A Writer's Notebook, Day Forty-Six
I mentioned, yesterday, a fear that I had jinxed myself by my comments about my word count, so I was somewhat conscious as I wrote for my twenty minutes. In that time, I felt that I was writing quite rapidly, to be honest. So, when I reached the end, I was shocked. I had written down my initial word count, and compared it to the new one. I was saddened to think that I had only written 600 odd words. I could not believe it, to be honest, for I had felt myself to be on a bit of a hot streak, really. That was when I realized, I had misread a five as an eight and messed the entire calculation. My actually total for today, then, is a shocking number: 948. That is still in just twenty minutes, and what is more, I feel that I am doing better with this than I had been in days prior. While it is not a truly coherent and structured work at present, it is filling with real event and a lot more character.
As well, I have number of ideas for what I think I will begin to work on Monday, when I start my new project. I attempted to explain some of it to my fiance` but she did not follow. It is a complicated and multilayered story, and it has fantasy and science fiction elements, as well, which are not genres that she really goes for. So, I am not surprised, especially since the idea is rather complex and strange to begin with. The point, really, would more have been to be able to put it into a cogent form, but that wasn't quite happening anyhow.
I do have a good sense of the first scene, if nothing else is entirely clear. I have a big picture of the book, in some ways, or at least a sense of some of the larger thematic aspects and the various layers to the story-world. It is a strange book that moves from one layer of reality to another, in a way, but I still think it is actually a more commercial work than the novel I am currently shopping. It has a bit more of a traditional plot to it, for one thing, though it is an absurd and complex one that involves vampires, zombies, inter-dimensional bugs, and supremely potent AI. It is meant to be funny, as well. I was also thinking about how I might make part of it a musical, but that idea has not yet taken shape. Really, it came to me because, in the first chapter (and various others) of W/R, my completed novel, one character uses rhymes extensively. In workshop, folks enjoyed these bits and found them amusing, and somehow I wound up exclaiming, as a joke, that "it's a musical." An idea that caused someone to immediately shout, "that would be awesome." So, that's really all their is to that part of the idea. It does make sense in context, though, of the characters and the story.
That idea has to keep percolating, though, until Monday, when I will start work on it. I am not sure how long I will spend a day on it. Certainly, at least one hour to start, and perhaps I will do it that I have to do at least one round of writing, and each round is one hour. Thus, if I choose to write two or three hours, I have to do it in broken up rounds, and can consider a day a success after just one hour. This is purely a logistical thing, of course. I am curious to see what happens to my speed in longer bursts. It may well go up, but it could also decrease. If it does go down, I will just have to work out the right length for each session, as I know that I can take a break and go back for another sprint.
Anyhow, I am really quite shocked, still, to be getting close to four digits in a third of an hour. That feels quite an accomplishment, though it does not reflect the quality of the work at all, which might well be close to worthless. I don't believe that, but it is plausible that I am wrong. In such a case, though, I can certainly work to edit, and knowing that I can write so much makes it clear to me that I have time to do that if needed. I can write enough to make something great even if I have to cut most of the damned thing. That is n ot to suggest that I want to be in that position, nor do I think I am, but I also believe that each word I write makes me a better writer.
I recall reading in a book a few years back about the importance of myelin in the brain. This is what sheaths the neurons, and it has been found, in recent years, that it actually is key to the development of skill. When we repeat tasks, this sheathing becomes thicker, insulating the neuron more strongly, and thus allowing the signal to pass with greater speed and clarity. Thus, as we do a task, our brain improves it's actual ability to fire the same signal again. In that same book, one point that was made was about how long it takes to become an expert, and the number of hours and the type of work. The Bronte sisters are an example cited, as they started writing novels together as children. The point is not the quality of those works, but the amount of training that is represented there.
By working to write those novels in youth (for they were truly children when they started), the Bronte's crafted their literary mind and cultivated the capacity to put words on paper in a cogent way. They had practice, and they also read, meaning that they also had an understanding and knowledge of how bet to apply that practice.
