B.R. Black

Thriller and Horror writer

Tag: productivity

  • New words vs. old words

    New words vs. old words

    I’ve been having trouble deciding if I want to just add a bunch of new words to my revision of Wound or make sweeping adjustments and changes to the words I already have. Logistically, there is little difference between the two, but somehow when I’m working on each episode, it feels like night and day.

    One of my smaller characters, Armond, entered and left the story in a way I didn’t predict and as I continued into Seasons 2 and 3, I always regretted how we left things. It was like a mutual break-up, but one where nothing was resolved and each party just decided not to fight anymore. The pain has lessened but there is no satisfaction.

    And if I wasn’t feeling satisfied as the writer, I can be sure my readers weren’t either.

    When I came back to season 1, I wanted to give Armond more sense of being part of the group and not just an aside character. He felt outside the main group – and while group dynamics always produce an in-group and an out-group, I didn’t feel like I’d establish relationships and boundaries to make that apparent. It was only the first episode, and my mind was on Bev.

    Technically, it was on Jake. I always start with a character when I write a story. Whether it’s something they said, or some weird situation they’ve gotten themselves into. The first sentence of a story draft usually starts something like, “John Doe spat out his cigarette as he failed to strangle the duck.”

    (quietly puts that sentence into the idea box)

    Unless it’s dialogue, then I start with that. I don’t necessarily want to start in media res or in the middle of the action, but more interestingly, I want to start in the middle of a thought.

    Next time, I think I’ll talk about why that’s a mistake and setting description is more important at the very start. See you then.

    Thanks! – B.

    swish (⊃｡•́‿•̀｡)⊃━⭑･ﾟﾟ･:༅｡.｡༅:ﾟ:*:✼✿

  • What to do? What to do?

    I fully resonated with Sarah’s post, “When You Realize You Don’t Want to be a Writer After All.” I’ve gone back and forth over the years thinking that if I really wanted to be a writer, then I wouldn’t have any issue pursuing my goals.

    But that’s not how it works.

    The writing world is full of stories of the writer who’d written their whole life and never wanted to be anything else. Not all of us are struck with such certainty at a young age.

    Many of us have to put the desire aside for pragmatic reasons. Or self-doubt forces us to ignore our feelings and go for a safer route.

    We all travel different paths as we approach the page, and each one is as valid and important as the words you write.

    Doubt, declare, then get back to work. We’re all waiting for what you’ll write next.

  • What in tarnation is going on?

    I’m working my way through the third season of Wound when something unexpected happened.

    I can’t tell you what it is because spoilers, but it threw me for a loop.

    I was sitting comfortably at a nice table with a view of the beautiful day outside. I’d done my chores and eased into Episode 4. This is a Paul chapter, and it’s been a while since I’ve written in his voice. It took me a while to get back into his head and I have to admit, I struggled.

    Part of me wonders (at least now, as I write this I wonder) if that struggle is what caused the unexpected. Did my brain say “Hey! You’re just not feeling this guy today. What if this and this happened?”

    Maybe, I’m not sure. I know that when I sat down to write, I didn’t think that was going to happen. Then it happened. What a world.

    I’m just as shocked as you are.

    Writing was a little slower than usual today. Normally I just sprint away at the keys and try not to back track for spelling mistakes. Part of the trick is to just look down at the keys as I type. I can touch type, but I get too wrapped up in how the words look on the page instead of writing the next word. Whether I look or not, there will be spelling mistakes, but I’m much faster if I watch the keyboard.

    Typing with my eyes closed works too, or looking, really, at anything else besides the screen. If I stop reading as I’m writing, the writing gets faster. Is this just me? Anyway…

    The writing wasn’t difficult today, but deliberate. It felt like I was spending time with each sentence, making sure it was right.

    I don’t know if it’s right. I’ll find out tomorrow when I edit and post the episode. But for now, let’s just say, Paul’s in a situation.

    *swish* (⊃｡•́‿•̀｡)⊃━⭑･ﾟﾟ･*:༅｡.｡༅:*ﾟ:*:✼✿

  • The struggle to write consistently

    Something I’ve talked about before is my issues with consistency. Mainly, I will have long stretches where I will distance myself from a story and then, whether pressure, guilt, or a newly ignited desire to finish the piece rises up in my gut, I come back to the keyboard and go, “where they heck was I now?”

    I’ve had this with each Season of Wound. What started out in 2021 as an experiment to see if I could consistently write and publish a horror serial on the at-then-new Kindle Vella platform quickly ended when I discovered, no, I cannot consistently write and publish a horror serial.

    Or anything at all.

    My whole life has been a push and pull between half-finished works and new ideas and, from the sheer amount of reading I’ve done about other writers’ processes, this isn’t’ unusual. When I was finally diagnosed with ADHD, this seemed to be a feature and not (necessarily) a personality flaw. So, in the year since my diagnosis and treatment, what have I learned?

    Not much? I still struggle with shiny object syndrome, object impermanence, and distraction. BUT I have realized that if I start – literally just start writing a sentence, the rest will come. It may be slow, sloggy, weird, and not quite what I want to say, but it does come.

    I also am starting to understand what my triggers are and doing better at avoided them (particular voices or sounds).

    My goal for the second half of this year is not a writing goal, but a working goal. I aim to strengthen whatever skills I need to work fully remote (my day job lends itself to this), to make the effort twice a day to start that sentence, and – most importantly – work on being able to come back to the page immediately after a distraction.

    I know what I’ve tried before, systems, apps, web sites, etc. But this time I’m going to try bull-headed determination. RAWR!

    Do you have a secret sauce to being consistent in anything? I’d love some advice!

    *swish* (⊃｡•́‿•̀｡)⊃━⭑･ﾟﾟ･*:༅｡.｡༅:*ﾟ:*:✼✿

    Banner by B.R. Black | Background image by Markus Spiske from Pixabay

  • Flippity, floppity, back on the com

    I can’t count the times I’ve gone back and forth between a self-hosted WordPress site and being on WordPress.com, but it’s been a fair few. I’d like to blame my brain and its unwillingness to deal with minor obstacles while I’m on a deep dive into site building, but I won’t, even though I just spelled out the problem in detail.

    This back and forth has also cost me a sum of money. Let’s not talk about that.

    This last flip has been on the back burner for a while. I used to be a web developer, particularly of WP sites, and that instinct to DIY the whole thing is powerful. But it’s also deceptive, since web development (I’m obviously not much of a designer) is a skill that needs constant updating and refreshing and, well, I got all these books to write.

    And since commitment to myself and my goals is a project I’m working on this year, I’m going to commit to staying here for a full six months. I give myself permission to reassess on January 1st, but not a day before.

    Because I have declared it in my blog, I am now legally bound to do this.*

    I’m working on Season 3 of Wound, right now. I’ll be ending the serial after Season 4, which should be around Halloween. My plan is to write the prequel novella in the winter and the release the seasons as individual novellas, revised and with added scenes. Excited for that!

    What commitments are you making to yourself this second half of the year? Let’s root each other on!

    *swish* (⊃｡•́‿•̀｡)⊃━⭑･ﾟﾟ･*:༅｡.｡༅:*ﾟ:*:✼✿

    *not actually binding