Writing Practice

A week from today, I’ll be leaving for India for forty days. My husband is going for a business trip, and since I’m “self-employed” I’m tagging along to write. While this is first and foremost a work trip for both of us, we do have a vacation tagged onto the last week.

But I’m trying to figure out how I’ll handle the work part. And by that I mean what are my writing goals? Goals keep me motivated and give me a sense of accomplishment when I cross something off a list. I pounded out the first draft by hitting a daily writing goal. I rewrote the second draft by refusing to focus only on the opening chapters and making sure I did a walk-through of the entire manuscript.

A few months ago I thought my goal while in India should be to complete the manuscript. But I realize now that is way too aggressive. While I think my gushing it out by the seat of my pants sans outline approach really worked for my first draft, now it’s time for the manuscript to marinate. I need to listen to what my novel is trying to say, question my characters, and figure out what big ideas I want to investigate in my story. I can’t rush this.

When I finished the second draft a few weeks ago, (which I realized I never blogged about, probably because I didn’t know what I was going to attempt next), I knew I needed a break before I dug back in. But I’m now considering not touching the book at all when I’m in India.

Instead, I might do some practice writing. Just write for fun, write with no goals, create little scenes that may never see their way into a full story. And one thing I stink at is setting. What better place to practice that than in the color-infused, chaotic world of India?

We’ll see if I pull this off. I’m most worried about making sure I still feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of each day. But I’m ready to shake up my process a bit and see what happens.