Time to Sketch
A Journalist’s Diary
The backstory for my short story project flourishes despite disruptions since the picture-writing progress I shared last time.
Today, I will explain those disruptions, take you on a tools journey, and spread hints about my character-building progress.
Disrupted
Time and energy are the two scarce resources I must manage for my creative writing.
Some people will tell the world that there are always 15 minutes for a writing session or a quick brainstorming journey. If you want to do it, you can find the time.
I always found that easier said than done. Life can be a pretty draining affair. Maybe there are times when I must try harder to convince myself to throw in a session even if I don’t feel I have anything left to give.
But I also want to enjoy this part of my life and don’t feel like I must do it.
Sure, some benefits seep into the non-fiction side, but the most important advantage of my creative writing is relaxation and keeping my love for writing alive. To achieve those, I must forget about calendars and clocks and run on more than reserve energy.
When I finally found my way back to the writing desk, the dates in my journal, which holds the early backstory prompts for my short story project, stunned me; one month had passed since my last entry. How could that happen?
That was the longest gap since I started my path back to more structured writing and diving into this specific project.
It is not a bad idea to take a step back and give thoughts a moment to develop. But being away for four weeks presents a challenge. The mind (at least mine) soaks up so many other interesting things that the fine details of what’s happened before need a refresher. I always find that the most energy-sapping duty.
But I found my way back. And I made a big step forward and implemented a change that will hopefully mean I’m at a lower risk of lapsing again and losing my status quo.
The Right Tools
Reading through the writing I had done for this project showed me I was ready to move on. I saw sketches of my universe growing in my mind. I needed to bring those to paper to have a fixed point, a launching point for the next phase of work.
But I also realized something needed to change.
I’ve always been an advocate for handwriting. I love to tune out the distractions of digital life and surrender my senses to nothing but pen and paper.
The problem with that way of writing is twofold.
Handwriting can unravel quickly (at least mine), turning the clearest of thoughts into a maze even Indiana Jones would find perplexing.
As flexible as writing on paper is — as in the freedom to use a sheet of paper without any restrictions about where to place text and in what order one must go about it — , it is also frustratingly inflexible. Once it’s on the page, it is on the page.
In short, paper makes the act of writing easy. But using what’s written is anything but.
My remedy includes moving (parts of) my writing process to the computer.
I now have a digital home for sketches. They are short documents into which I pour my thoughts about characters, locations, relationships, and events.
A and B, the two protagonists, have finally received names and other relevant details. I realized it was time to give them that treatment while I worked through the material I already had.
In addition to A and B, nine other characters are slowly emerging.
I also found a surprising ally in Microsoft OneNote. The freedom of placing text where I like feels ideal for mind-map-like overviews. I used that digital sheet to sort the events that form the backstory of my project into a timeline, with events starting 1,000 years before the short stories.
Those sketches and that overview and timeline gave me clarity. I know where I stand and where I must go next — happy days.
I used to make quite a fuss about writing software. I enjoy pieces like iA Writer, a beautifully simple writing studio that focuses on the text and nothing but the text. I tried to make more complex software work a few times but never could. I’ve tried to stay away from Microsoft Word since my college days.
The truth is that the less I worry about software, the easier it is. The sketches (and probably all the future writing) live in Word. Even though I’m currently only on the browser edition, the surprising truth is that it gets the job done and plays nice nowadays.
Now that I have a better overview of where I stand, I have a few final backstory additions to write. But once that’s developed, I can start with the actual stories. And I am excited, this is fun. More of that, please.
When I return to writing about writing in two weeks, I’ll try to share a nugget or two. And I’ll publish some new additions from my renewed observation journaling.
But first, you can expect new reading recommendations and photography next week.
