Adding sensory details is an ongoing learning process. Some writers don't include them until the revision/rewrite phase. As I push through National Novel Writing Month, I'm not concerned about sensory details at this point because I'm getting the skeleton put together. But I will add them in during the revision phase as I put muscles and skin on the skeleton and give it a heart.
A writing student I mentor told me that while she was working on a lesson, she "shut down." I, too, (and I suspect all writers do) shut down at times. I plowed through a shutdown on the second day of NaNoWriMo. The words didn't want to come. The characters were in a vegetative state. The plot stalled. The internal editor broke out of where I'd locked her in and bound the muse. But I pushed through, knowing even if what I was writing at the time stunk, I could always revise it.
Writing is like drawing water from a well with a hand pump. When you first start pumping, nothing comes. It's like the well is dry. But if you pour in a little water and keep pumping, the water will come. It starts out as a trickle, then as you keep pumping, the flow becomes stronger and stronger until the water is gushing out.
Keep writing,
Michele
No comments:
Post a Comment