Yesterday was my second time attending the Writers’ Race, now held as a FB event by Australian Writer’s Marketplace Online. This week was hosted by Christina Brooke, a writer of Regency romances. Each week there is a different Race Captain – usually an author. It is a place to be encouraged to ‘do something’. You choose the task for the hour-long event. Some do research, some sketch out plots and some write part of their novel (or start a new one). The choice is yours.
My mission (which I chose to accept) was to re-read and re-write the introductory scene of a short story I started last week, entitled The Feline Principle. I have been in a bit of a funk and have not been able to write a segue scene. Part of my mission was to try to jump that hurdle and get on with the rest of the story.
Having like-minded and encouraging people online is actually a great help though there is the temptation to have a bit of a chat online instead of writing. However, in both ‘Races’ I have gleaned useful help and encouragement from these chats on the side. One of the conversations was directed to our resident-writer-for-the-night; does she organise and pre-plot her books or just write whatever comes to mind.Though another writer online plans everything and has done so for upcoming books in her series, our Race Captain admitted that she has only a rough outline and just writes… This was a welcome revelation to me!
Regular readers may remember a battle of words I had with a past short story that I tried to write by plotting everything ahead of actual writing, in Bogging up Holes and Pulling Teeth. I have vowed not to do this again! (I do have a rough outline of what I think may happen but am now resigned to, and accept, the fact all may not actually end up going to plan!)
Okay, I know that both free-writing and planned-writing are valid methods however it is a very different thing to hear a published author say it directly! It gives me permission to write the way I find most useful to me, without feeling the guilt of following my muse. I think this one thing spurred me on to tackle that hurdle and get the next part of my story done. Though I only achieved a few hundred new words, I did manage to rewrite and add a couple of paragraphs to what existed and write the beginnings of a new scene. I have set myself a goal of trying to write another 1000 words today…
Let us see if my imagination will play ball!