Posts behind

I convinced my mother to join ROW-80, nagged her about starting a blog, and then I missed my own update posts about three times in a row (no pun intended). I have just a couple of things to report...

I worked on the outline for my novel, but I got a little bored and a lot frustrated, so I put it back down. I really need to get SMARTer with this particular goal. My biggest problem with the novel (and thus the outline) is that I can't figure out where the story ends. I know how it ends (they all live happily every after, of course!) but at what point between

(a) the joyous union of the two main characters, and

(b) the rest of eternity

do I end the story? I'm the kind of person who gets frustrated when a story ends shortly after the two main characters finally come together, but in my novel, the plot is mostly resolved when the characters profess their undying love and the whole world blurs into beautiful oblivion as their lips finally...

Errr.... something like that. But less overwhelmingly mushy.

Overall, the "where to end" question leaves me a tad stuck. Hence the frustration and lack of progress.

In other news: I'm working on a plotting project. After the annoying revelation that I'm a pantser, I decided to practice plotting. I didn't know what I was going to plot until a great idea for a story smacked me in the head a couple of weeks ago. I started plotting a bit (in my head) and writing a bit (also in my head). And instead of giving in to the powerful urge to throw words on the page, I decided to take this new idea and allow ONLY PLOTTING for awhile. I want to do as much plotting as possible. I can see the beginning of the story; I've started developing the life story of each character; I have some of the major events noted. Now I'm starting to develop individual scenes. I'm enjoying it deeply, but I need to make time to write down more of my ideas.

I have been writing mostly every day. Some of it has been obligatory writing, which is not fun, but at least I'm getting some kinds of words down. As of Monday morning, I will officially be free of my annual obligation to organize a particular award ceremony, and hopefully I will have more free time to work on my ROW goals...

and to SMARTen said goals.