Katy's Seventh Post

First off, I just wanted to thank everyone for reading and workshopping my piece. That was the most useful workshop I've ever had. Y'all gave me concrete things to think about and work on, and I really appreciate it. Thank you.

But I've been thinking about how I stay motivated and focused as a writer. It's really never been a problem for me before. I can write wherever whenever, provided that I'm alone. That whole working in a group to keep you accountable thing doesn't work for me. I'm a very private person, and I've realized that writing in the same room as someone else feels way too intimate, and this interferes with my productivity. The best I can do in a group setting is proofread previous writings. But otherwise, writing tends to come fairly easy to me.

The problem with this thesis project is that I'm not used to focusing entirely on one piece instead of bouncing between a couple works in progress. I don't really have the time to work on anything else though, and I feel myself getting bogged down in this particular world. So I keep myself focused by writing scenes in different perspectives. Well, generally in third, but a close third to different characters. That helps, and it makes me discover new things about my characters.

My other difficulty right now is the size of this piece. I'm used to writing short stories, and I don't think I've ever written anything over fifteen pages. This is so massive in comparison, and it's really hard for me to see the big picture I'm creating. I want to get holed up in different sections, getting the words sounding perfect, and then I completely lose track of what that scene needs to accomplish for the story as a whole. It's hard to keep all of the different arcs moving as one, and hard to remember what's actually important to the story. So if anyone has any suggestions for dealing with that, I'm listening.

In other news, I've had some difficult few weeks here, but it seems to finally be equalizing. And despite all this stress, I'm feeling good about my thesis. After workshop I was able to think about it with fresh eyes, and I made some interesting discoveries. I'm excited to get back to really writing, instead of just going over the same scenes again and again, getting them perfect.