we are golden

[aamcnamara]

One could call that an outline of the rough draft of that novel I wrote this summer. Ten pages, each chapter divided into scenes and noted for content, time, characters, setting. It's a little amazing how many new things I saw while going through it this way. Things like where the major events fall, both within chapters and within the structure of the novel. ("Chapter endings being major turns" starts happening near the end of the novel.) Things like how many scenes it takes for a specific character to fall in with Our Heroes (less than one, in some cases), how many scenes a particular character is in overall... there's a lot of stuff in here that I wouldn't have seen otherwise, that it'll take me a while to sort out and recalibrate.

So far, this month in college, my writing work has been pretty scattershot--I'll spend a day and a half one weekend revising a short story, not do anything for several days to a week, poke at the novel-in-progress to the tune of a few hundred words some day, do the last ten chapters of my novel outline the next evening.

After the ritualistic write-some-on-the-novel-every-day of this summer, it takes some adjusting to. I still would like to get back into the habit of writing every day, but some concession has to be made for various things. (Like having classes and homework and friends to hang out with, none of which were particularly urgent points this summer.)

In other news, I discovered in my first day of the Awesome Job that I need a watch to keep time with while I'm sitting in the rare book room (or I'll just stay there all day). Therefore, I will soon be the proud owner of a pocket watch.

Comments

[aliseadae]

Yay outline!

I know what you mean about regularity disappearing. I wrote almost every day in the summer. I got into a routine at getting up at nine (which is earlier than my usual sleeping-in time by about two hours) and spending that time sitting in bed writing. It worked with my internship too when those hours were in the evening. Now I have class and homework and friends and work.

Hooray pocket watch! Between the Mad Library Hermits and your job, you're turning into a steampunk librarian. (Well. the MLHs don't really turn your steampunk but still. They're MLHs!)

[aamcnamara.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Maybe I eventually will get into a routine with mornings here, but classes start at various times, work starts at various times, etc., which makes everything complicated.

This job certainly will be good research for the MLH novel.