Thursday, July 30, 2009
Crossing the Rubicon
OK, so I'm not Caesar and I'm not taking over the Roman Empire but I have crossed the 100 page threshold. If my original count is right as far as the number of words per page, I need 125 pages to reach the goal of 50,000. With classes over and duties down a bit, I'm getting 10 pages in per day and the story is getting stranger. It will be interesting when I attempt a rewrite, or reassembly of the whole mess. And mess it is. The number of typos on the page rank in the several per line. I'm glad spell checker doesn't exist on the manual machine. Sometimes I don't even look at the page, but focus on the keys as I assemble letters into words. As I come down to the wire I need to ask if this has been worth it, and I'll probably come down on the side of yes. I've never tried anything in first person for such an extended write. Writing in first person has been more personal, but has also shown me how impersonal and intellectual my writing has been. Crossing over to show what the main character is feeling has grown in development. Like Bill Clinton, I need to feel his pain. I wonder if I could write first person from a woman's point of view? This will also be a great project involving rewriting because I know it has been a real cobbled affair. Learn by doing.
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Congratulations on your 100 pages.
ReplyDeleteI tend to feel comfortable only in the first person. Third person feels far away, and so on those rare occasions when I need to feel far away from my character[s], I write in third person.
I have never felt courageous enough to undertake writing in a first person, male voice. Men confuse me utterly.
Sometimes I find the story or poem not working in the party I've chosen, so I change from third to first, or first to third. Now, attempt second person for more than five pages! You'll find some interesting things happening when the story only comes from one speaker.
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