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Kathleen Palm

~ A little light. A little dark. A lot weird.

Kathleen Palm

Monthly Archives: May 2018

How Kathy Writes a Book: Part 5…A Time Out

21 Monday May 2018

Posted by Kathleen Palm in Thoughts, writing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

letting the manuscript sit, take a break, thoughts, writing, Writing process

Parts one through four have magically (okay not magically who am I kidding there was sweat, there was blood, there were tears…) produced a first draft.

TA-DA!

Now, what comes next?

Nothing.

I put that manuscript in time out. Was it bad? Well, no. But if my brain thinks about it any more, it will explode.

I have the luxury of this option. Some people on deadlines don’t, and maybe someday that will be me, but if I can manage it, I will always take a break after I finish the first draft. Always.

The longer the better, one month…two…six! Longer! I want to forget what I wrote. No thinking about it. No glancing at notes. No making notes. Nothing.

Going back to words that have been forgotten means: spotting things that make no sense, seeing the holes, sensing where scenes need to be added or deleted.

I critique for others. I work notes for all the ideas swirling in my brain. I write a short story. I read. I watch movies. I ENJOY EVERY MOMENT.

I am at this point right now.

Because I have goals of querying this manuscript later this year, I put Nowhere on a month long time out. THAT’S ALL? Yup. It will work.

While I forget all the words, I read one full manuscript and a partial of another for a couple wonderful people. Notes for the second book in this series have been started. A call for short horror stories caught my eye, so I am working on that.

What happens after this month is over? Come back and find out.

 

 

How Kathy Writes a Book: Part 4… The Writing of All the Words

14 Monday May 2018

Posted by Kathleen Palm in Thoughts, writing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

chaos, drafting, finishing a first draft, notes, the writing process, thoughts, writing

Welcome back to my series where I share how I write a book.

A little informative. A lot entertaining, hopefully. A bit of insight into how my creative brain works.

This process is different for everyone. And hearing how each writer approaches their work is fascinating.

So parts 1-3…I’ve had an idea, which grew and threw a tantrum until it got all my attention. I wrote all the notes I could, from characters, to the theme, to scenes, to the story, to the world until a voice in the back of my head called for me to JUST WRITE THE THING.

I pushed through my fear of messing it all up and wrote that dreaded first chapter.

Once that first chapter is down and I acknowledge that I’ll have to rewrite it a million times (and who cares, been there done that, right?), I can move forward.

I CAN WRITE ALL THE WORDS.

Now that doesn’t mean it all flows out in an easy wave. Some scenes come pretty fast and others like to torment me. Some days I write 0 words and others 3000…that’s right, I don’t write every day. Don’t want to. I have a family who I kinda like. I have places to go. You ever see those tweets where someone wrote 10,000 words that day, yeah, that’s never me. Never. If I write 1000 words, I am a very happy camper.

Though I never know how many words have been added until the end of the day, until just before I close the word doc. If you remember, I keep my word count covered while I write, otherwise I focus on that tiny number in the corner of the screen and not on what I’m doing. At the end of the day, I peel back the paper and write that number on my calendar. Whether it’s 1 or 1500, I watch the word count grow.

All words are good words.

Seriously, in the first drafting stage…ALL WORDS ARE GOOD WORDS.

I write them. One after the other. As I write a scene, the next one comes into focus. Characters show up, they talk, they cause things to happen, they reveal who they are. I’m pretty sure aliens beam the story into my brain or faeries magic it into being.

As each chapter is crafted, I write down what happened in a notebook. Helps me keep track of where my brain wandered.

I write linearly (is that a word?). Every scene is in order. I even write the transitions, though I find those the most difficult. I leave myself notes to check world building, to check what someone said previously, to write something better later, to add more detail.

What great notes I leave myself. Future me loves it.

