Today I finished making the edits on the first draft of Capactiance, and am now in the process of going back into the computer file and making all the corrections I found on the hard copy. While editing on the hard copy was a great exercise as I actually read all the text I had written (and felt the triumphant glow of realizing that I really have written something halfway decent), entering these corrections into the digital copy is a less enjoyable step. It is a time-consuming task at best as the process of entering or omitting words and correcting grammar tends to get tedious after awhile. At one point, I found myself researching whether a specific type of wine (Merlot) should be capitalized; after half an hour of researching that one specific detail and still finding no cut and dry answer, I decided to leave the word the way it was (although that one minuscule detail will undoubtedly bother me and see me up late tonight in bed on my iPad attempting still more research to find the correct case). It is hard to feel like the whole day hasn’t been spent wasted since I am just entering onto the computer corrections my mind has already processed on the hard copy, but I know once I am done, I will feel a true sense of accomplishment. Even now, as I take a break to write this post, I feel little pride in my craft starting to glow in my weary mind–like a jewelry maker polishes a finished piece I too am finely honing my masterpiece. Each little detail that I perfect makes the novel as a whole all the more of a wonderful accomplishment, which makes agonizing over comma placement or struggling to untangle a mind-bendingly messy sentence a little more bearable.
writing style
Winging It
If someone asked to see the outline I worked from when writing Capacitance, I would have nothing to show. There are those authors who work the story from back to front and those who work it from front to back–I am definitely a front to back type of writer. So front to back that I don’t really even know what the “back” is going to be. Of course, this kind of improvisational writing only works if you are very confident in your characters and have a couple major plot events already in mind as you begin writing. For me, I knew there were a couple twists and turns I wanted to throw into Capacitance, and I just trusted the writing and inserted these events whenever the proper chapter came up. Thus, it came as a total shock to me when I actually finished my first book–I had no outline to tell me I was getting close, just a feeling that it was time to wrap up this first segment of the trilogy. That, and the fact that the word count was nearing 86,000. Not everyone can write like this, and I actually applaud and have some jealousy for those that do work from an outline as occasionally the extreme uncertainty and flexibility of where my story might go causes me stress. Now, moving into the next book, Inductance, I am totally in my improvisational element as the plot of the story gets thicker and thicker. I want to keep the story exciting, but I also want to stay true to my characters–I am constantly reminding myself who they are and what they personally would do or how they would react to a situation. I think it is this train of thought, concentration and focus on the characters as their own independent entities which helps me guide the story along; I find that I don’t need an outline, but rather by staying true to the characters I have created, they can lead the story to where it needs to be.
Elise Marie Hardenburger 