Life before 2008 26 May 2007 01:49 pm
Writing: A Freewrite
I think I realized today how very, very different writing a book with an outline and a specific goal in mind, is from writing a project like nanowrimo, where I just freely got the words down, aspiring to a certain word count. I’ve been frustrated this week, knowing I need a certain block of time to be available for working on the book; just about everything else I do can be done in spurts or multi-tasked. But the book needs focus, time, freedom from interuption and distraction, an ample supply of water and sour patch kids, and rest, all of which has been available in criticaly low amounts this week (well, not the water).
I’ve got a great outline, done just the way I like it. I can go from point to point, relying heavily on the narrative, and pick up where I left off. A part of my brain still wishes this were all long hand; I have a desire to see all my thoughts on paper so I can shuffle them around, manipulate their order in physical ways, and SEE the accumulation. Having it on a computer has its disadvantages. On the other hand, my handwriting is pretty much illegible these days, so having all on paper might not be such a great thing either…
I hit a snag with the title; I’ve come to hate my working title. “Low Income Is Better Than Owed Income”, the first half of it, is certainly the sentiment and the experience. But “low income” is not the message I want to repeat to myself over and over and over again for months at a time. I want to focus on the benefits living a deliberate life has provided: freedom and the ability to truly aspire, where there was once only bondage and arrested goals. And having a snag like that has caused a little bit of a spin in the vision; footing that can be hard to regain when one is trying to summarize the premise and stay focused.
Writers need time to write. One of the benefits of a blog is that it has me writing a little bit of something nearly every day, in amounts that are conducive to the busy life I currently lead. There won’t be a “writer’s retreat” in this project, I don’t have a formal office with a door that closes or childcare to keep everyone from running amuk while I think. Blogs are not books and in order to move from soundbites to lengthy content, a solution has to be found around the constraints. Others have done it: without advances from publishers and while they kept dayjobs, books, even very good ones, have been accomplished. This project is a huge piece in the bigger picture of our goals…goals that we are deliberately working towards acheiving.
I imagine the strategy involves taking one step at a time, one hurdle at a time. It probably comes down to seizing the concentrated moments as they come and maybe seeing what I can do to carve out some serious time set apart in the summer, a few blocks of time larger than the rest. I want the book to be more seamless than a quilt with all it’s fragmented parts making the greater whole but perhaps I need to reconsider that. Only I sense this is the time for doing rather than thinking about doing. Too much consideration can be paralyzing.
on 26 May 2007 at 3:15 pm 1.anita said …
About the title: maybe you should change it to just what you want it to be about…Living a Deliberate Life…or the name of your blog..Living Deliberately…that’s what drew me to your blog in the first place. Add a subtitle…something like “having the freedom and the ability to truly aspire, where there was once only bondage and arrested goals”…or “how one family found that low income is better than owed income”…just a suggestion.
on 26 May 2007 at 3:24 pm 2.Tia said …
Very good thoughts Anita. There is already a Living Deliberately book out there; something about Avatar. We kind of compete for google ratings as it is. I’m not sure I could use the title. The book is about that greater concept but it’s also our story, most specifically the story of how we overcame our low income to become debt free and stopped owing our income away….of course, the title can’t be *that* long LOL! But I appreciate the input; it will likely take brainstorming like that to come up with the best choice!
on 26 May 2007 at 7:30 pm 3.dalimama said …
Amen to the less thinking about writing and more actual writing. I’d approach it sort of like nanowrimo in that you were able to fit that in somehow during the month of November so what if you viewed each chapter or half chapter as a mini-nano in which you freewrite about the topic since you already have an organized outline. If you do that for each chapter than at the end you could print it out and cut it up (if you like) so that you can physically play with the pieces you’ve written to see if they fit into other sections better. And, from there you could start the editing process… adding more meat where needed, etc.
Of course, this may not work at all for you but I’d love to be able to help you realize your goal so I’ll keep throwing ideas out there and if any of them sound beneficial… good, if not, no loss.
on 26 May 2007 at 9:58 pm 4.Kyra said …
You know…one of my favorite places on the web is dictionary.com. I put in the word deliberate…so many choice phrases come up…that tangled up withe words like “income” “owed” and some other choice words might give you a catchy title.
Try their thesarus and dictionary and some of their links…they usually also have a few quotes using words.
I don’t usually like to put words in authors mouths…I think that they will usually hit upon just the choice words that sparks that unique “aha!” moment in them.
I have faith that moment is waiting for you
on 27 May 2007 at 2:46 pm 5.anita said …
I can’t wait to read the finished product!
on 28 May 2007 at 10:32 am 6.Julie said …
Tia, scrap the title. You might not even get to title your own book (if it is not self-published). If it’s interfering with your creativity and outlook, change it to “Tia’s book” and let that be your title until it’s finished. Sometimes the title will surprise you and pop up as you write! Brave Writer popped up in the middle of a lecture at a homeschooling convention as I spoke extemporaneously.
As far as chunks of time - yes. You need them. You need silence and no distractions. Schedule chunks of time at the library and then go there without kids. When you aren’t at the library, do light editing tasks, more freewriting, notes to your self, playing with ideas, research and so on. That way when you go to the library, your mind will be primed and you will be able to drop into the writing more easily.
And print that draft so far and bring scissors. Feel free to cut it up and move things around. If you need this, you must do it. (Ah, already suggested!)
Keep going! That’s got to be your mantra. (If you get blocked, read about writing for support.)