Revising, Returning to the Story

Last week I went back to my desk, opened my story notes binder, and returned to my story. It felt like letting out a long sigh and a tension I didn’t know I’d been holding released from my shoulders. My characters were waiting for me and together we waded into the words.

There is a rightness that I always feel when I get back to writing my stories. It’s a bit of a honeymoon period when I first go back, no doubt. The characters have been impatiently waiting, story ideas have built up, and when I first sit down, it’s like opening the floodgates and letting everything splash onto the pages. I’m soaked in the ideas and can’t get my fingers to fly across the keyboard fast enough to capture everything that’s been backed up. Eventually that runs out and the writing requires more thought, more work, and the process requires a lot more energy. It’s a pendulum swing, I know, and I let myself enjoy the rush of returning last week as much as I could. While I’d been writing through the first sister’s POV (point-of-view) and starting to work into the second sister, I fully finished the writing of chapter two and jumped into chapter three where the second sister took the wheel. She’s a bit of a more timid creature, where her sister is not, and moving from one to the other took some effort. As I was writing the second sister’s longing and trying to live her view with her, the first sister’s impatience kept trying to take control. I could feel the irritation of the sisters as they clashed together, and separating them fully finally allowed me to see clearly and write.

This week I am working through the first full scenes with the second sister in the narrator’s seat and it’s going to take some fully focused work to get it right. The second sister is more hesitant in her words and actions, until she is pushed, and then her energy completely changes. It’s a bit like taking a whole heck of a lot of time to gain momentum and then slamming on the brakes right before a turn. She is someone who doesn’t react to something at first because she’s gaining information on it, trying to break it apart, and takes her time to get to know it better. Once she has, then she reacts. That will serve her well for some situations, but the places it will be difficult for her is when she and her sister need to make decisions together. The sisters are different people and they want to solve problems differently. Acclimating myself to her temperament and thoughts is going to be crucial to get her POV right in order to play through those situations. It’s going to take a lot of work and I do not want to rush that part of the process. Ending where I was last week in the story felt really good in terms of where I am in figuring out the sisters and I’m excited to keep that momentum going this week.

In case you haven’t been told today, you are more than enough.

With you in words, Nikole