Satisfying results on one goal
Now that I've caught up on sleep...
My experiments with drabbling this week for my second goal--to try my hand at 100-word (exactly) drabbles--led to my combining that goal with my first one of writing a Saiyuki sequel to xparrot's Remembering to Breathe. Naye's themes for her own drabbles and ficbits inspired me to play with drabbles first, but since I had the other story in mind, the first drabble experiments came out related to that... which led to the idea of trying to tell that story as a series of related drabbles rather than as a narrative.
On the first day I had time to really push myself, I got one drabble done which I felt happy with as the introduction to the story, and the next day my rambling scribblings and bits started to fall into place and I got three more written, one from the POV of each of the Saiyuki boys. I worked out a reasonably decent outline for how to proceed. So if all goes well, I'm going to continue writing my story through sets of drabbles. Not sure if I can really achieve what I want with this story in that format; but I've decided to challenge myself further by trying.
I'm finding writing the drabbles a REALLY good exercise. I'm usually pretty verbose in my writing. Having to pare things down to minimum words--and having to find strong words to convey the essentials of what I want without going into overly long description--is making me really THINK about my writing. And if I can get through this project, I think my writing will be stronger for having done it.
So I'm pleased with my start, even if I had far less time to write overall than I had hoped this week. And I'm quite tickled that I actually CAN write drabbles! I wasn't sure I could.
I'll be posting the first set of drabbles on my LJ later today or tomorrow, as time allows; so if you're a Saiyuki fan and you're interested, you can find them there.
My experiments with drabbling this week for my second goal--to try my hand at 100-word (exactly) drabbles--led to my combining that goal with my first one of writing a Saiyuki sequel to xparrot's Remembering to Breathe. Naye's themes for her own drabbles and ficbits inspired me to play with drabbles first, but since I had the other story in mind, the first drabble experiments came out related to that... which led to the idea of trying to tell that story as a series of related drabbles rather than as a narrative.
On the first day I had time to really push myself, I got one drabble done which I felt happy with as the introduction to the story, and the next day my rambling scribblings and bits started to fall into place and I got three more written, one from the POV of each of the Saiyuki boys. I worked out a reasonably decent outline for how to proceed. So if all goes well, I'm going to continue writing my story through sets of drabbles. Not sure if I can really achieve what I want with this story in that format; but I've decided to challenge myself further by trying.
I'm finding writing the drabbles a REALLY good exercise. I'm usually pretty verbose in my writing. Having to pare things down to minimum words--and having to find strong words to convey the essentials of what I want without going into overly long description--is making me really THINK about my writing. And if I can get through this project, I think my writing will be stronger for having done it.
So I'm pleased with my start, even if I had far less time to write overall than I had hoped this week. And I'm quite tickled that I actually CAN write drabbles! I wasn't sure I could.
I'll be posting the first set of drabbles on my LJ later today or tomorrow, as time allows; so if you're a Saiyuki fan and you're interested, you can find them there.