I spent four hours at Write On’s writing center today. I was inspired by the gala on Thursday to enjoy the space and curious to see if I have the motivation to dive more seriously into a writing sprint today. I live most of my life in cycles but I’ve been out of a writing cycle for a while now.
I spent the time today trying to write a detailed synopsis of the novel plot. It’s something I did for my last book that ended up serving as an outline for me while I drafted. Every time I try to plot in other ways — timelines or notecards or actual outline — I lose steam. For me so much of the story happens in the surprises as you draft so writing a freeform synopsis, allowing myself to put in a line of dialogue or how a character is feeling as it occurs to me, moves faster.
I think it also helps me test out the flow and story beats and easily change things before writing whole scenes (though I do plenty of half-drafted scenes to test things too). I’m sure this is what following structures like Save the Cat! can do for you but my brain has trouble analyzing and planning a story like that. I guess I like to draft more organically and then fix it later.
I did 3,300 words of synopsis today, almost making it the end of the novel I have in my head but it’s still pretty rudimentary and I have a feeling I’m missing some major component that will hold up the story in the sagging middle.
When I first opened a synopsis page I started to write and ended up with a 400-word start to a scene so I had to move it to another page and start again. I must have six different versions of one beginning novel moment right now and I’m not sure if I like any of them.
The writing center was wonderful as usual, quiet and peaceful. I listened to a playlist I made for this book’s vibes and then to 1989 Taylor’s Version.
With Love,
Natalie