Word Count: 12047
Mood: Anticipatory
Being this close to the end of my coursework, I have had a chance to finally decompress a bit and get started working on this project with a bit more focus. Of course, going back into it after that time away, I found that there were a lot of pieces of what I had already written that I no longer liked as much as I had originally. So, while I did add a fair amount to my writing, I also spent a lot of time going back and editing pieces of what I had already created. Some of this was going back and deleting or re-wording passages that I wanted to take a second look at, but I found myself adding a lot to those sections as well.
Mood: Anticipatory
Being this close to the end of my coursework, I have had a chance to finally decompress a bit and get started working on this project with a bit more focus. Of course, going back into it after that time away, I found that there were a lot of pieces of what I had already written that I no longer liked as much as I had originally. So, while I did add a fair amount to my writing, I also spent a lot of time going back and editing pieces of what I had already created. Some of this was going back and deleting or re-wording passages that I wanted to take a second look at, but I found myself adding a lot to those sections as well.
I haven’t added much more in terms of narrative after where I had left off, but I did benefit from my work building this world and my characters. Some interactions that I felt were kind of flat are now much stronger, as this new information has recontextualized some of the interactions between my characters. For example, my two main characters are brothers, and up to this point I had focused on the younger brother’s desire to grow out of his brother’s shadow as his main motivation. Having gone back and fleshed out their interactions, I was able to see more depth into their relationship. Where that sense of rivalry is still very much in place, there is also an element of natural alliance to their interactions that I hadn’t really thought to include before now.
Now, going back over the interactions I use to establish their relationship, I can add a lot more nuance. That tone of feeling overshadowed is still there, but Leo (the younger brother) is still also dependent upon his brother for protection and guidance, and on some level is still very much out for his approval. Thus, when the two butt heads, it’s a more complex interaction than the previously one-dimensional nature of their characters would have allowed. This has also (as I mentioned in week 2) led to some interesting connections between characters I had thought of as totally separate. People who only briefly interact in the story now have more context than they did when I first wrote those scenes, and that context informs what limited glimpses of their interactions fit into the scope of this story.
I doubt that by the end of this next week I will be able to complete a full novella or narrative, but this process has really opened my eyes to the intricacy of the writing process and has advanced my skills in that area considerably.
Now, going back over the interactions I use to establish their relationship, I can add a lot more nuance. That tone of feeling overshadowed is still there, but Leo (the younger brother) is still also dependent upon his brother for protection and guidance, and on some level is still very much out for his approval. Thus, when the two butt heads, it’s a more complex interaction than the previously one-dimensional nature of their characters would have allowed. This has also (as I mentioned in week 2) led to some interesting connections between characters I had thought of as totally separate. People who only briefly interact in the story now have more context than they did when I first wrote those scenes, and that context informs what limited glimpses of their interactions fit into the scope of this story.
I doubt that by the end of this next week I will be able to complete a full novella or narrative, but this process has really opened my eyes to the intricacy of the writing process and has advanced my skills in that area considerably.