It has been a long time since I've posted anything related to my long-time writing of the epic "Story'. And the reason for that is that after about four straight years of intense creative flow and over 2 thousand pages of text, I seem to have come to dry spell. I started writing the sixth installment quite a few months ago but it just wasn't flowing with the effortless creativity as before. Maybe it is because so much of my positive energy these days is going into my Ghana projects.
Whatever, I decided that I needed to get back into the full scope of what I had written. So for the last couple of months, I have been re-reading. Starting over from the beginning and getting myself back into the whole flow of the epic. I mean after you've been writing for over four years on an ongoing story that covers generations with changing characters and changing plot issues, it is easy to forget what the connecting themes have been.
So as I have done this re-reading a number of observations have come to mind.
First, I am pretty glad that I decided that this was going to just be for me because it seriously needs rewriting and editing in a lot of places and some things that were fundamental like certain names just need to be changed.
Second, despite all the flaws in it, I am pretty damn impressed with the overall scope of the storytelling and emotional character development. And as a person who thinks a lot of himself, I have to tell you it is not easy for me to impress myself!
Third, as I come to the end of the fifth installment and start-up with the sixth, I am curious as to whether I will have rekindled ideas for where to take the story. Or I wonder if I will decide to go back and make the changes that I think are needed to make what has been written so far better.
I suppose it doesn't really matter because the reason I have done this is for me and whatever I decide is going to be for me.
2 comments:
It is pretty need to complete a project just for yourself.
I have never enjoyed editing as much as writing, but I write for dry academic journals, so much editing is expected (and necessary, quite frankly).
as you know I have been 'writing a book' for about 15-20 years. It will never be done, I rewrite it most years, and husband has promised he'll delete it without reading if I meet an untimely death prior to being able to myself.
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