Writing Again

This past week, I've felt the need to have something I focus on in my spare time. I may not have a lot of spare time these days, but I don't have nothing, and I'm happiest when I spend that amount of time doing something fulfilling. I thought about getting into a video game I played a few years ago, and I even tried it for a few days, but I quickly remembered the reasons I put it down and decided against it. I've felt sad that I haven't managed to do much writing these past couple months, and I figured, why not try to channel this new-found energy I have into writing again?

I've decided to put aside my novel for a while, and start on this new story that's been nagging me to be written. Don't know if it's a short story or a novel yet. If it's a novel, probably not a series. I figured, though, that the first thing I should do before I get too far with it is re-read those critiques I posted about last time and try to apply any good writing tips to this new story.

The time away really helped. One of the two critiques (#1, referring to my previous post) was the most helpful, giving me a lot of good advice. The main points seem to be that I needed more well-defined characters, settings, and more attention to staging detail--they suggested drawing a map of the area for use when you write a scene, to get locations of things right. It's not that I didn't have any of it, I just needed more of it. They pointed out where I did well, so I get an idea of how to do it right. It's just a rougher draft than I thought. Most of the benefit would be from planning before actually writing... so that's what I'm doing, with a new story. Why work on an old story that doesn't excite you anymore?

This whole process has given me so much energy to write and get this story out that I've fit it into my spare time any way I can. Maybe half an hour to an hour a day (and longer this weekend). Not sure how long it'll last, but I'm gonna try my best to keep it going. I'm positive that this perfect setting and tone in my head for this story won't be as perfect once it's on paper, but I can't stand not trying to get it out.

One great idea I've had is to keep a Pinterest board of images that inspire me, and it's really helped get me in the right frame of mind for this story. Take a look here, if you're interested: http://pinterest.com/paperbackdragon/new-story-inspiration/.