Writing, writing, writing...

Writing, writing, writing...
Rabid Ink:
It's difficult to name a blog. I arrived at the title "Rabid Ink" after carefully considering the influence that writing and the written word have in and on my life. I am a writer, reader, student, and teacher. I worked for several years as a freelance writer before returning to college and I am currently working toward earning my Ph.D. in English literature. Some dictionaries define the word 'rabid' as "extremely zealous or enthusiastic," or "unrestrained enthusiasm." A few describe 'rabidity' as "raging, uncontrollable, madness." Of course, rabidity is also associated with contagion and invasiveness.

My relationship with the written word might be characterized by any of these descriptions. My readings or writings can become all-consuming. They can devour my time, infect me with myriad emotions, and rage with what might seem to the uninitiated as an uncontrollable madness. This blog is inspired by the rabid essence of the text, of the ink on the page, of my experiences reading, writing, and pursuing scholarship.

In the "archive" column, I have included some material from a previous blog that delt primarily with writing. While these archived posts are older, I dusted off those I found most interesting or worth recalling and placed them here. If you read them, please forgive any redundancies or blemishes. My writing has evolved since the time of these musings, along with some of my interests.

Monday, May 30, 2005

I Wrote! I Wrote! I Wrote!!!!!

I finally did it. I set aside my studies for a few precious hours and dedicated that time to writing in one of my novel length wips!!! It was so nice to get back to my characters. I've missed them so. I mean, they are with me every day, I'm always thinking about ways to further develop them and the plot, but to actually sit and just write them is heaven. What was interesting was that I had been at an interesting turning point in my world building at the last point I left the manuscript. After rereading just that small section before adding to it last night, I was able to fill in some holes and through doing that I wound up in a place where I can add an antagonistic device. Sweet! It needed that little something extra there, and now, not only is it going to get it, it is going to tie in seamlessly.

I must have been in creative mode major. Not only was I able to write last night, I woke up this morning with a vivid recollection of the most amazing dream. I dreamt an entire story, characters and all from beginning to end. I've always been able to dream certain aspects of a story - a characterization, a plot - something, but never an entire story. This definitely marked a "first" for me. My daughter invited my niece for a sleepover last night, and they came in my room this morning and jumped on my bed to wake me up. It must have been just at the completion of this dream. Talk about timing. I think maybe if they hadn't woke me, I might not have remembered the dream at all.

Anyway, I immediately went into my office to write out the outline of what I remembered. I didn't even put on a pot of coffee first. I was too concerned that I would lose some of what I was remembering. Thank goodness the kids weren't hungry for breakfast at that moment. So now I have this entirely new story sketched out and I am literally itching to write it.

The thing that is frustrating is that I already have two manuscripts that I am trying to complete. I really should not start another, especially considering the time constraints of my schedule. I have about twenty-five chapters down in one of my wips and ten or so in the other. I really need to complete at least one before I begin another.

I took the kids to the beach for a while this afternoon and met a friend of mine there with her daughter. After I told her about the dream I had she said she wondered if maybe I should concentrate on the new, dreamt story because it came to me in such a way. I don't know. I'd hate to put priority on it simply because it was "given to me," as my friend put it.

One thing is certain. I wrote. And obviously it fired off some creative neurons or something in my brain because after that I wrote in my sleep.

2 comments:

  1. Congrats on getting down the words! Isn't world-building fun? I love it! :)

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  2. Thanks Mik! Yeah world-building is great fun. Probably it is one of the best parts of our genre, because we can really stretch our imaginations and flex those creative muscles to develop the fantasy. So cool!

    Hugs,
    Tori

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