I'm in need of more descriptive detail for my fiction so am writing an article and designing some description writing exercises. Here's a tutorial I've discovered in the course of my research on description: Descriptive Detail.
I just read the entire tutorial. I like the way each page contains only a very small bit of information. It helped me to focus on each element of the subject without stressing about how much more there was to read and learn.
It just sounds so much better than "get your creative juices flowing" which is one of those cliché's that must be avoided. This subject came up because I used the cliché while I was talking to my oldest son, Joshua, today. He called to tell me I could download some demo music from his band's website, that he's spending a lot on this hobby, and that he's not quitting his day job.
I am seriously considering writing Perfection in longhand. I've already written part of the first chapter and found it lacking in detail. I want to work through some of the tutorials I've found today before proceeding... then re-write the first chapter segment I wrote, using some of the techniques I hope to develop this week. This novel will be so much better if I learn to do this right first.
My other novels.. well, the two children's adventure novels don't need a lot more description. They're all about action and children accomplishing amazing things. But when I re-write A Curious Woman Wants To Know I may want to do the same thing... just slow down and develop each segment of the novel in longhand before going back to a word processor. Actually - I think first I'll read through the manuscript and make the outline I never made before. The novel is good (I think so anyhow) but would be so much better if tightened up around a structured outline. Some elements of the novel I never got around to writing because they got lost in my mad rush to get the novel written and out there into a word processor in just two months... and the first 100K of the novel was written in just the 30 days of November because I wanted to do a double-NaNoWriMo... which I did. Yay me. But now to fix the novel into something worth reading.
You know, if I was just to spend all my time fixing my novels... editing, re-writing, etc... that would be a full time job for the next two years. And here I am writing another plus planning to write something for NaNoWriMo this year (what exactly, I'm not sure yet).
God, please help me focus myself and get one of my novels ready for publication soon.
I just wrote the first 2701 words on the first draft of Perfection. I have a feeling this novel is so well-planned I'll have no trouble filling the pages. I know exactly who my characters are and what they'll be doing. The first chapter is flowing out easily. Yes, there are still surprises and scenes I didn't expect, but it was great to be able to write this much with no hesitancy and no wondering what should come next.
