Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Closing in on 10K

I'm so close to 10K, I can almost taste it.

It's the first leg of the march through the pages of a new story, but this time it seems I'm coming up on it quicker than I thought I was. When I checked my word count last night as I finished up and saw I was only a couple hundred away from 8K, I was actually pleasantly surprised.

I also did brainstorming to get ideas jotted for ways the story could go. I was pantsing from the start, though I had general idea. Over the past week I've been working on this novel though, the characters have continued to come forward and tell me a little something, most times when my mind is racing at bedtime, when I'm too exhausted to stay up and write even though I want to, knowing I have to be up early to get hubby up for work and son off to school, but they will come and present a new idea or direction for the story to go.

The night before last, my heroine's best friend, a flamboyant gay actor, came to me and told me a little "funny ha-ha" so that found it's way into the story yesterday.

There's a lot of sadness in the background of this one though, the emptiness of having lost love or let it go on both main characters parts- so I'm hoping humor finds it's way into the pages and interweaves itself in to strengthen the happiness and joy that will come at the end of the book.

Last night I started jotting ideas and now I have a page covered with scribbles of inklings to work with. Twists in the story or the set up of certain scenes I would like to see play out. I'm letting my characters lead the way and they're making me proud.

A lot of writers I know, who are asked who their favorite character(s) are that they've written say it's the ones they are or have recently been working on. I'm teared up right now because I think that is so true. I still love all my characters, but the current ones are the ones nearest and dearest to my heart because I'm invested in their lives at the moment. It doesn't hurt that they speak up and talk to me though. They rely on me to tell their story and I'm glad they point me in the right direction.

After all, in some ways, it's not my story to tell. It's theirs.

Here's hoping for breaking through the 10K gate today!

Have a great day!

May the words flow smoothly from heart to page, may it bring tears to the eyes and laughter to the lips. Write on!

1 comment:

Devon Matthews said...

Yay, Taryn! GO, Taryn!

I would challenge you to a race to the finish but, even though I'm ahead of you in word count right now, I know I'd lose! :o)

It's so true about our characters. While we're in the story, we MUST love them in order to connect with them in an emotional way and write a story with some depth. A while back, a new story idea came to me. I knew the basic plot, gmc, the whole thing from start to finish. But for some reason, every time I tried to write some on the ms., I just couldn't get into it. Another writer told me it was because I hadn't fallen in love with my hero yet. I think she was right. :o)