[GC Insider] Staying Focussed
The end of month summary where I share the good, the bad and the ugly of my own creative process
Hello lovely gentle creative person
Happy leap day! Welcome to the new subscribers who joined the Gentle Creative community this month.
It’s been a good month for my novel writing. Last week I did a scene writing class with the Pages and Platform team. I’d covered the basic principles in a previous course I did with them but this went further. There was a lot of analysis of scenes from books, tv and film using examples that worked well, and also those that didn’t so we could practice troubleshooting.
The main takeaway that I got from it is that a scene is a story event. It may take place in more than one location and over a few hours of time, but something has to happen. And there has to be a tangible change in the state of your main character. So often we can write exposition, backstory or something that we ourselves need to write to explore the story or the characters, but nothing really happens. That’s great for a first draft as we figure the story out for ourselves but in later edits it will need tightening up. I feel that the course gave me a checklist of elements that each story event requires.
Yesterday I was able to use my new-found knowledge as I looked at the latest chapter I have written. As I wrote it, I wasn’t sure where it was all going and now I’ve taken a knife to it, chopped it about and will ditch one whole section, a flashback, even though I love it. It doesn’t serve the story where I’ve placed it. I might be able to use it at the beginning of the story or it might be something which becomes bonus material to entice people onto my mailing list. That will be a decision for a later draft!
The other victory of doing the course is that I had the energy to take it on. It was three ninety minute sessions on Zoom over three days. I saw it advertised last year but was too exhausted to consider it.
I’m aware that in my recent writing I am espousing the need for gentleness, adequate rest and play. A few years ago my blogs were about fitting writing into any nook and cranny of time you could find. I wrote gems like this: Is it better to be half dead from exhaustion or half dead from not living?
I guess we can only write from where we are at!
Those words were valid at the time. Although I pushed myself a little too hard, I am proud of all my writing, how I juggled my challenges and that I eventually published my first novel to rave reviews.
Looking ahead, I keep thinking to myself that I should do more for this newsletter, particularly for paid subscribers. At present, there is no extra benefit in a paid subscription other than the warm fuzzy glow of knowing you are giving financial support to this creative. (This is where I give a huge thank you to those lovely fuzzy warm people who trust me with their wallet. THANK YOU.)
However, as I journal and plan my time and energy, the message I keep getting is to keep focussing on my novel and just keep writing the two articles a month and this end of month Insider.
Yes, I could be doing more promotion, creating a better paid offering, writing on Medium or cross-posting some of my older articles to Medium but my inner wisdom tells me to just get this current draft of my novel done. I will continue to heed that message until it changes!
Let’s plod gently into March
Lots of love
Cali x
P.S. If you missed this month’s articles, you can find them here:
Hi Cali, Now that's the question of the day "Is it better to be half dead from exhaustion or half dead from not living?" Maybe there is a balance in there somewhere - although I know that I'm on the rather to be half dead from not living side. Rightly or wrongly, at 85 I just feel like there may not be a lot of time left and I want to use it to the fullest.