Novel Experiment · writing

Writing Week in Review: 9/17-9/24

Kristen Twardowski

Enfant_écrivant-Henriette_Browne

Some weeks are odd ones for writing, and this has been one of those weeks for me. I began working on my novel experiment and its 5000 word per week goal as usual then realized that I needed to begin writing a bit differently.

At this point, I have the bones of a first draft. I could claim that the first round of the story has been told. However, since I don’t write in a linear fashion, I know that there are narrative gaps. This week I worked on filling in those spaces with connective tissue. It involved more deconstruction than I anticipated, so I separated out the different POVs and am now in the process of stitching them back together again.

Though it’s an exciting process, I must admit that this stage is reminding me of the point in cleaning the house when everything looks like a disaster. Hopefully it will magically come together shortly.

It’s also making me think about how I want to draft future manuscripts and handle POV changes. If you all have insight to share, I’d love to hear it! Do you weave POVs together from the beginning or keep them separate until the end of the draft? For those of you who don’t write linearly, how do you know when your draft is complete?

18 thoughts on “Writing Week in Review: 9/17-9/24”

  1. I can connect with the house cleaning metaphor! 😀 I never wrote a novel but for manuscripts with page or word limits I use nonlinear style. That is, I first come up with a structure and then slowly flesh out sections and subsections. However, these are assays for journals, writing a novel is, again, a kind of cleaning a palace. 😀 Thanks for sharing this excellent post! Have a wonderful weekend!

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  2. I’ve started on novels but found at this juncture, I was a better fit for short stories and poetry due to the adhd so I can empathize with and admire what you are doing. It is worth it. I know Curtis (From Curtis Bausse Books) and mentioned an excellent, writers support group when he was writing his novel and I think it is listed on his site. All I can do here is say, I hear you and support you as a fellow writer from a different genre. 🙂

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  3. Hi Kristen. The agents/editors I’ve talked with are all clear about each scene being told from a specific point-of-view. One of the tricks I was taught was to write the scene in first person from that character’s p-o-v and then rewrite it in third; that way, you never divulge anything that person wouldn’t know. If you write the novel from two or three viewpoints you can flush out the story. The one I’m working on now has the antagonist, the protagonist, and two or three other characters. It’s a bit of a dance:) I write sequentially while following the journey, and think for each scene, who would be the best character to reveal this bit?

    I did notice in the latest Robert Galbraith Strike mystery, JK Rowling was mixing both Strike and Robin’s viewpoints into the same text. When you’re used to doing it one way and you see it done differently, it’s quite obvious. Perhaps there are no hard and fast rules to writing fiction. We all have our style.

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    1. That POV trick is really interesting and not one I’ve used before. I may have to test it out!

      And I agree, that once you start working critically with publishing or writing (or any industry, I imagine), you begin to pick up on the techniques that people variously follow and flout.

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  5. Pingback: Writing Week in Review — Kristen Twardowski – RCWelsby

  8. I’m a reader, not a writer, but I wanted to know if you use a program like Scrivener when you write books. Just curious. I keep telling myself that one day I’ll write a book, but I don’t think I could do it. ( :

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    1. I don’t personally use Scrivener or other programs like that, but I know that a lot of writers do. I think what tools people use really depends on personality and writing style. Scrivener provides a lot of flexibility and allows people to keep their documentation in one place, but I know myself well enough to suspect that I would use its features in a very disorganized fashion. For other people, though, it is a productivity miracle.

      I’m sorry that isn’t a terrible helpful response. For what it is worth, I bet that if you put your mind to it, you could write a novel. You’ve been writing reviews for so long that you can see the strengths and weaknesses of books, which is a great skill for a writer to have. (And your style is great too!)

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