I mentioned briefly two years ago at the beginning of Javi that it was an experiment. I didn’t have a plot. I had three characters, and I had a café. I wanted to see where that would take me. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it was a fun challenge, but I couldn’t have done it without my apricotpie readers. Your comments really shaped the story and gave me ideas to go off of (and forced me to think of some sort of conflict!).
Some things I learned:
- I need to plan things out a little more – even if character-based, I at least need to plan/know what the character arcs will be or have some sort of struggle in mind to give the story direction.
- I really struggled to remember what I had written before. Part of that has to do with planning, but also I need to write more frequently than once a month, even if it’s just a paragraph to keep the flow – it helps keep things together/more coherent, and remember what’s happening/have more consistency.
- If I ever get around to editing: there would be more Clara/Walter interaction, a few other regulars in the “inner circle,” and more of a café atmosphere in those scenes, since a lot of the time the café seems to stand still for their conversations.
What’s next?
- For Javi.
I really don't want this to sit in a file forever untouched. I am tackling my bigger stories right now since I have time that I won't have when we have more kids. Some of my smaller stuff (Javi, David Judson, other chapter-length stories) I will save for when I have less time to dedicate to writing.
- General writing.
Editing! Lots of that about to happen with Love Victorious. I am also hoping to keep an eye out for more story contests (not for Victorious stuff, but other stories, short stories, etc) and submitting to blogs or magazines. If you know of any good contests or places to submit, please let me know!
- Apricotpie.
I plan on posting excerpts of my editing as well as hopefully writing small things for AP every so often. You guys are my motivation to keep writing and not let it get pushed aside for other things!
Also, I just wanted to say how happy it makes me to see so many more comments and posts, especially between those of us that don't usually agree. There's a time to disagree, but there's also a time to look past our disagreements and help others improve their writing, and I'm glad to see both of those things happening here!