Moving Forward with this Writing Thing

I got some really great feedback after posting my Power of Tension blogfest entry last week. The scene seems to do all that I wanted it to. When I first began writing the story, I intended that to be the first scene. My instinct was to keep my readers guessing for as long as possible but try to hook them with tension and intrigue. Then I began to second guess myself, thinking that I wasn't going to be able to write it well enough to accomplish those goals. I thought perhaps I should start earlier so that readers know what is going on. Now I'm leaning toward my original plan. One's creative instinct is generally correct. The only question is whether I can make the events that happen as exciting as I want to. And the only way to find out is to try.

I've been taking it easy on the writing front the past two months because I have a new baby. Corwin is two months old now and I have to say he's the most well behaved (so far) of my four children. He is just so laid back in the face of an admittedly chaotic and extremely loud household that it's practically a miracle. He's not sleeping through the night yet, but he's regular enough that I feel I can try to schedule myself some writing time now. I want to get this book that I've been planning and pondering for months finally written!

I recently came across this insanely brilliant writing challenge: A Round of Words in 80 Days. Unlike NaNoWriMo, it's a challenge designed for people who have busy lives (see above re: four children) and it allows you to create your own writing goals specifically tailored to your life and what you feel you can accomplish and if stuff happens (which it always does) they welcome you to adjust your goals as you go. Each session is 80 days long and it runs multiple times a year. The next session begins on July 4th and I plan to join in then. My goal will be to write my book in 80 days. (Which is probably delusional, but if I don't make it no one's going to hunt me down.... I think.) In the meantime, during June my writing goal is to fully outline my story.

Yes, I'm a plotter. As a writer I need to have a plan, I need to know in what direction my story is going. Only then does my creative brain feel confident to explore, within the guidelines of the plan. Though, of course, I am always open to new ideas that come along if I feel they would serve the story better. I'm a flexible plotter.

The way I outline is really almost like a first draft. I try to write a complete account of the plot in a sort of history book fashion. I write everything about the story that comes to mind in a condensed form without worrying about prose. Sometimes if a line of dialogue pops into me head while outlining I'll write that down too. I include any details that I think are important. When I'm done, the goal is to have the structure of the story worked out so that I can focus on the more artistic aspects in the next draft.

So those are my goals for the summer. I'll be updating my progress here as I go and perhaps including snippets of the stuff I write occasionally. Wish me luck!