Stupid Brain

Did I say Nano was over? I think I did. I think I also reported that I wrote a bunch of crap. So far, this is all true. The question I'm pondering is, why, now that it's all over, is my brain flooded with great ideas and story lines? Well, hell, wouldn't you just know it? The best ideas come when you're not even trying. The problem, I allocated time to write in November thinking I'd make up all the cramming for finals in December which leaves no time for writing. Little notes are left here and there to hopefully remind myself, after finals are over, what those wonderful ideas were. By that time, the notes will make no sense and I'll be wondering what kind of crazed ranting my brain went on while trying to absorb discrete math symbols and java programming language.

In regards to the Nano project, I have decided to scrap the original idea for the book I was going to write but I've decided a few of the scenes can be used in another idea I have. If that ugly lump of words can serve some kind of purpose for future writing, it will not have been a complete waste of time. I think there are several salvageable parts in it, the searching for those pieces may take some time, though.

One thing I've learned through the Nanos I've done is that I'm not at all an organized writer, at least in that month. I can't really say I'm much more organized in writing the other eleven months of the year, either, except for school writing. I need to study how I write a research paper and apply the same type of structure to my fictional writing. I write decent research papers and I think the disciplines learned for them can be applied elsewhere. Maybe that will help me write good words further than the first five chapters. I always seem to lose the thread of where I'm going around that chapter. The first five chapters can be rewritten into something that reads really well. The rest of the book is such a mountain of work to bring up to the same standard that it gets overwhelming and frustrating. Organization and clear goals will help there. Also, knowing more than where I'm starting and where I'm ending.

I know all you writers out there are rolling your eyes and thinking, duh, that's what writing a book involves. Yes, I know that, I just haven't figured out the how of it yet. I know what I want to happen, I can even write a few good scenes for each event in the story, but, somehow, the momentum and the tension leak out of the writing until we're just floating through the words. I get bored writing and I can't go back and read it without wanting to throw it in the nearest garbage pail. I know some of the stories are good, just not well written past a certain point, usually chapter five. If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment and let me know what works for you.

In other news, Em is still scheming, which, I admit, scares me more than a little. T is becoming a very sociable person, which I find more than a little humorous. Mom got a great report from her doctor recently and gets to stop taking one of her medications. Woo hoo!

Here's something to think about, if we're in the matrix, what does the real world look like?