What you ask could be causing me such greif???? I have lost the last fifty pages of PENDEROWN. I have gone through my back-up drives and various computers. I have checked my email accounts.........
All is not lost since I know what happens in these pages and they were very rough but sh*t. I can't complete my scene by-scene-cards and writing the synopsis which is this week's task will be a bit more tricky....
Moral of story.....double check your back up....
As I expected Victoria rules the story but things for Demi are not as dire as I imagined in my head over these intervening months. I think with the help of the synopsis and a bit of Donald Maass FIRE IN FICTION thrown into boot I should be able to balance the story between the two women. I have also made a list of all the items in the story that require more research - long but fun.
Do you research first or fill the gaps after?
7 comments:
I research first.
If necessary, once I've started writing I'll do little bits of extra research, but the bulk I do before I start.
I've found that I get plot ideas from the information I've gathered when researching, and this has opened up narrative lines that might otherwise never have occurred to me.
Hopefully, to the benefit of the book - only time will tell!!
Liz X
As soon as you mentioned the words 'pear shaped' I knew what was coming... I hate tales of lost work... I used to back up on 2 computers and 3 memory sticks and one weekly automatic back up. I've cut down to a saner level, 1 or 2 computers and only 1 memory stick... Is that enough???!!!
I'm sure you'll restore the missing work from your phenomenal memory (the one between your ears, not one that plugs into the computer) Good luck with it!
I research what I need as I go along. Write write write (not sure how that would work - find out) and more writing writing writing (need to find out more here but can't ask until tomorrow so leave a gap until I can find out) write write write
Liz -I know what you mean about getting plot ideas from the research that happens to me to but usually for the next book :-)
Leigh - thanks, it's a question of finding it... I do a little research as I go along but not too much in the first draft as it would slow the pace of the writing...so I have quite a bit of research to do now which is both good and bad...
lx
OMG that's one of my worst nightmares! So paranoid about that and even more so after reading your post. I do research before, during and after depending on what kind of a flow I'm in while writing.
Oh no! I'm sure you can rewrite it, no problem, and probably even better. But it's a horrible, horrible feeling.
I research big things first, little things as I go along, and sometimes I wait until I've finished a draft. Sometimes I want inspiration and story ideas, so I have to do it first. And sometimes I just want to check accuracy, so I do it last. And sometimes I just feel like looking up Aston Martins on the internet for five hours.
How frustrating for you, but I'm glad you remember what happens in these pages.
I research, write and then research again whenever I need to. Good luck with it.
DJ - it was a nightmare but all is okay now :-)
Julie thankfully I don't have to - or may have to anyway but don't....
Debs - it's interesting to see how differently we all research...
lx
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