Writing

I've been trying to catch up on my podcasts today, since I've got oh, more than a hundred that I haven't listened to backing up on my iTunes.  To be fair, it's my own fault, and I don't listen to my podcasts that much anymore, since I only listen to them when I'm going to bed, and I fall asleep pretty fast, so I keep having to rewind them. 

But, today I was listening to Writing Excuses (a - go figure - writing podcast by Brandon Sanderson - who happens to be a favorite author of mine, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler) and they happened to be talking about Discovery Writing in their podcast from May 16, 2010.  They discuss the fact that there are two kinds of writing - outlining and discovery writing, and people write in various shades of those styles. 

I always knew I was the kind of writer who didn't really outline.  For me, outlining takes the fun out of it.  Once I get the ideas down on paper, they stop popping into my head and tormenting me.  If I outline, then they go away because they're down on paper.  I outlined a lot for a long time.  But I also found that my outlining was stifling the story I had to tell because the way I outline limits me.  That's just how I am with them - if I outline, then I'm not doing what I love, because I'm done by the time the outline is done.  Outlining with bullet points is somewhat better, but I don't like doing that much either. 

The interesting thing about it is that most discovery writers like myself have trouble with the ending.  I don't.  I'll have a solid beginning and a definitive ending, but my trouble is the middle.  It's how I get from Point A to Point B.  That's always been my failing.  I'll get a big chunk of the beginning done and be very happy with them, and I'll have the end of the story bouncing around in my head, but half the time, I can't figure out how to get to the idea that's bouncing around in my head. 

My next problem is that once I get the end written down if I don't wait until I write the middle, then I lose the desire to write it.  My project for NaNoWriMo last year was a fanfiction that I eventually plan on rewriting in my own world when I finish it as the story it is now.  I don't see it going to the same place if I rewrote it as a novel or as the whole trilogy.  The thing is, I started in the middle with what I had written and built from there before I skipped to a scene in the middle because I got bored and I got stuck.  From there, I wrote a small chunk, and then I jumped to the end, where I wrote more than half of my word count for NaNoWriMo in the last maybe...seven...chapters.  Then I let it sit for a while as I attempted to get over burnout.  And it's still sitting there, since I've edited and put up the early things I had and have managed to get to a point where I'm still in the middle.  The ending has been sitting there for more than a year now, still riddled with typos, rushed sentences, and probably an out of character narrator.

I can't say I'm hugely proud of that particular attempt at the end of that story, but this set of stories would probably be considered trunk novels as they stand right now.

I've also discovered in the past couple of years that I just don't rewrite things.  Oh, I've rewritten my little flash fictions and short pieces, but I've never actually gone through a novel and rewritten anything more than a sentence or two in editing.  I've tried, but I don't know what I'd do different in a lot of cases, such as the Robin Hood (BBC) fanfiction that is my main fanfic project right now.  I've considered rewriting it once I'm done, but I don't know where else the storyline could go.  I suppose that might be because I have so many other ideas, but the plots I get are usually set once I've written them.  In my mind, that's the only way they can go. 

That's just me, though.  Always has been.  Maybe I can actually do that someday.  That would be nice, considering that I want to get published and all...

Across The Universe - Last Unicorn

A friend of mine sent me this video a few days ago - it's a beautiful song, and the video accompanying it is from one of my favorite movies of all time - The Last Unicorn.

Long Time...

In my attempts to get all of my work done on time, it seems that I allowed my blog to fall by the wayside.  Obviously, I didn't mean to.  It was just crazy for the last month of the semester.  I had so much to do with all of the classwork that I didn't really have a whole lot of time for much else. 

I've been on break for about a week now, but I'm just getting over the nasty cold that hit me a week ago.  I got sick on the fifteenth, right before my last final.  I had a fever and my throat was very swollen and it was not fun.  Thank goodness that my English final was simply editing groups for the research paper we did as our final project.  Mine was on Star Wars and how it is the Hero's Journey (as presented by Joseph Campbell in The Hero With A Thousand Faces) and how that makes it very appealing to the people who watch it.

And then I lost my voice on Sunday.  I've still got a cough, but my voice is mostly back at this point.  It's just sort of irritating, though.  Not much I can do about it.  I'm just glad that it's over, even if I'm not happy that it's taken away a week of my vacation.  I only have about two weeks left at this point.  As a freshman, I have to go back two weeks early for Interim.  Not cool.  But, I get to do research with the Ecology prof at my school, so I may start that during Interim - we're going to be researching bat calls and the different kinds of bats in the area.  It will be very interesting, I'm sure. 

I've also got my schedule worked out for the next semester, and I'm excited.  The only thing is that I have Arthurian Legends (which is actually one of the classes I'm taking) on the brain....