What do you do when you run out of ideas of what to write about? It may be a good time to perhaps focus on editing instead and maybe you will find out you come up with something.
Maybe you read back through your novel and you forgot some of the things you wrote. It’s easy to do and I did it last night. I kind of jogged my memory of some things and now I’ve got some more things to write about or perhaps it has helped me to decide what is going to happen to one of the characters next.
I’ve got several notebooks in different places with a sort of skeleton outline, but sometimes find it difficult to go back to find all my information. Some days I wing it and just hope I remember all the details.
Other times, I decide I don’t want to write about a certain character if I forgot some of his or her details and I end up writing about what’s more recent.
Last night, I found it helpful to just go in and edit from the beginning, which is a good way to either add or subtract your pages. It helps to define the scene a bit better, condense your wording and come up with a much better result.
I’ve edited the beginning so many times, I’m finding there’s suddenly not much to change, although I surprised myself and was editing.
It’s so true about edit, edit, edit. It can either be tedious or it can be fun.
I found as I went along, I wanted to jot down new notes about what I want to write next. That may also be a good way to approach the novel. Perhaps every time you go back into the page, you may just want to find the chapters you want to grab ideas from and write down fresh notes.
Date your notes as well, so you know what you are looking for if you don’t want to open up your laptop. My notebooks are scattered. Eventually, I may want to compile a good skeleton outline of each character.
I’ve put some of the same notes into my HTC tablet as well, but that can be a pain to have that while you have the laptop nearby too. Each of us have our own ways of approaching the novel.
I’ve used sticky notes too, and due to I used to live in an apt that had a mold problem, all my sticky notes are bleeding and it’s hard to read those ones!
Another thought I’ve got and I may do it when the whole first novel is done. I’m thinking of taking the zip drive to UPS and have them photocopy my whole book. Then, I can use that one as a guideline for the next book.
That’s when I can get HIGHLIGHTER HAPPY!!! I’m thinking that may be a good way to refer to it when I go to write the new books. It’s all in my head in my memory, as when we write a novel, we breath life into our characters and you feel like they are talking to you. You know, telling you what it is they want you to type onto the page.
Trust in yourself and in your novel. As long as you can understand it, that’s the important part. Because if it feels right to you, it’s going to most likely be easier for the reader to continue to finish your novel.
Aside from writing, I finished a pink and purple striped headband today! Yay! On size 1mm which could and sometimes drives a person nuts working on such small needles. I like the small weave it creates.
I finally learned how to string the seed beads for knitting a bracelet. I’m trying just a simple garter stitch pattern for this. It’s going to be a little time consuming as you need to take the time to string your beads and you sometimes run out of string when knitting the beads in. I may finish it later today. I won’t do large projects with beads but maybe at the bottom of something.
It looks kind of neat.
My next attempt is to get my own patterns for sale on Ravelry. I tried to get my finished shawl pattern on the site, but goofed and have to figure out how to get the pdf file into the site. Once I figure that out, I’m going to occasionally get more patterns in and more opportunity to sell my patterns.
Jennifer Jo. Fay
Copyrighted March 7, 2014
