Jumping in with both feet. | S y l v i a D a y

February 23rd, 2005

I’m dying here.

Neither my new laptop or desktop came with MS Word. So I ordered it online on the 6th. On the 18th, I set up my desktop thinking Word would arrive on my doorstep any day. By Monday the 21st I was desperate to write, using Works and WordPad just to get the words down. I called the company and they agreed that I should have received my software long ago. They reshipped it yesterday. I hope it comes by the end of this week because I’m going mad. Really.

One scene just refused to wait any longer. It takes place about 1/3 of the way through the story, but I started there. I’ve done this before. Often I don’t end up using the scene the way I wrote it. As a pantser, by the time I get to the point where I could use an already written scene the story has changed enough that it’s no longer feasible. But it does get me thinking and it allows me to discover my characters a bit, lets me get to know them and what their goals are. It’s definitely jumping into an icy river instead of wading in slowly, but hey it’s writing and I love it. Now if only UPS would cooperate and deliver my program!

Jordan said this yesterday:

IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m much more of a storyteller than a writer. I hope the latter catches up with the other soon.

I agree with this. I would say I am a published storyteller who aspires to be a writer. This explains why I can write a story in no time at all, but layering, editing, and wordsmithing take me weeks longer than that. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to be like Alison, who knows the craft well enough to get almost finished product on the page the first time around, but it’s a worthy goal and I aspire to it. I haven’t been writing long and every week that passes I find less errors and I catch myself before I make some of those errors so I think the goal is attainable.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 23rd, 2005 at 9:30 pm and is filed under Writing. You can feed this entry. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

6 comments to “Jumping in with both feet.”

You know, thinking about this further. I have never thought of myself as knowing or learning craft. That’s just me writing. It’s probably the mirror of the storyteller. Telling the story is who she is. Writing a story is who *I* am. I *hear* my writing. The rhythm of the words as I put them on the page - which is, I’m sure, why I write nearly finished product. The story comes out in my words, my voice, so it’s impossible for me to just write through it and come back later to make repairs. *g* I can’t do that. It’s hard to explain, but here’s a snippet from a note I got once from a fellow author that lays it out better than I can.

I have to know, do you realize what a beautiful lyrical style you have to your writing? I mean seriously lyrical. I’ve been whining to the dh that I wish I had your level of talent, and being a man he just ignores me. But I was telling [friend] about this yesterday, so if you don’t believe me, ask her and she’ll confirm it. I swear, there are passages in [The Bane Affair] that are just so [expletive *g*] perfect that they’re literally lyrical, meaning your words could actually be put to music. How the hell to do you do it? I find it so completely amazing and just perfectly captivating. I’ve never read anything like it before. I think the scene where I was first became aware of it was when Christian begins to question Natasha’s level of knowledgeable involvement with her godfather’s “business” dealings, where he’s starts consciously question his feelings and how they could be a real problem for him. You blew me away.
by Alison February 24th, 2005 at 6:51 am
I’m with Alison; I can hear the cadence of my character’s voice, the cadence of their actions, thoughts and movements along the page–because I see scenes and happenings in my story like a movie. And I automatically know when something in the story falters–not even craftwise, but storywise–and am able to pinpoint how and when to to fix it and why it doesn’t work. I also have this strange ability to fast forward and rewind through scenes even if I don’t know what the heck is happening in the story!
by Evangeline February 24th, 2005 at 11:47 am
I don’t HEAR my characters at all, except when I’m writing dialogue at times. Then they’re shouting in my ears. But I can usually feel them. Where they want the story to go, what they want to do. I believe that in time I’ll hear them more clearly. I just keep reminding myself that I’m just starting out. I’ve only been at this part time for 4 years. That’s less time than a degree takes, so really, I’m still “in school”. Telling myself this gives me the freedom to make my mistakes, and learn from them. Plus, that means readign things like THE BANE AFFAIR can be considered studying.
by Sasha February 24th, 2005 at 12:33 pm
Oh, but see, I DON’T hear my characters at all! I only hear my words as I write them. They have a beat as I put them on the page! See, I think if you’re not cursed with this hearing thing, it doesn’t make any sense, LOL!
by Alison February 24th, 2005 at 12:53 pm
I know what you mean, Alison. I’ve posted about it before, back in December. The post was titled:

The Symphony of Writing
by Sylvia February 24th, 2005 at 1:03 pm
[...] I’m writing in Works, which I hate. Where is my Word???? Argh!!!). As I mentioned before, I started this story about 1/3 of the way into, but tonight I started the be [...]
by Sylvia Day | Sensual Romance Author :: Weblog February 27th, 2005 at 9:30 pm