One thing my novel writing workshop has caused me to do is to actually sit down and write.
My first book about my job as a Magnet Coordinator was more cathartic than anything else. I needed to write it just to have an outlet for all the wild and crazy stuff those parents did to get their kids into my school. When the recent stories of rich people buying their kid's way into colleges hit the media, I wasn't surprised. I lived it. I saw it. I knew the lengths to which a parent would go.
I also privately scoffed at the schools that participated in the rouse. Weak. They were weak. It takes a special kind of strength to stand up and say no, and mean it, in the face of great temptation, threat, and opposition.
I digress.
My second book, Ring of the Tax Collector, written the same year as my first, was a real story, with characters, themes, and a plot. I was very goal oriented with it. I wrote a chapter every day or two, until two months later it was done. Then I went through the hard work of revising it and getting it self-published.
When I started the sequel to Ring of the Tax Collector, I had a definite, specific ending in mind. Now that I'm there, I'm pages away from what should be the end ... the ending that was so clear when I started may or may not work now.
As with all creative projects, things morph into new and unexpected things as the project is shaped and refined.
I'm embracing that as much as I can.
And I'm trying to find an ending ... the same one refined, a new one, I don't much care. I'd just like one that is spectacular and fitting. Hopefully, that's not too much to ask.
Go forth and write!
My first book about my job as a Magnet Coordinator was more cathartic than anything else. I needed to write it just to have an outlet for all the wild and crazy stuff those parents did to get their kids into my school. When the recent stories of rich people buying their kid's way into colleges hit the media, I wasn't surprised. I lived it. I saw it. I knew the lengths to which a parent would go.
I also privately scoffed at the schools that participated in the rouse. Weak. They were weak. It takes a special kind of strength to stand up and say no, and mean it, in the face of great temptation, threat, and opposition.
I digress.
My second book, Ring of the Tax Collector, written the same year as my first, was a real story, with characters, themes, and a plot. I was very goal oriented with it. I wrote a chapter every day or two, until two months later it was done. Then I went through the hard work of revising it and getting it self-published.
When I started the sequel to Ring of the Tax Collector, I had a definite, specific ending in mind. Now that I'm there, I'm pages away from what should be the end ... the ending that was so clear when I started may or may not work now.
As with all creative projects, things morph into new and unexpected things as the project is shaped and refined.
I'm embracing that as much as I can.
And I'm trying to find an ending ... the same one refined, a new one, I don't much care. I'd just like one that is spectacular and fitting. Hopefully, that's not too much to ask.
Go forth and write!