I expected to spend more time on it this weekend, but it was set aside in favor of cleaning the house, visiting with friends, and reading. See, my friend, who passed away a couple of months ago, told me back in January that The Hunger Games was amazing and that I needed to read it NOW. I stalled, because, while she was sometimes right about books being awesome (The Parasol Protectorate comes to mind) there were also a lot of books that she suggested that I could just never get into. They simply weren't my thing. Plus The Hunger Games is such a popular series, and the last time I read a popular series like that was when I read Twilight - and that series was just so horrible that I wanted to throw it across the room - so you can understand why I was a little leery about The Hunger Games. However, I was beginning to run out of books about zombies to read (I've been on a real big zombie kick lately) so I finally broke down and bought The Hunger Games last week. I finished it on Friday, immediately bought Catching Fire the next day, finished that on Sunday, and then promptly started on Mockingjay on Monday.
I think it's safe to say that my friend was right again :)
On other fronts my writing is frustrating me this week. It's like taking one step forward and two steps back at times. I feel like I'm making progress, and then I go back and realize that the flow is awkward, or I forgot to mention something, and then I try to fix the flow, or mention that something, and it just makes the situation worse. Meanwhile, as I explained to Contessa, plot bunnies keep hopping around my head, and while I normally love the plot bunnies, it's annoying that they're choosing to multiply now when I don't have the time to really pay attention to them. Oh well.
We're now about two-ish weeks away from the wedding now and a week and a half away from my vacation starting. To be honest, I'm excited about the wedding, but I'm more excited about the honeymoon and finally visiting Ireland after years and years of wanting to go.
Oh and having almost a month off of work is pretty sweet too.
I love the scarf! And it is good when you find a new series you can get into. Twilight in my opinion was pathetic but some people like it. ~shrug~
ReplyDeleteHow close to finishing that scarf are you??
ReplyDeleteOn the writing front: would it help you to just write and save "adding forgotten things" or "correcting mistakes" for later? I waver between editing as I go along and just racing through to get my visions documented. . . sometimes there are errors so egregious I can hardly stand it when I edit. . . but it's almost always for the best to just plug on through.
I'm not sure what else to suggest (that I didn't mention in my reply to you on my blog). You don't seem super keen on trying what's always worked best for me -- just write what you want when you want to. Inspired writing is the best to read.
Readers? They can tell what parts a writer enjoyed most. ;)
I know the problem associated with such things is what happens when changes are made to the characters or story well before scenes that HAVE to be written NOW NOW NOW but that take place yeeears down the line. Been there, done that, kicked myself plenty.
But there's nothing inherently evil about having "deleted scenes," stuff you wrote just to satiate yourself -- even if no one sees it.
You know what I was considering doing on my website? Having an "cutting-room floor" section. For real. But that's all kinda moot now.
My opinion is to feed the plot bunnies and sort it out later. Stop editing as you go along -- even Stephen King endorses that behavior. ;)
I was equally suspicious of Hunger Games, and equally rabid when I read them. Now, all that's left is to wait for the movie! Donald Sutherland as President Snow? So brilliant.
ReplyDelete@ SimonSimple - Thank you! My only regret about The Hunger Games is that it will be over too soon. I think I only have maybe a third of the book left to read.
ReplyDelete@ Wypad - I do actually have a file saved called 'bits' for when I think of that one line that might be awesome in the story, but I don't really use it all that often. It's not that I don't want to try what you suggested, or aren't interested in trying it, I have. Unfortunately it just ended up frustrating me because I'm so used to just writing in a linear fashion, so I don't really do it all that often anymore. I guess it's just my brains last ditch attempt to try to be organized and structured.
I guess that's why I hop around between so many stories rather than hoping around between different scenes or bits for one story. Which is why I refuse to give into the plot bunnies too much because I have too many stories going on right now. Seriously, I am the queen of WIPs, and if don't put my foot down somewhere I will be over run. So the plot bunnies are assigned a special doc just for them, and then ignored until further notice.
As for not stopping to edit a story until it's done - that's something else I need to work on. I'm such a perfectionist when it comes to writing though that I want the story to be perfect as soon as it's on the page. Even though I know that's not how it works :P
As for a cutting room floor or deleted scenes section, Gail Carriger, the author of the Parasol Protectorate, sometimes will post bits that she's cut out from her stories on her blog. It's always interesting to see, because sometimes they explain the character a bit more.
@ Paula - I know! I'm always a bit leery about movies based on books too because they never get it quite right. But when I saw that he was going to play Snow and that they had cast Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, I couldn't help but think that these people know what they're doing :)
ReplyDeleteI hear you on the wedding. About a week before I looked Hubs and said "is it bad I'm more looking forward to the honeymoon than the wedding right now?" Enjoy your day and enjoy your time away afterwards!
ReplyDeleteThat scarf is going to be so nice when it's done. What a pretty green!
I had to look up The Hunger Games. Looks interesting!