Sometimes a comment passes you by. It's not that you don't notice it, it's just that it slides away on the wave of the other comments that are in the general hubbub of words.
Nina Milton, my Tutor, has always been supportive and open with her suggestions and observations of my work. With the last assessment she made a comment that during the narrative of my second assignment lost focus in a transition in the narrative and I had repeated this in the third assignment. It was in a part of the narrative where the character was traveling - one through a hedge and the other down a set of steps down a cliff at night....
I nodded. My partner nodded. I recognized it and returned to each piece, post assessment, to tighten this wavering in positioning and clarity. Of course Nina was right. What has struck me with my fourth assignment, which is heavily dialogue based, is that both lapses happened in similar positions in each piece of work.
Strange! But then - not really, not when I reasoned it out.
I plot heavily now - or at least compared to before this course; I put together a list of numbered notes that link and form the basis of what the characters will do within the story. I am a "Characterphile" (Nina's word - my weakness being in plotting). This seems to work - astounding to me because I thought I would never plot the way I thought others did. I preferred a romantic idea of finding my character and allowing him/her/it to run about in the world I wanted them to inhabit. But this course and Nina's advice/observations have changed my mind. I HAVE to plot - simply because it works.
Back to the subject - the lack of focus appears in the same part of the narrative. Then the revelation - which came after a few days of thinking about it critically....the way I write the first draft of the assignments.
I plot - making my list, allowing my mind to skip along the surface without delving too deep but adding little notes along the margins and post-its to ensure I slap it on the page without getting into the nitty-gritty. I walk away...letting it bubble in the back of my head.
Then I begin - 3,000 words - so I plan to write the first draft over three days or so with few breaks between the three evenings. During this time I write nothing else - every time I sit at my computer I only write this.
The drift in focus occurs between these "gaps" in writing - it's almost a misstep in my stride. I am walking along in the writing and then, when sitting down to continue, I stumble forward and the reader suffers.
This revelation happened when writing the first draft of the fourth assignment - I had completed the first two sessions and had to take two days off because of family commitments. When I came back I continued....then read back through the first paragraph of the last session and mused on how it joined with the last session and it didn't!
The gap was there - well....gaping!
A simple comment and a lesson learned.
I have paid special attention to the link and hopefully have remedied the problem. The second and third drafts will be the test and my partner will read it before submission but I will have to read it like a reader....something I realize every writer needs to learn.
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