Paving the Way to the End

I’ve been having a hard time finishing my current work-in-progress. That’s really begun to bother me in the last few weeks. Granted, enrolling in an advanced degree program of any kind is not necessarily conducive to finishing any non-school-related projects. (I started the second semester of my Master of Arts in Creative Writing program this week. More on that at the end.) But I did think I would be further along by now.

During my semester break, after company left, I completed the usual pre-second-draft steps.

1. I printed out my entire manuscript. (Sorry, rainforest, it’s necessary. But I did print in the 2-page format on the back side of already used paper.)
2. I sat down in the morning one day and read the entire book through with a notepad to make notes of things that needed to be changed or reordered, and a bright pen (I don’t like trying to find my black inkpen writing on a sheet with black typing, so I use bright blue or purple or green) to write notes on the ms. I wrote “Del?” next to several scenes that were only in notes stage in the first draft once I realized they may not be necessary and could probably be deleted.
3. Then I opened the last version of the first draft and re-saved it with a new name. That way no matter what I change or delete in the second draft, I can always find my original material in the previous file. I start the filename of the second draft with “2D” so I know which draft it is. I always end with the date so I know the latest version, and so any previous changes can be found should I decide I have to see it the old way again. My new filename might now be “2D Fluff N Fold July 13″.

Then I sat there.

Nothing. Couldn’t figure out why my mind was a blank. The next step should be easy – the manuscript was covered in notes and I had another piece of paper with notes on things that needed to be done or re-thought.

Still nothing. I went and dug a hidden dark chocolate bar out of the back of the cupboard. Maybe I needed to be more comfortable. I pulled out my favorite winter blanket and kicked off my slippers and propped myself up against a pillow on the already comfortable couch.

Then I remembered a question I had to ask my husband, so I went over to my mail program and sent him an email. You know what happened next. Then it was the end of the day and I’d pretty much accomplished nothing.

After a week of this kind of torture, I had to get ready for school again, so I was at the university library checking out books. I found a book on how to write romances (The Art of Romance Writing by Valerie Parv) with a diagram in it. Maybe I needed something visual. I went home and drew the diagram on a big piece of butcher paper. Then I went through my book and tried to fill in the diagram. Amazingly, it worked! I had all the elements I needed in the plot – as I “knew” I did. I just hadn’t been able to look at 100 pages in a pile and figure out what to do next. Not this time anyway.

Since I’ll have to be working on my romance in between homework assignments, and since having a visual aid helped me a lot, I’m going to make index cards for those boxes on the diagram. Then I can focus on one thing, the next thing I have to write. That will make writing in fits and bursts somewhat easier, especially when I’ll also be working on other writing assignments for class.

With a little luck and some hard work, I hope to get a lot more done on my romance this semester!

Master Degree Notes: I’ve been trying to keep you updated on my degree program so you can live vicariously through me if you like. I’ve had “school-brain” since about the second week of school, and it didn’t go away during the semester break. I think it’s similar to what my friends with new babies called “baby-brain” during the late stages of their pregnancies and now with their babies. You simply can’t keep track of anything else anymore! LOL!

But I am keeping track of school stuff. It’s going to be an awesome and challenging semester! I’ve only been to one class so far, Popular Fiction, the one I’ve been most looking forward to, and the reading list is huge! We have to read a book a week – big ones like The Fellowship of the Ring and Dune – and we have a writing assignment each week, and we have academic readings about how to write or the theory or whatever. Sheesh! And that’s just one class! I’ll keep you updated as to how it all goes along!