Hey everyone!
I'm alive! Sorry there wasn't an entry for the previous week, but life happens. (I'm sure you all know what it feels like to have a hectic week filled with ups and downs and everything in between. And if what I just described sounds completely foreign to you, then let your innocence live on forever!)
Moving on! I thought I would spend some time talking about my writing process this week. Every writer has a different method to their madness, and I sincerely hope you enjoy hearing (or rather, reading) about mine! :)
For me, writing needs to be organic. If I have to force it out just to move into the next scene, then it just doesn't work for me. In the past, I have forced a scene through and ended up trashing entire stories or rewriting whole chapters because it just felt awkward and wrong. Now, for some people, writing just to write/get started completely works for them. But for me, that's utter garbage. I've tried that writing strategy many a times, and it just continues to feel... well, to put it plainly... problematic. I've never felt like a worse writer than when my chapters are forced through. To me, they lack depth and feeling, and end up throwing off my entire flow.
What about writing with notes, you might ask. Notes only take me so far too. While I write copious notes and scenes (both by hand and on a computer) as they come to me, I don't always go by my initial musings. In fact, one older story comes to mind as I think about this. A few years ago I wrote a story where the main characters are high schoolers that deal with demons and other mischievous magic and villains. (In case you were wondering, that story is completely finished, and I hope to show you all one day! ;D ) The beginning of the novel had an introduction that I kept from start to finish. And when I finally got around to rereading it from beginning to end, I ended up deleting the entire first chapter because the story didn't go in the direction I initially thought it would. Even the main character for that story (Viola) became a COMPLETELY different person! She was originally supposed to be optimistic and have a thing for fairy tales that she translated into her own life. But who I ended up with was a tough, badass girl with a fearlessness of confronting cute demonic boys. That story was when I learned that sometimes, writing doesn't go as planned. And sometimes, the best thing to do is let the characters guide their own journeys.
Now, that's not to say I completely forgo my plot lines. There are just some things that NEED to happen in order to have a complete piece of work. However, the bits in the middle--the parts that help to get the characters there--that's where I give myself the most flexibility. For instance, here is a piece of my notes from The Last Goddess (TLG for short):
QUICK DISCLAIMER!!! There may be some spoilers in the images coming up. If you have not read TLG or my other story, Tempest, and you're curious, please check them out! :) The links can be found on my site under "Book Descriptions." Psst... They're 100% free!
In the picture to my right, is an image straight out of the notebook for The Last Goddess! In it, you might notice the title, "A Casual Smile". However, if you read the story thus far, you might remember that "A Casual Smile" is the title of chapter four and that chapter two is actually called "Captive". This might seem like a small and insignificant change, but the titles in my stories are 99.99% relevant to what is going on in that chapter, and more often than not, they end up in the text themselves as a line, thought, or description. :) So, while this seems like a very small example of a change in TLG, it was actually a huge deal for my writing process.
Here's a different example, also from The Last Goddess:
On the image to my left is some original "storyboard" art for Soren's Fortress/Palace that appeared significantly in Part One of TLG. The art design changed, which gave me a better idea about how to describe Soren's Palace and Samara's journey to Aryan. All of that helped my story flow because my description felt more realistic to me, and in the end, provided a more organic writing experience too! Just for fun, I'll also show you a real life image that also helped with the description of Soren's Fortress. ;) (I do not own the image below. It was just something I found while rummaging around the internet! And it's in Turkey! So, that's pretty cool. :) )
Any old hoot! I guess the point I am trying to make is that writing is a unique experience that comes in many dynamic forms. If you're a writer, artist, photographer, or anything else that involves being fueled by creativity, you hopefully know exactly what I mean. Or maybe you've never thought about this, and that's ok too. :)
Well, it's curtains for this entry, folks! But thanks so much for tagging along with me and my literal thought process. :) Until next time!
Lots of love,
Cara <3
P.S
In case you were wondering, this entry was changed and morphed into something entirely new by the time I took my handwritten thoughts and put it on digital! Is that a way to say that? Haha. I guess it is now. Have a lovely rest of your day! <3
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