Trying Not to Empty the Well of My Writing

A few months ago I mentioned that I was working on a super in detail crazy outline. Well, the update is that I've finished that outline (25,000 words!) and I've now started working on complete draft number three.

My outline is crazy detailed, and really I've given myself EVERYTHING that I need to pretty much just write this draft until I'm done (if I could go without sleep for about a week...). Yet I'm STILL "getting stuck."

Where do I get stuck? Well, before I begin. There are so many times when I cannot bring myself to start writing because my thoughts are along the lines of but I don't know where it's going... I don't know what should happen...

If you saw my outline, you would realize that those are really lame excuses. I know what is going to happen!! I just have to write it!!

A few days ago I figured out my problem. I'm one of those people that likes to get things done, so naturally I like writing to the end of the scene because I feel like I've accomplished something. If I leave a scene half written, I feel like that's one thing I can't cross off my to do list.

However, starting with a new scene every time is hard! Awhile ago I read some writing advice that said you should stop when you're on a roll - even in the middle of a sentence. Heck, ESPECIALLY in the middle of a sentence.

I'm writing this post right after I wrote a bit, and I probably only had a few sentences left before I would've completed the scene I was writing. Instead of finishing it, I stopped mid-thought. I know exactly what I want to happen next, I just have to write it. So I don't have to start completely fresh next time, I just have to pick up the thread where I left off.

When do you stop writing? Mid-thought? The end of a scene/chapter?

“I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.” ~ Ernest Hemingway

Teen Writers Summer Blogfest: The Grand Writing Journey

This post has been pre-scheduled, but right now I am actually probably squished in my van with my two siblings and my parents, along with a bunch of other junk like food, on the way to Calgary! Where, in case you were wondering, I do not live. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I won't be at home so I probably won't be replying to as many comments, etc, but I will still read them eventually!! So comment!! And I will still try and post!!

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GRACIE'S GRAND WRITING JOURNEY:
(or not so grand, whichever)

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN



I actually don't remember. I just remember growing up and thinking: I like to write. I want to be a writer. So I wrote some stuff like Linda and the Dragon, which people should forgive me for because I was six (or three, I'm not sure).

LEARNING


I have attended no writing conferences or anything fancy like that, but I attended one writing workshop with Duncan Thornton when I was probably ten. The only thing I can recall from that is he had a fancy journal that he wrote ideas in. And that the workshop had actually been on for multiple weeks but I was too shy to get up to the courage to go to the first few. Oh, and I also found out later that Duncan Thornton was my grandma's cousin's nephew...

I also attended a week-long writing camp about three or four summers ago. There was lots of cool people that came and talked to us about writing and poetry and reading aloud and stuff.

PUBLISHING


I've been into writing along time, so naturally I've been into publishing. There's lots of kids writer's magazines out there, and the first one I found that I liked was Stone Soup and I submitted a few (terrible) stories there. As a consequence (of the terribleness), I never heard from them.


However, a few years later I tried again with a story about a band class playing so passionately that a dragon appears in the the classroom (unknown to the band director). So, apparently I have a thing about dragons?? Anyway, that story I submitted to What If? Magazine when I was thirteen. It got published. That was so awesome. I didn't really count the Stone Soup submissions as submissions because I knew the material was awful, so I felt like I had been accepted on my very first try.


Just a note: if you're a teen and feel like you're not yet ready to brave the Big Bad Waters of Publishing A Book (and querying and all that jazz) then there are tons of small writer's magazines that you can submit to. (Go here to get some ideas.) It's a great way to gain experience.

BLOGGING


So I've been writing for forever, pretty much, but I had no idea there was a whole world and community of writers out there until earlier this year. I had signed up for an e-mail subscription for the Guide to Literary Agents blog after I'd read a book on book publishing, and they have interviews with authors and examples of good queries. Sometimes the authors sounded interesting, so I would go to their websites and through that I ended up at Emilia Plater's blog, and then the next logical step: YA Highway. And of course, once you hit the YA Highway, there's no going back.


ANYWAY it's really fun blogging about writing and reading stuff and READING about people blogging about THEIR writing and reading stuff. It's definitely encouraged me to write, and read, more.


YAY!!

Check out the other posts for the Teen Writers Summer Blogfest here.