by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I’ve been hard at work on this novel project for about three years now. Probably the biggest surprise I’ve discovered through it all is how much I need to have absolute control over everything before I even start writing.
How anyone writes a novel “seat of their pants” is beyond me.
I want to know the entire story so well that when I actually sit down to write, all I have to do is, well, write. I follow my scene summary in front of me and just write out the scene. The problem to date, has been, repeatedly, that as my storytelling ability has improved, everything collapses and feel compelled to start all over again.
But I just can’t keep doing that forever. I’ve finally come to the point where I’m going to finish the four outlines as need be, maybe write a summary for each scene in the outline (and a scene summary) and just write.
It doesn’t matter how bad the first draft turns out being,I just have to finish a first draft sooner rather than later. If I don’t finish something sooner rather than later, it’s going to be four years from now and I still won’t have anything finished.
As such, I hope to just start writing on the first draft of the first novel in the four book series very, very soon. I still want to brood on some elements of it — and do a lot more reading — but I’m only going to give myself a few days.
And once I start writing, I hope I can stay focused on what I’m doing. I know that 1) this ideal situation I’m in can’t last forever and 2) I’m going to start my second creative track of (fashion) photography in the next few months.
So, I’m going to “just write” something, anything using the outline I’ve come up with, ASAP. I’m very pleased with everything on a creative level, but I’m very much in a put-up or shut-up situation.
I’ve been way too conspicuous with all this talk about development and I feel so sheepish about it. I should have kept what I was doing to myself, but I can’t help myself — I’m 100% extroverted and I have no friends.
So, you get all this talk about how I’m spinning my wheels with hope that maybe it will stop.
It’s going stop this time, right? I’m actually going to finish a first draft? Right?
