Sweater Weather Means Writer Weather
It is that time of year for sweaters and hot drinks, and I could not be happier :). Nothing feels more perfect than cuddling up, nice and toasty warm, and going to those deep, dark, scary places of the subconscious to write about people who do appalling things.
I am oscillating between two projects, my thesis project and another idea that seems to be bursting out of me. Meaning the story has morphed from an idea to a full-fledged plot. It is easy to write a story that shapes itself from beginning to end. I am not always so lucky when it comes to story development. Like my thesis, I not only decided to revamp the scope of the plot fully, but it also doesn’t have a 100% clear path.
But to start off writing, I first get myself into the correct headspace, especially for the stories that I write in first person. I think about writing almost like method acting, where you have to get into a certain headspace and then pull yourself out before going about your business. I play out the story like a movie I am watching in my head, think of a daydream, and I shape the way things play out and describe what I am envisioning.
I do pour a lot of myself into my work, I find the process extremely therapeutic. The circumstances and characters are fictional, but the emotions are not. If you find yourself struggling to process feelings, something that works for me is to write in a journal and put a fictional character into a situation that brings those emotions out and explore the coulda, shoulda, woulda, or what if it had been worse. It could have been worse is how I like to go about things. Anyway, just how I do things doesn’t work for everyone.
Back to my process and the insane amount of writing I have been doing this past week, about 15 pages, and a first draft of a midterm paper about domestic noir fiction (an amazing subgenre of crime fiction, think along the lines of Gone Girl, which is my next class read).
Next week I will post a little sneak peak of my both WIP. Happy Writing, and Happy Spooky Season :)