I have a lot of practice, by now, myself. I did not write a novel as a child, but I wrote an epic poem at fourteen (it is terrible), and I wrote many stories and other things. I wrote essays all the time, of course, and the amount of poetry beyond that epic is also, in the more modern sense, epic. So, I have a well wired brain for writing. The circuits that click each key on my keyboard are well and truly hard-wired, and so too, my capacity to compose is highly attuned. I believe in the work I am doing, and I believe that I am getting to the point of being actually capable at it in more than the technical ways. For the first time in a long time, I remember that being a writer is more about the doing than anything else, and I am glad to be doing so much of it right now and for a long time to come.
As well, I have number of ideas for what I think I will begin to work on Monday, when I start my new project. I attempted to explain some of it to my fiance` but she did not follow. It is a complicated and multilayered story, and it has fantasy and science fiction elements, as well, which are not genres that she really goes for. So, I am not surprised, especially since the idea is rather complex and strange to begin with. The point, really, would more have been to be able to put it into a cogent form, but that wasn't quite happening anyhow.
I do have a good sense of the first scene, if nothing else is entirely clear. I have a big picture of the book, in some ways, or at least a sense of some of the larger thematic aspects and the various layers to the story-world. It is a strange book that moves from one layer of reality to another, in a way, but I still think it is actually a more commercial work than the novel I am currently shopping. It has a bit more of a traditional plot to it, for one thing, though it is an absurd and complex one that involves vampires, zombies, inter-dimensional bugs, and supremely potent AI. It is meant to be funny, as well. I was also thinking about how I might make part of it a musical, but that idea has not yet taken shape. Really, it came to me because, in the first chapter (and various others) of W/R, my completed novel, one character uses rhymes extensively. In workshop, folks enjoyed these bits and found them amusing, and somehow I wound up exclaiming, as a joke, that "it's a musical." An idea that caused someone to immediately shout, "that would be awesome." So, that's really all their is to that part of the idea. It does make sense in context, though, of the characters and the story.
That idea has to keep percolating, though, until Monday, when I will start work on it. I am not sure how long I will spend a day on it. Certainly, at least one hour to start, and perhaps I will do it that I have to do at least one round of writing, and each round is one hour. Thus, if I choose to write two or three hours, I have to do it in broken up rounds, and can consider a day a success after just one hour. This is purely a logistical thing, of course. I am curious to see what happens to my speed in longer bursts. It may well go up, but it could also decrease. If it does go down, I will just have to work out the right length for each session, as I know that I can take a break and go back for another sprint.
Anyhow, I am really quite shocked, still, to be getting close to four digits in a third of an hour. That feels quite an accomplishment, though it does not reflect the quality of the work at all, which might well be close to worthless. I don't believe that, but it is plausible that I am wrong. In such a case, though, I can certainly work to edit, and knowing that I can write so much makes it clear to me that I have time to do that if needed. I can write enough to make something great even if I have to cut most of the damned thing. That is n ot to suggest that I want to be in that position, nor do I think I am, but I also believe that each word I write makes me a better writer.
I recall reading in a book a few years back about the importance of myelin in the brain. This is what sheaths the neurons, and it has been found, in recent years, that it actually is key to the development of skill. When we repeat tasks, this sheathing becomes thicker, insulating the neuron more strongly, and thus allowing the signal to pass with greater speed and clarity. Thus, as we do a task, our brain improves it's actual ability to fire the same signal again. In that same book, one point that was made was about how long it takes to become an expert, and the number of hours and the type of work. The Bronte sisters are an example cited, as they started writing novels together as children. The point is not the quality of those works, but the amount of training that is represented there.
By working to write those novels in youth (for they were truly children when they started), the Bronte's crafted their literary mind and cultivated the capacity to put words on paper in a cogent way. They had practice, and they also read, meaning that they also had an understanding and knowledge of how bet to apply that practice.
I have a lot of practice, by now, myself. I did not write a novel as a child, but I wrote an epic poem at fourteen (it is terrible), and I wrote many stories and other things. I wrote essays all the time, of course, and the amount of poetry beyond that epic is also, in the more modern sense, epic. So, I have a well wired brain for writing. The circuits that click each key on my keyboard are well and truly hard-wired, and so too, my capacity to compose is highly attuned. I believe in the work I am doing, and I believe that I am getting to the point of being actually capable at it in more than the technical ways. For the first time in a long time, I remember that being a writer is more about the doing than anything else, and I am glad to be doing so much of it right now and for a long time to come.
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