Stem

Last week, or maybe the week before - yes, it was the week before, I volunteered at Writers' Fest and I went to a couple of the sessions because I had tickets. Those talks were phenomenal, especially Sarah Waters and Emma Donoghue in conversation.

Sarah Waters, who in my estimation is a flawless writer, said that she keeps a writing diary and that she found it was interesting to look back at the end of the writing journey - in her case the journey of a new novel - and follow the process.

Now, I can see that, I just don't have too much hope for mine, I mean, Sarah Waters is a brilliant person as well as a brilliant writer. Her conversation was interesting, erudite. I can't imagine looking back on mine and gaining any new insight, but no matter, I'm doing it anyway.

The stem, the plot, is what has exercised me today. I know where my characters are going, but I have to get them there. I always write a lot of dialogue, it's more than anything else, how I reveal plot, but I wonder if maybe I get too wrapped up in their conversations, let them ramble on too long.
Dunno.
To a large extent, I have to let them do just that, it'll all get tidied up in the rewrite. Then the rewrite of the rewrite and so on ad infinitum.