Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Day 6: The Benefit of Fresh

Today, we find our rather hungry hero in dire need of a meal. Seems events have unfolded in such a manner that the poor guy hasn't had time to eat. And now, to make matters worse, he's stuck sitting in the Sheriff's office getting grilled about the dead guy in the back of his wagon while Sheriff Hunter stuffs his face with a helping of freshly baked biscuits, beans and bacon. The sheriff isn't getting much info though. Caleb's stonewalling him with vague answers and silence. Can't even read the guy's expression. He's like a brick wall. The Sheriff's got his work cut out.

And speaking of Sheriff Donavan Hunter, I need a picture of him. He's the tall, dark and handsome type and I think he's going to be getting a book of his own so I need a good face to go with the character to flesh out my mental picture. Anyone have any ideas?

I discovered someth
ing last night. I need a fresh brain to be creative. For the first five days I was writing morning, noon and evenings to rack up the word count before the Brimstone edits start. Which was working, but by yesterday I was realizing my brain felt a bit fried. The words were like pulling teeth. I gave it some thought and realized it was because my brain was suffering creative burn out from over exposure to the story. I wasn't taking any downtime to let it percolate so I could jump back in fresh and ready to go.

Hmm.

I looked at the difference in my word count. In the morning I could pump out twice as much in the same amount of time as I was doing in the evening. I'm a morning writer anyway so this wasn't too surprising, but what was surprising was the fact that yesterday and today the mornings were starting to feel like pulling teeth. It was taking me longer to find my stride with the story.

With Week 2 of NaNo reportedly the most difficult, the last thing I wanted to do was burn out. So I'm restructuring my time a bit to stave off the spontaneous combustion of necessary neurons. I'll write the story in the morning and at lunch and every spare minute in between, but I will take the evenings off unless I am hit with a bolt of brilliance too wonderful to resist. I'll jot down ideas that come to me, or quick passages I may want to use, but I will use that time mostly for percolating the story, so that when I wake up the next morning I hit the ground running with a fresh and eager brain.

I think Caleb would approve. Provided I get him a meal before he dies of starvation.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your brain is a bit fried?? LOL I can't imagine why. You're doing awesome on NaNo and have been going full tilt for months now with D&B.

But don't worry -- even with a fried brain -- you'll still zoom past me in the word count on my best day! :-)

Amy Ruttan said...

Feed that man then! LOL!

Yes NaNo will fry your brain.

Before I was published I didn't have internal editor then I worked hard to get one. Got one and now this time NaNo around she won't SHUT UP.

Ugh ... it's my internal editor slowing me down.

Toni Anderson said...

I never feed my characters :) It is a problem I must resolve soon before they all starve to death :) Well done and good luck with NaNo!!!

Melissa Amateis said...

I think it's a great idea to take the evenings off - you can't write ALL the time - you'll definitely drain yourself!

Tess said...

You definitely need time off writing to fill the creative well or you'll run dry way before NaNo ends. Your word count has been amazing so far :) I bet you'll find it won't change much even if you don't write in the evenings!

Lexi said...

Good for you for figuring out how to tackle the fried brain. Good luck and keep your head afloat!