Trying to “Keep on, Keeping on”

     For the most part I have spent most of my free time reading (The 4-Hour Body), watching movies (Never Let Me Go), and writing approx. 100+ usable words per day. 

     In order to meet my deadline I created a basic outline for the kids’ Christmas book and write random scenes as the mood strikes.  This is not the most effective or efficient way to complete a manuscript, but I find that it is a good way to keep myself motivated to produce.  I’ll sit down to write and continue writing a scene until the keyboard runs out of breath (..too many mixed metaphors?).  Near the end of October I will compile the scenes and write the links or bridges between them.  In following this method, I hope it keeps my focused and on track to complete the book on time.

     I am progressing with the first draft fairly well, but I’m finding several occasions that I am NOT tailoring the word choice or syntax to the audience, kids.  Like the section below which I envisioned a little kid giving a rousing war/locker room speech like those in Patton or Independence Day.  The image might not have the same impact with kids and I want to make sure the vision I have for the story is not simplified or made overly complex by poor word choice.  I feel that the words are dancing back and forth between adult and kid level expressions.  I present the following as a small example of my difficulty with word choice:


     NAME#3 stood up straight and turned his smile upside down to make his face look tough.  He stood on his tiptoes and spoke to the kids in a stern voice.  He told the kids a story about a snowball battle his Grandfather told him and the courageous kids that clashed with the snowpeople.

     Despite the stumbling with word choice, I am producing a good amount of writing each day.  It’s exciting to see the numbers grow from incremental efforts.  I’ve never been very good at tackling small pieces of a larger project, but this method/madness seems to be providing results.


     Thanks for checking out the progress, please take a moment to leave a comment.  Vote for your favorite character names on the left-hand side of the page (I'm having difficulty settling on character names, hence the "NAME#3") 

     Look for more sneak peeks next week… (See what I did right there? – ha ha ha)