Pity for the Pants

After reading through the chapters we were assigned, I can say that I am definitely an NOP. Well, to be truthful I'm actually a mix of the two types. I don't go through with specific intent to outline my novel, but rather jot down ideas as they come. I've got notes shoved just about everywhere, but I keep most of them on my iPod touch in the notes app. The scenes and other smaller ideas that I come up with usually come to me while I'm running through the story in my mind. I find that if I write an outline for my work, it instantly seems like work rather than fun, and that just seems insanely unfair to my characters. So what ends up happening is that I will come up with an idea for a story and then run with it by letting it play out in my mind like a movie. As I do this, other scenes fall into place, and I write them down as well.

The annoying part is that most of this happens right before I fall asleep. I've always had a habit of telling myself stories to get to sleep, so now I simply use my novel ideas, as they let me get lost in a different world. This works splendidly for that purpose, but there are times that I come up with a detail that I will forget by morning, resulting in far more plotting than I would actually like to do. That's probably a good thing however, as I spend less time simply sitting at the computer trying to think of the next scene. I have more time to focus on the characters themselves, and often even spend my spare time researching and looking for points of reference online. I even found a few actors who I would choose to play the part of my main characters! That seems to be how a lot of other people work through their novels, though maybe not in the exact same way.

After examining my methods of writing and plotting (or rather a lack thereof), I’ve decided that it would probably be a good idea to change my routine a bit. As it is, writer’s block happens quite often due to getting bored with the plot, and I find myself attempting to write less often than I did before.  I need to come up with a writing regimen like was mentioned in the text. It wouldn’t be plotting every detail out, so I wouldn’t feel like it had become a chore that I was required to do. What the regimen would do is force me to expand my ideas and get them down. Perhaps one of the several issues that prevent me from doing this is that I focus on the quality of my writing rather than quantity. I find myself wanting to create the perfect scene, to get it down on paper exactly how it appears in my mind. That’s all well and good, but trying to do so on my first attempt is foolish and wastes time. So in order to reach my goal of finishing my novels, not only for this class but for my own purposes as well, I will try to continue writing at least 2,000 words a week. It’s not a very hard quota to meet, but it will help me develop better writing habits.