That mess of chaotic notes from part 2? You’ll find my flipping through pages like a maniac, searching for one bit of information I scribbled in the margins somewhere. I rip out pages to shove them in-between other pages to keep like information together. I look through my list of scenes all the time, checking to make sure I’ve included the things I want. The computer glares at me as I dive into the chaos. But it’s all part of the process.

A process of typing…

of staring…

of thinking…

of procrastinating…

of giving up…

of searching through the chaos of scribbles…

of letting my brain work on the story even when I’m at the store or working out or falling asleep…

And I write. Chapters whisper when I have reached their end. New scenes emerge. The story develops. The story changes, grows into what it is meant to be. I make a list of what to check and what to add when I revise.

And this goes on and on…for months. Until I reach the end.

And have a first draft. The longest, hardest part for me. Filling the blank pages. It feels darn good to have a first draft. I’ve piled all the sand in the sandbox and have what I need to work with.

What’s next? Stay tuned…

 

How Kathy Writes a Book…Part 3: Chapter One

07 Monday May 2018

Posted by Kathleen Palm in Thoughts, writing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

chapter one, first drafts, have fun, How I write a book, openings, thoughts, writing

We all write in different ways. I have been sharing my manuscript-writing journey.

It begins with the idea.

It continues as I scribble-scrabble all the notes, solidifying the idea into a full fledged story…well, as full-fledged as I get. I know the world. I have a list of scenes (though no idea of the order in which they occur). I have characters and character arcs. I have a theme.

A restlessness flitters through my brain. I keep working on notes. I keep thinking.

There is a point where I know it’s time to move on. I know all I can know and to learn the rest of the tale, I have to discover it…I HAVE TO WRITE IT.

The time to open a new word doc arrives.

This is the scariest part for me. The part dripping with doubt. Can I really write ANOTHER book? All I can think of are the thousands of unwritten words, the blankness that spread out before me.

I would be happy to keep writing notes, keep brainstorming, but…I can’t. I can feel the need to take the next step.

I open the word doc…

I type the title…

I cover the word count at the bottom of the screen…BECAUSE WHO NEEDS THAT PRESSURE?!?!?!!?!??!

I type…

CHAPTER 1

Then I stare. There it is. The beginning. The opening. So many possibilities. Not a mess. I can still make it perfect. Like a pool waiting for you to dip a toe in…or jump in…

 

But I question. Do I know where this starts? Do I have a story that can fill page after page? THERE IS SO MUCH WORK TO DO HOW CAN I DO THIS HOW DID I DO THIS BEFORE IF I TYPE SOMETHING I WILL MESS IT UP

Every time. No matter how many of these piles of words I write, I will always question.

After hours of panic and doubt and staring. I write…

then delete…

then write…

then delete…

And the panic grows. I can’t do this. So much blankness. So many words waiting. So many scenes that I will just mess up. This won’t be what I want. This won’t live up to my expectations…all the thoughts crowd in. Eventually I deal with them.

THIS IS A FIRST DRAFT WHAT THE HECK ME JUST WRITE THE DARNED THING YOU CAN FIX IT LATER SO SHUT UP ALL YOU DOUBTS I GOT THIS

Once I embrace the mess I am about to create, once I free myself of the doubt, once I set my mind to fun mode, I write.

As much work as writing is, it should always be fun. If I focus so much on making it perfect, it will never happen.

As I write the beginning, I know we will meet again. I never get those pesky openings right on the first try.

I have to jump in. Write words. FUN WORDS. Do they make sense? Who cares. Do I have everything in there I need? Who cares. Do I doubt every thing? YUP. BUT WE AREN’T GOING TO THINK ABOUT THAT RIGHT NOW

Word after word. Page after page.

World set-up. Character intros. Paint the scene. Set the tone. Set up the theme…the story.

Before I know it, I come to a line, a sentence…a feeling…I have finished chapter one.

And type…

CHAPTER 2

 

And you can probably guess what happens next…but stay tuned anyway.

 

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Kathleen Palm, Author

Kathleen Palm, Author

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