Wednesday, December 15, 2010

TIME TO WRITE

My last post referred to several fears authors must face down while continuing to write. The key words being continuing to write. With that in mind, I've embarked on a three day writing marathon. Last night, I was up past 2am putting words to paper. I took my own advise. The result hasn't produced an extraordinary amount of words on paper but, the words that did make it, I'm pleased with.

I blame part of the slow writing pace on having to stop to look at videos of fight scenes, analyzing them using them to pen a more realistic butt kicking for my MC. And my job as an author is to put my character through her paces. Pretty much, make her life a living hell Sorry Raven but, a author has to do what an author has to do.

The beginning of the story begins better and reads well. I made chapter one bleed but, I dare say I'm proud of what I've written over the last few days. Today will be day three of the marathon. I needed to kick my writing into high gear due to a self imposed deadline of completing my MS and having it ready for submission early 2011. Then, it's back to editing and rewriting another MS that is in draft stage one.

I'm taking a bit of advise from one of my favorite authors and writing like it's a job. As a matter of fact, I turned down a part-time job opportunity so I could treat my writing as a job.

I've read several authors that say, that writing a novel does not get any easier. Please Laurell Kim and Kelly (Laurell K. Hamilton, Kim Harrison and Kelly Gay - my top three favorite authors) please say it isn't so! Lie to me. Tell me that some part of this writing novel after novel starts to become second nature with lots of practice and hard work.

So, what do you think? Does the process of writing a novel get any easier with hard work and practice or will I always have points of banging head against desk?

Later,
Melissa

3 comments:

Magaly Guerrero said...

I've been working on the same short story for a couple of months, and I love it, but it is also very frustrating because I can barely touch my MS. The short story will get its last edit tonight! So I'll use the holidays as my own writing marathon. I hope to finish my second MS and start the heavy duty editing of my 1st one.

Wish me luck, because I'm wishing you all the luck in the world.

Melissa said...

Hey Magaly!
Congrats on your last edit! I know what you mean about not getting to work on your MS. I'm working on the follow-up to Raven's Transformation and I have Cursed Blood, a completely different story sitting in my computer in first draft form.

I've got to answer my Crit partner when I finish here. She dropped some wisdom on me regarding my goals for completion of my current WIP. I need to thank her.

Right back at ya with wishing all the luck in the world.

Marcia Colette said...

Sorry, hon, but it doesn't get easier. Based on my own experiences, it gets harder. But I also know that when it's something you love doing, the difficulty will be worth it.

Fingers crossed you meet your goal. But as you've already discovered, it's not always the number of words you put on the page, but rather the quality. You're already on your way to another publishing contract, sister. ;-)