Those of you who follow my blog, know it has been over a month since I last posted. I feel like I am in a creative bog. Ideas for new posts are not coming to my mind. This time of year, the cold and snowy days limit the outdoor activities I can do. The lakes are iced over, and I am too old to climb around on the rocks along the river. All I need to do is fall and break my hip. I don’t even walk the dog as often or as far as when it is warmer.
When I was working, I never seemed to be bothered by Seasonal Affective Disorder. (NIMH » Seasonal Affective Disorder (nih.gov)) But now I am home most of the time, and it is affecting me. My wife has been struggling physically for some months with various issues which puts a little more stress on me. Enough so, that she told me I need to take a couple days and go fishing, even if I have to go South where it is warmer. I really appreciated the thought, and though I can’t go right now, it did help my mood.
Until this week, my writing had slowed as well. As Ernest Hemmingway said, “the only kind of writing is rewriting.” (Quote by Ernest Hemingway: “The only kind of writing is rewriting.” (goodreads.com)) Currently I am in the middle of rewriting my first novel. Half of it has been submitted to my critique group and it looks like it will be several months before all of it is critiqued. Each week I edit and rewrite a section for submission to the group. This usually takes a day or two. I try to rewrite one of the critiqued chapters each week as well. That leaves about one day to work on something else.
In November when I posted my last update, I mentioned starting on a new novel using the Snowflake Method. (How To Write A Novel Using The Snowflake Method (advancedfictionwriting.com)) This is progressing. I have my character definitions and an outline with scene summaries. This week I also wrote the first draft of the opening two chapters. Though I did have to rewrite the first chapter when I decided to change to a first-person point of view instead of the original third-person point of view. The first-person seems to fit the story better, though I will have to modify my outline and change some scenes.
I found the Plottr outlining software, (Plottr – Plan Your Books Like a Pro), to be very helpful and am happy with the progress. My writing seems to be improving with fewer grammatical and style errors. Though I still struggle with punctuating dialog tags.
With the continuing critiques and rewriting, it looks like I might have a second draft of the first novel ready this summer. Once it is ready, I still need to format it and get it ready for beta readers. I will be looking for individuals to be beta readers. People who can read the completed manuscript in a short period of time and provide feedback. If any of you would be willing to participate as beta readers, use the comment form to let me know.
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Thank you.