contemplativeI'm still plugging away at it, waffling between my protags, trying to get a grasp on their voices and how they see the world. I often feel like a dilettante hack of the worst stripe in regards to my writing, but I think nothing brings it home quite so forcibly as when fellow writers cite (from my envious standpoint, it sounds like gushing) how easy it is to channel a character. How they just can't get the character to shut up. How they just put fingers to keyboard/pen to paper, and the character shows up, fully-fleshed, sometimes fully dressed, and, most importantly; with a unique voice that just won't quit.
That doesn't happen for me. I have to struggle to get to capture voice, and truth be told, I don't think it's something I've ever succeed at it. I guess what I'm bemoaning here actually goes hand-in-glove with POV. I know I have "voice" when I write; everyone does, if you think about the words we choose, the way we put them on the page, the rhythms and themes that appeal to us and how we express them. What I'm incapable of, then, is deep POV, specifically 3rd person since I've never tried a novel-length work in first. I can't background my voice and foreground that of the POV character.
So, Witherwilds is moving at a glacial pace because, instead of getting down draft one, or zero, if you prefer, I am hung up on getting the voice right. The icon is misleading--I have no problem with plot, just characters. I've decided I will push on, no matter how flat and uninspired I'm making them sound, but ouch! If I don't have some spark, I feel I might as well not even write. I'm of the opinion that characters make the story, so if I write uninteresting characters....yeah, you see where this is going. Maybe I'm just too close to judge. But the heart of hearts is whispering, "Close or not, you know."
Right then, enough whinging. Housecleaning first, words next. Sucky or otherwise, I will write them. Today it's Onward...
