For this latest Duxbridge novel, I’m working in an entirely different way. Usually, after I know where a book is headed, meaning I have the first and last chapters either written or outlined, I write a chapter at a time.
Completely. Start to finish. They will get rewritten, honed, and edited, but they generally remain as they began. I think I do it this way because the books are just movies that run in my mind.
Life is just a movie that runs through out head, honestly. Isn’t that what memories are?
Action, dialogue, plots, I have to see and hear them before I write them. So it takes a while to get through a chapter, I watch, rewind and watch again. Making sure it’s right. Are the beats there? Did I catch all the plot points? What are the characters feeling beyond what they are saying?
This time I wanted to try a new way. It’s like I’m running the movie on fast-foward. Fast enough for me to see where each chapter is going, but not catch the nuances of the moment. So far it’s been fairly successful. I’m having a blast sketching out each chapter, racing to the next moment in the action.
I know I’ll have to come back and flesh everything out, but it feels easier now that I know the structure and timing of each chapter. We’ll have to wait and see if it pans out once I’m onto the second draft.
I’m also writing by hand in this iteration of the draft. I’ll talk more about that and how it may affect creativity next week. Until then…
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