Building Momentum, One Page at a Time

After quadrupling yesterday's meager production, today the new draft is up to 541 words and is about to move to a second scene to start the third page. I still have no idea what the story is 'about', although there are hints starting to appear. (Sex. An overbearing mother. Music.)

I used to ALWAYS know what my stories were about, plot and characters and meaning and all. I had to know those things, in fact, before I could start writing. And sadly enough, most of those stories turned out to be predictable to the reader as well, which usually meant they were pretty bad. It's only been in the last half a dozen years or so that I've stopped imposing structure on my work from the get-go. Nowadays I end up producing a lot more false starts, but when a story finally does take off I find not knowing where it's going keeps at least my own interest up (and hopefully the eventual reader's), and definitely gets me to more interesting destinations than did the trips where I followed my highlighted guidebook.

Here's to hoping "Goth Lolita" (and already I'm thinking that title may change) ends up... well, somewhere. I'm definitely still in the discovery phase.

To Be Continued.