Now that Fey Touched is out and in the wild, I’ve been turning my attention to the sequel, Grave Touched. Except that my muse has been vehemently resisting doing any kind of writing. Sure, she’s been pinging me with all kinds of ideas for other books (I think we’re up to five or six now) but not Grave Touched. It’s like she’s got a mental block, or maybe I do.
Backing up a bit. When I first started writing Fey Touched, I didn’t really have an outline. I had a bunch of ideas for storylines and what I wanted to accomplish, but nothing concrete. I’ve had varied success with actual outlining, but I seem to write my best work without an outline (“pantsing” in writer-speak – writing by the seat of your pants) and I used that method for the first 120k of Fey Touched. It wasn’t until the end that I actually outlined anything. Also, I’ve been complimented on my ability to weave the storylines together. And it’s weird, because that part wasn’t even conscious. It just happened. I swear, I did nothing but go on pure instinct (and quite possibly pure panic as I was coming up on my deadline and had to rewrite the second half in two weeks.) So, naturally, I wanted to go with what worked, but I’m having issues.
Could be my crazy muse. Or it could be that every book is different for me. I have one that I outlined and pantsed (yeah, you can do both) that came in at 399k and then had to be pared down to 128k. Pantsing has that unfortunate side effect – I write long and I take a ton of detours. But I usually end up with something awesome at the end — it just takes a lot of work to massage into being. My second longest book came in at 225k and was heavily outlined — at first. And then my muse went a bit nuts and added things, but that was really good because it made the story that much deeper — and darker. But, you know, gotta cut. Huge. (Or make it a trilogy — still a possibility). I have a cyberpunk thing I started five years ago that was completely pantsed and was so much fun. Darklight, the novel I stopped working on to write Fey Touched, was partially outlined and I couldn’t get it to move past the first few chapters to save my life.
So pantsing definitely works. Except it’s not working now.
So what’s a writer to do? Outlining has appeal, but I don’t want to lose the excitement. I’m having enough trouble as it is. Grave Touched is going to be awesome and I’m excited, but every time I sit down to write, I freeze up. (But that’s another post). So neither one is really doing it for me. I’ve been playing the most depressing music I can get my hands on (so that means no Adam Lambert, since his music is my “happy music.” Le sigh.) and I’ve been visualizing and brainstorming and thinking thinky thoughts and letting things come as they come, but damn, I have a deadline. I can’t afford to lose time. This is the gift — and curse — of the working writer (wow, that’s the first time I’ve ever been able to say that. I am a working writer now.) So, here’s what I’m doing. I only use this method when I’m so desperate and have no other option available to me.
I use brute force.
Yep, you read that right. I force the words to come. It’s never pretty, it always needs editing/revising (and possibly a blowtorch), but hot damn, it’s words. Words that didn’t exist before they were torn kicking and screaming from my brain (how’s that visual for you?). You can’t edit a blank page. You can’t fix nothing. So…by getting the words down, I have a framework with which to build on. I can fix it all later, after I know how things are going to fly. And sometimes I come up with some neat things. Like one character I didn’t know existed until he showed up on the page. And now he’s in the running for romantic lead. And the romantic lead is turning into the villain. What…huh? Yeah, talk about conflict and character torture (two of my favorite things!) and unexpected and whoa. That right there is gold. And it showed up while I was “brute forcing” the words. My muse has been rather compliant with this method.
So, hopefully I won’t need to use this method much longer. I hope to get swept up into the story, watching it unfold from my mind like a movie, and then just…write. And write some more.
Because that’s what a writer does. She writes. And writes some more. Even when the damn muse won’t cooperate.