Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Wishy-Washy or What?



It's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group blog posting. IWSG was created by the awesome ninja captain Alex J. Cavanaugh, and you can find a list of all the other members of the group here. 

The Insecure Writers Support Group (IWSG), started by ninja captain Alex J. Cavenaugh, is a monthly opportunity to share our writing fears or solutions and to offer encouragement to the other participants. (Co-hosts this month are: Krista McLaughlin, Kim Van Sickler, Heather Gardner, and Hart Johnson.) ...just picked this up from 's site!

Decision-making isn’t a problem for me, but sticking to a decision sometimes is. 

Last November, for NaNoWriMo, I decided to switch horses and write about a new protagonist. The fifty thousand words required to be “A Winner” flowed onto the page at regular intervals. Then I had second thoughts about abandoning my original protagonist and her storyline. 

It took several months to work through my indecision (okay, decision-making sometimes is an issue for me!) I finally came to the conclusion that I wanted to continue the story line of my original protagonist. I set up my own nanowrimo for thirty days between June and July. I am now over thirty thousand words into this novel. I’ve had to make at least a hundred decisions already concerning plot, characters, and setting. 

Each day more decisions are required, but I have my fingers crossed that the major decision to write the novel I’m working on now is my final decision. 

Are most of your decisions flat-out carved in stone, or are you often swayed to change your mind?
 
 
 

9 comments:

  1. Ehy Gail, a friend of mine often tells me, "Always decisions. I get up in the morning and first of all I have to take a decision, what should I wear today? Always decisions!" :-)

    Regarding writing, usually I decide whether I want to write a story, because it's a big investment of time for me, so I must be very sure I want to do it. This is why, usually, when I sit down writing, I will go to the end of the story I decided to write.

    As for the process... decisions, always decisions. Evey decision changes paths and motivations and plotpoints. My WIP has changed face many times since I started the project four years ago. But the story never changed. It's still the story I decided I wanted to write :-)

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  2. Ah, yes, decisions. I'm terrible at making them, but I don't take them too seriously. At least when it comes to writing. I'll write whatever I feel like writing, unless I've put myself against a deadline for something in particular. With NaNo, it's easier, since I've got multiple POVs in the same story. I don't want to write in one POV today? Then I'll choose something else.

    Best of luck working on the novel you're currently writing!

    Loni

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  3. That's great progress! A self-imposed NaNo was a great idea.
    I don't make major changes, but I do veer in new directions sometimes.

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  4. Oh, yeah, decisions are a bitch. I struggle with them too, especially with my plots. What will the heroine do now? How would she choose between options A, B, and C? Often I have the beginning and middle of stories, but not the endings. Those take time and mental twists.

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  5. Shelly, I think indecision gets a bad rap sometimes. :)

    Olga, the middle is usually the hardest part to fill so you're lucky to have that mastered. Granted, the climax is the make-or-break part. When a reader spends hours to get there, they don't want a big let-down.

    Alex and Lani, thanks for visiting and I'll be over at your exciting and always active sites in a minute. Lani, you're on vacation and still blogging!

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  6. I personally try to avoid any major changes, but sometimes the stories call for it.

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  7. I've made major changes during rewrites. I don't know how to write my story the right way the first time. It appears I need to try a few variations before I know for sure which way to go. Good luck with your current WIP and your decision-making process!

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  8. Thanks Lynda and Kim. I don't think it's a matter of knowing how to write the story the right way the first time, Kim, it's a matter of getting the thoughts on paper so the real work can begin . . . rewrites and edits. :)

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