Tension

The downside of creating all these goals for myself is that I’m really really good and over-promising things. I was able to write two days this week and hit 2k total, but work and life events pretty much ruined the rest of the week. So, instead of aiming for 1k a day, I’m going to aim for the vaguely-more-realistic 4k a week. That’s after I basically tear apart my entire novel thus far and figure out why I’m stuck writing mundane days. No one wants to read that! As preached in my Go Scribbler box, tension is the most important aspect of a story. If there’s no tension there’s no reason for readers to hang on chapter after chapter.

I think the finest, most cohesive example of tension is in the end of the HP series. Narcissa Malfoy bends over Harry as he pretends to be dead and quietly asks if Draco is alive. He utters back a “yes” (the movie is wrong okay don’t get me started). When she stands and looks THE MOST DEADLY WIZARD IN HISTORY dead in the eye and says “He is dead.”

ARE

YOU

KIDDING

ME??

I remember shrieking when I read that. And of course I couldn’t stop reading there! The tension was too high to care that it was two a.m. and it was my fifteenth time rereading the series. I suddenly cared (for the short term) about a side character I’d previously only glanced toward with high amounts of distain. When a writer is able to create tension within a scene it’s great. When a writer is able to create tension within THREE FUCKIN WORDS it’s phenomenal. (I’m ignoring JKR’s more recent word-vomits about the series.)

As of right now, my manuscript version two is sitting just under 68k. I already know I’m probably going to cut the first 13k-ish, so I’ll need to rework some of the cut info into the rest. I’d love to have my final manuscript around 80-85k but I can’t use crappy filler to get there. If I’m bored writing it someone else will be bored reading it. Boredom = putting the book down and walking away. No thanks!

In regards to the rest of my #last90dayschallenge I’m doing pretty well. I’ve been pushing water like crazy (much easier since I got a reusable straw for my tervis!) and have done my daily workouts, gratitude journaling, and avoiding chocolate. Also, don’t you love when you decide not to eat this thing that you really don’t eat all that often anyway and then all of a sudden it’s all you want? That was me staring at a dark chocolate Dove bar in the checkout line earlier this week when my permanent roommate and I went to the grocery store. So gooodddd.

Yesterday was Octoberfest at a nearby brewery and also Riverfest downtown, which is a giant like, small-business tent city put up on a major street. It’s filled with local vendors, food, and the inability to get through while on a bike. Permanent roommate, fiancé and fiancée, and I only nearly died like a dozen times between the brewery and the taproom we were trying to get to on the other side of Riverfest. While at the taproom I wanted to taste some of the fiancée’s hard pineapple cider but she snatched that bitch out of my hand before it could even touch my lips! She wouldn’t let me even get the very tip of my tongue damp since I’m doing sober October. I contemplated just sticking my tongue into her drink but that kind of action is generally frowned upon in public so I refrained.

If you’re doing/ ever have done sober October, do you mark it as okay to just taste something (not even enough to swallow, just to get some on your tongue to get the flavor, or do you mark it as a no? You should be able to respond/comment on posts now so feel free to tell me what you think below! Thank you SO much to Jenn at insta justthegameoflife for pointing that out and being a patient queen as I steal half of her really good ideas! Her website is justthegameoflife.com so if you’re doing #RachelHollis ‘s 90 day challenge you should check her out! I love seeing her posts on my Instagram.

I’m off to spend the rest of the afternoon tearing my manuscript to pieces- I hope yours is less likely to cause paper cuts!

Anna