In the midst of stagnation | #129
It is time to go backwards before it is too late
Hi, this is Celeste. I have been writing poems since 2017 and my crime novel Project Dylan since 2022.
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Both January and February felt like it had been 84 years. Nothing much has been done in terms of writing.
I have been dealing with two versions of the same draft for months. I have got 27K words in the older version of draft 1 and 14K words in the other.
I started to write the second version because I got stuck when I reach the crisis scene and could not figure out what the protagonist would do afterwards.
The idea of Project Dylan dwelled in my head for two years before I started to write anything. Then I brainstormed the story but never write an outline. Then I started to write the story with romance elements but started to realize that the toddler as the protagonist. The story developed itself and became a detective story with a twist. The romance would possibly get pushed to B story if you are using Save the Cat beat sheet.
If I were to start all over again, I would start by brainstorming the characters and everything that is related to the story. I would then write a zero draft by planning everything from Act 1 to 3.
Now that I have no choice but to write a zero draft, which can be in different forms, depending on the genre of the story and how you flesh out a story.
If you are in the same boat like me, Brandon Sanderson’s writing lectures and Refuse to Be Done by Matt Bell are incredible resources, regardless of what stage you are in for your manuscript. Sanderson refers to films while Bell uses novels for different aspects of writing a novel.
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See you in two weeks,
Celeste
Thank you for encapsulating the drudgery of stagnation (or, as my favourite idiom goes, writing yourself into a corner). This one resonates so much. For full transparency’s sake, the only reason I got through 100k words was because I got seriously stuck on my novel’s first draft, so I had to switch to another project that I have to write the zero draft for. It feels more freeing, for now, but sooner or later I must overcome the difficulties to get a finished result and not simply jump from one project to another. Love the way you phrased it: “time to go backwards before it is too late.” As always, wishing the best for your life and creative output.