them to work.

I'm not hurried.

Right now, I'm not revising. I'm drafting. For the last month, while working, I was writing every day, but I was having trouble figuring out more than just who the characters are. It would be my goal to get them talking to each other and see what they wanted to talk about. I knew the barest bones of the story, and that helped guide the conversations, but I was really busy trying to figure out who they were.

Now, I'm pretty sure I know them, so I'm getting to the point where I'm having them do stuff. More than just talk. The plot is moving ahead. The gears in my own brain are functioning only on the story (oh, and the upcoming wedding), so there's less clutter. I can work out parts of the story and really get the action to happen.
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I don't know if that's because I have more time to work or because I'm deeper into the book, but either way the time helps.

So, how do I spend my summer vacation?

Writing.

But I'm done writing for the day, so I'm going to head outside with my copy of So Cold the River and do something else every writer should do.

Read.

Happy Holiday Weekend, everyone!

1 comment:

David Cranmer said...

Sounds like you have a solid plan.

And Happy 4th to you!