WRITER’S LOG 1
29/01-2018
Hello! I want to make a series on this blog called The Writer’s Log; a semi-frequent update on the creative process behind my writing and creative pieces, from floaty idea to finished product. However, as I’m currently in the last semester of my third year at uni (how on earth did that happen), I’m also working on my dissertation right now. So for the first log of the series (and for this blog in general), please join me in the editing process on my Extended Creative Project.

My story is a children’s story (9-12 years) about kids growing up in hospital. I love both reading and writing fiction for children, and I’m really fascinated about how books for children approach heavy subjects, like death, illness, anger and loneliness. This story began as a creative piece last year, but after the assignment was handed in, I didn’t feel like I was completely done, neither with the characters or the story. So, I’ve reworked it and am now using parts of it for my ECP.

Christmas this year blessed me with lots of inspiration (and a bit of justified terror as the deadline rapidly approaches) and so I finished the first draft over the holidays. I’ve spent the past weeks editing it on paper, and am now applying all my edits to a word document I’ve saved on three different memory sticks, two computers, and my google docs. Paranoid? Me? Naaaah.
The point is, I’ve got the first draft of my dissertation done, but that is 25 pages of unedited writing. Now, let’s try to make it good.

Mission Log:
Day 1: First day of editing

12:06 I’m in the library, armed with pink pens and a caramel waffle. Also with a printed Google map over a very small part of London and Mio’s Kingdom in three different editions and two different languages. Let’s go.

12:15 Page 1 done, this is going great.

13:32 Editing your writing on paper is a lot of fun, but getting the changes into the word document isn’t as great. However, different coloured markers for different kinds of edits are very helpful and makes everything a bit more manageable!
Am going for a walk. Just around the library. Not a long one. Promise.

13:55 Okay, I might have gotten stuck in the fiction shelves. Found Philip Pullman’s Clockwork again, and I just can’t resist the whimsical but also kind of terrifying world. “Stories are just as hard as clocks to put together,” it says in there, and that is very true. But back to work now.

14:57 Page 13, right, this is going a bit slow. Have rewritten huge passages though, and spent fifteen minutes figuring out the difference between “scrubs” and “uniforms”. It’s all a process, right?

16:11 Very tired of my own handwriting. Scribbles doesn’t even cut it anymore, it’s more like a long, squiggly line. Have found some cool sentences I forgot I wrote, though. Only 5 pages left!

17:00 DONE! With the second draft at least.

Recap of the session:

Mistake of the day:
It took me seven tries to write the word receptionist. Wow.

Word count of the day:
9183. (Of course, I didn’t write those words today, if anything I tried to cut them out. Currently at 1000 words over the final word count…)

Writing location:
Library, top floor, computer 57. The best computer. Not entirely sure why, it’s just the best one.

Phone breaks:
Way. Too. Many.

Beverage of choice:
I thought it was Four red fruits, but turns out I got rooibos tea from the Food Hall. This makes me a little sad, but is still okay.

Mood before writing: “Got my tea, got my pens, let’s just get this editing over with now.” Mood during writing: “I need to get rid of a 1000 words. And all of this is awful. Can I even write? What am I doing?” Also “Hm, that’s a cool sentence. I love my characters, must nothing bad happen to them ever please and thank you. I’ve got this. Where did my pen go?”
Mood after writing: “I did a thing!

So I think that went okay!

 

Question of the day: -Done any kind of writing lately? What’s your mistake of the day?

-Andrea