Thursday, July 05, 2012

The writing process right now

So what's happening besides noticing that everyone seems to have a little promotional tag on their multi-line email signature line these days ("Author of Forthcoming Fabulous Book"), which inspires an emotion that might be fury but is in fact envy?

Here's a little snippet of the writing process for me right now.

Days 1-6. Work on continuing to write a chapter. Be stuck on how this fits with the rest of the manuscript.
Day 7. Get brilliant, amazing, and exciting idea of what to add to hook reader in and connect the dots.
Days 8-12. Write brilliant and amazing transitional hook.
Day 13. Realize that brilliant and amazing hook doesn't work after all. Put it in junk document.
Day 14. Go back to chapters.
Day 15-17. Try to rescue hook because you find it so enthralling.
Day 18, earlier. While folding laundry, realize that hook really does not fit and throw it back into the junk document.
Day 18, later. Wince as you see the word counts for what you've written for the last three weeks. Get back to work.

3 comments:

Dame Eleanor Hull said...

Maybe the hook is a spin-off article!

But maybe you don't want to think about any more/other writing at this point.

Dr. Koshary said...

Sounds like writing a book, all right. Keep the faith!

undine said...

Dame Eleanor--that's the problem: the sneaky procrastination gene makes every other piece of writing sound like great fun right now. I'm hoping I can work in some of the castoff material later without making it a separate piece.

Dr. Koshary--thanks! That's when the "word count as rewards" system really breaks down--when you have to throw something out.