Monday, March 26, 2012

This stupid book meets it's end at a writer's retreat

I'm on my first writer's retreat. I might have been on writer's retreats before - but not like this. This shit is hard core. Christine D'Abo has written 12,000 words. Twelve thousand. Come on!?

I finished my manuscript and it met it's fitting end up here. I've been head down with this book for months, ripping out the guts and putting them back in. Stressing, stressing, stressing every step of the way - working late at night. Not going to the gym because there's been this internal drive to get back to the book.

And I think this book has changed my process. It's been really painful every step of the way and I'm hoping it will get less painful, but I think I'm better served writing these first drafts as fast as I can. If I can put my head down and keep the world fresh in my head, the book starts in a better place, no matter how fast I write and how bad the flaws are - it's still better than if I stretch out the writing of the first draft. Which will leave me more time to let it rest before my deadline, which I'm also going to use. So maybe I can get back to the gym next week. And clean my house. And talk to my children...

Just when I had some nice life/writing balance, this book came and ruined it.

Oh, and we saw Hunger Games. Totally satisfying.

6 comments:

Karen Whiddon said...

Molly, that's where I am right now. I haven't been to the gym at all in three weeks! Book due April 1. Still have 10k words to write. AND have to go back and clean it up (it's a Nocturne).

Glad you finished yours. And 12k words? I envy that person. Wow.

Maureen McGowan said...

The books I've plowed through and written quickly were like little miracles to me and at those moments, I think: it's the process, writing fast works for me. And then I get to a book like this one, which I did write fast, albeit in two chunks, and I start revisions and think... Hmm... Maybe I should have stopped once or twice to give at least a tiny bit of thought to this fraking book while I was so determined to plow ahead.

If I ever get to a point where the same thing works for me two books in a row I will be a happy, happy girl. I think because I'll feel like I have a modicum of control over what spews out. :)

Eileen said...

I'm with you, Maureen. Every time I think I've figured out what my process is, it changes. It seems like different books and different genres demand different approaches. It drives me nuts.

That said, congratulations on finishing, Molly! You go, girl!

Stephanie Doyle said...

I agree - the best writing times I've had are when I've taken an vacation and just steadily wrote day after day. Everything is just there and comes fast and it's so much easier to get started rather than my usual weekend writing only.

Anonymous said...

Molly congrats!!! I know how much work this book has been for you.

And I'm with Maureen, no book ever seems to go the way the previous book did... which sucks...

Christine Benson said...

You have inspired me to give this next one a go and see if I can finish a first draft over the summer this year. I have already been researching and will be working an outline before then. I'll let you know how that goes. Thanks Molly for the honest expression about the process of head down writing. Oh, by the way, I gave you a shout out and a meme on my blog. Check it out!!

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