And I'm back to talking to them....

I've tried endless ways to get my writing organized, my plots in order, my characters in line. I've done the whole pledge-to-write-x-words thing (successful so far, which is good, but still not getting anywhere story-wise). I've started and given up on more plots than Mr and Mrs Average read books. 

In a bid to cure my story ADD, I've recently started with one of those write-your-novel-in-x-days books (you know the sort?) and by day 4 I've come to an astonishing revelation: this book is not for me. Not so much the insistence on writing every day, but rather the insistence on outlining. It's not like the lady who wrote the book (which I'm sure works very well for many people) insists on a particular type of outline, which would have put me off right away. My problem is the fact that the first two days are supposed to be filled with writing exercises that don't, in actual fact, have anything to do with the book I want to write. It only starts to get interesting on day 3, with character bios... though the suggested activity includes character bios for people who are unlikely to feature in my book. Ever. 

So there I was like a good little girl writing those character bios (18 of them - some more detailed than others, but still), and you know what? I fell right into old habits. Right there in front of my in my pretty little notebook my pen wandered over the lines and before I knew it... TA-DA! A character interview. I'd just let my mind go with the flow and there was one of my characters talking about the MC, telling me his feelings, his opinions, what he did for a living...it was all right there. 

Guess what I'm doing now rather than writing a scene completely unrelated to my future novel (that would be today's exercise)? 

PS. If you have a moment, please say hi to my bloggerly friend Blake, who's just posted his first blog post in almost two years (after some pushing on my part)...just go to the Dark Side of the Woods