And so August chugs along, another week is now in the books. I liked this last week of prompts. They were the sort of sentences that made my brain see places before I saw the people running through them. For me those always feel a bit more like stories I can grab on to. I love the ones with just people as they give me a cast of characters to use elsewhere, but I like the ones that spark stories just a little bit better.
This week in the Fifteen Minute novel I did a bit of story skimming. I know that when I go back for an edit, I will have to actually do some more writing on the classes and her growing relationships with the people there. She will be trying not to repeat mistakes so it will be important to flesh out before she goes back home, story wise. However I need to figure out what she is going to face when going home to think through the lessons she needs to have before she once again faces Lisa and Toby. So in this first edit I made a note to circle back to the section and then just got her back to Westport. As I write this upcoming section I will actually highlight sections that need to relate to previous lessons learned and so I know where I want to expand when I go back through for my first edit. It seems a little backwards, but because I started with only a brief outline, am only writing fifteen minutes a day on this and I am not editing until the first draft is done, notes like this are kind of important. When writing normally, I would still skim those scenes to begin with but as I wrote the visit back I would go back and write the previous related scene. Since That is not an option here, I have the highlighter and notes. The point is to get through a draft in fifteen minute increments. Since I knw there are places that are far too drawn out and need cutting down and others that need expansion, once I start with little edits I won’t be able to help myself and I will start editing the rest. So no editing, just highlighters and notes.
And so there is that. Now, let’s see what sort of prompts we are looking at for next week, shall we?
Monday, August 21st: Her perfume lingered in the bedsheets.
Tuesday, August 22nd: They followed the deer trail.
Wednesday, August 23rd: The trees looked burnt.
Thursday, August 24th: Let’s rewind the footage.
Friday, August 25th: It came to a sharp point.
And interesting list. I think there may be some characters and some setting. A fun blend if I am right. But we won’t find that out until nest week. So for now, Happy Friday everyone and I will see you on Monday.
Ten til Midnight 