Staying on track

Today I'm patting myself on the back for sticking to my writing schedule during the week of Christmas.  I finished all four of my scene goals for the week, and this week is off to a good start as well.  If I stay on track, I will finish Chapter 3 by Sunday.  

The writing itself is coming easier with the aid of the sprints.  It's been a really helpful method to not belabor the writing and to just get the story on page.  During sprints tonight one of the other sprinters on IG mentioned that he feels like his characters are talking alone in a white room and several others commented that they often feel the same - like characters are talking or thinking alone in an empty space.  One girl responded that her works always feel that way until she finishes her second draft.  It was honestly really comforting to know that others struggle with the push/pull on plotting, action, & dialogue vs. description and settings.  At this point, I've built the world and I can envision them walking around in it, so to speak, with basic markers and reminders to trigger me later.  I just need to get the story out and then go back to color in the white space on the next draft.

I was talking with a painter last week that discussed one of her styles/methods for painting as "brushbeats."  She puts some inspirational music on and just pulls the art from her gut and throws it onto the page in a way that seemed similar to me to "sprints".  She talked about how she was getting the essence of the art out of her core and onto the canvas.  That she could always go back to touch up, add details, or flesh out more later if she wanted, but that the essential piece of the work was there.  I really loved that because it was such a visual to me of what I feel like the sprints accomplish.  It's dropping the procrastination and hedging and pulling the story straight from my core.   Once it's there, I can do whatever I will with it.  I love that.

The other thing I'm loving about the writing the more I get into it is the secondary characters that are starting to lift off the page in a way I didn't expect.  My story is really focused on four main characters, but since it takes place at a camp, there's a whole host of other people to bring to life.  Some of them are jumping out from the background and taking the story in places I didn't expect, which has been really fun.  I wrote my first fart joke with a character that reminds me of someone from camp that would've definitely done it IRL so it felt really right for the scene to do it.

And speaking of people from IRL, I am also really enjoying the idea that I can write easter eggs into this thing.  There are going to be expressions used and moments shared that will be fully inspired by things that have happened IRL but maybe are used in another place and time.  For example, I recently took a story of something ridiculous my Dad once did and made it something that a character's brother did.  No one would know what I'm talking about except my sister when she reads it.  That gives me joy. And if there's anyway to come out of 2020 feeling joyful, well, I'm going to take it.

I probably could/should spend some time thinking about the end of 2020 and my goals for 2021 in conjunction with this project...but it's almost midnight and tomorrow is another day.